NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman says Liberals ‘unashamedly YIMBY’ after election ‘soul-searching’

NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman says the Liberal Party has emerged from its 2023 election loss with one key message – be “unashamedly YIMBY”. The Liberal leader has sought to reposition himself, and the Liberal Party, as pro-housing as the state government battles to turn around the housing crisis. In an address to Housing Now, a pro-housing alliance of business, union, and faith groups, Mr Speakman was clear. “I want the Liberal Party to be positioned as YIMBY (yes in my backyard),” he said. “There is too much at stake.” Mr Speakman said he did not seek to “vilify those passionate about their neighbourhoods”. “It is human nature,” he said. “Change is often painful, and I can understand people who have lived in areas for 10, 20, 30, 40 years who feel pain when they see their neighbourhoods change. “But, we know there is an overwhelming public good in changing neighbourhoods, where that delivers more housing. “The stakes are just too high when we face generations who will otherwise be locked out of what people for my generation commonly had.” Mr Speakman said the NSW Liberal Party had been soul-searching after the 2023 election loss “and we’ve seen that in Canberra with my federal colleagues”. “I hope, and it’s my intention as opposition leader, as Liberal leader, that we come out, and we have come out of that soul-searching unashamedly YIMBY,” he said. Mr Speakman also noted the Liberal Party’s lack of appeal to under 35s at both state and federal levels, where they trail Labor and the Greens. “A way to reverse that, I think, is to be aggressively pro housing,” he said. “It’s what the Canadian conservatives did. They lost the election to the Liberals there who are the equivalent of Labor. “But, more important than the politics of it is the public policy. It is absolutely the right thing to do and needs to be part of our DNA.” Asked about immigration – a recent sticking point for the Liberals in Canberra – Mr Speakman said “very rapid rates of immigration” had increased housing demand, but it wasn't the whole picture. “I think we need to look further at reducing the headline rate of immigration, but we’ve got to be very careful when we do that that we are not shooting ourselves in the foot and stopping construction professionals, tradies coming in,” he said. “Because we know at the moment, our TAFEs, our VET sector, just isn’t producing the volume, the pipeline of tradies that we need. “But, I think there’s plenty of scope to recalibrate the composition of our immigration at the moment and probably put downward pressure on it.” Mr Speakman told the audience that the NSW government had “thrown in on the towel when it comes to new Metro” stations. “They’ve said, once the metros that we started are completed, they’re not planning to build any more,” he said. “Well, before the next election, we will say what our Metro policy is, what we’ll build. “But, I’d be very clear now, we will build Metros where the government is saying they won’t build anything.” Speaking earlier, NSW Premier Chris Minns, said the government had considered cancelling a planned Metro station to bring costs down. Speakman on Woollahra, tax reform Mr Minns, who appeared before Mr Speakman at the Parramatta conference, touted his party’s housing projects and ambitious planning reform. Mr Speakman has, in principle, backed the reforms, which were announced earlier this month. “I would say that my intention is to at least support the vast majority, if not the complete package that the government has put forward,” Mr Speakman reiterated on Tuesday. However, he confirmed was yet to go to the NSW Liberal Party room. Mr Speakman also reiterated a level of support for the redevelopment of Woollahra train station in Sydney’s east but was sceptical of the purported uplift of 10,000 homes. “Woollahra is a concept worth supporting,” he said. “It is several kilometres from the city. There’s a train station that we built there. We certainly support an uplift there. “We are very sceptical though that the uplift will be 10,000 anywhere in the foreseeable future. “But even if you don’t reach that upper end, it is still something worth doing.” Mr Speakman was more critical of the state government on housing completion, with the state set to fall well short of its National Housing Accord targets. He also called for more priority to be given to greenfield developments and reform on housing taxes and charges. “We think that the housing and productivity contribution, for example, should be waived during the housing accord period,” he said. “After that, its collection should be deferred until occupation certificate stage rather than the construction certificate.”