A proposed plan for compulsory purchase of land for private housing developments in NSW is "Soviet-style command" by the state government, the opposition says.
Premier Kristina Keneally on Friday confirmed a scheme of compulsory land acquisition had been proposed as part of the Metropolitan Transport Plan, which aims to integrate land use and transport planning to manage Sydney's ballooning population.
The opposition has labelled the plan "unacceptable" and berated the government over it.
"Kristina Keneally and Labor's plan to seize homes and sell them to developers will be opposed by the NSW Liberals and Nationals," Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell told reporters in Sydney on Friday.
"This is Soviet-style command government from Kristina Keneally which simply ignores the housing needs of Sydney."
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Mr O'Farrell called for "sustainable balanced development" to promote growth throughout regional NSW and said nobody's home would be safe under the proposed plan.
"It's unacceptable for people to have the threat of having their homes seized by state government, unacceptable for state government to erode property rights," he said.
Ms Keneally denied the proposed plan put people's homes in danger.
However, she said, sometime in the future such purchases may be needed. "Compulsory acquisition might be part of the future," she told Sky News.
"We won't rule that in or out. But it would have to be done with appropriate guidelines, appropriate safeguards, appropriate rules around it." She said a similar statement by opposition planning spokesman Brad Hazzard earlier in the day was nothing but "scaremongering".
Currently, compulsory purchase can only be used for public/government projects, such as buildingg a new freeway, an airport or public housing.
