Page 2928 - Week 10 - Thursday, 7 October 2021
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Labor-Greens government, and they are having a huge and heartbreaking impact on our fellow Canberrans—Canberra mums and dads and grandparents across our city who struggle every day to afford to live in this city.
These Canberrans are forced to make impossible choices—whether to turn on the bedroom heater in winter, whether to have a hot shower each day, whether they can delay replacing their child’s ageing school uniform or school shoes, whether they will go without a meal so they can turn on the heater.
Mr Braddock’s motion is so typical of what we see of Labor and the Greens in this place—it puts all the blame on the federal government. Of course the federal government has a responsibility to the people of Australia, particularly vulnerable Australians. No-one is disputing that. But supporting our vulnerable Canberrans is not something the ACT government can abandon by just pointing the finger up the hill. If Mr Braddock is genuinely concerned about our low-income Canberrans being left behind I implore him to use the levers he has available to him as an elected member of one of the two governing parties in this place. He is part of the government. He has a moral duty as a member of the governing party to do everything to support our vulnerable Canberrans.
Let’s not forget that over the past 12 months the Canberra Liberals have brought motion after motion to this place calling for action to reduce poverty and increase support for our vulnerable Canberrans, including: the establishment of a poverty task force, calls to tackle the ACT’s rental crisis, calls to address the backlog of public housing repairs where the health and safety of tenants is at risk, and Ms Lee’s call just yesterday for an updated ACT targeted assistance strategy. And what do we see? These motions are shot down by the Greens time and time again, refusing to take responsibility for these issues—issues that they are complicit in the creation and continuation of.
As members will recall, Ms Lee’s motion yesterday called on the ACT government to undertake a review of the purpose, adequacy, fairness and impact of the ACT targeted assistance strategy. As Mr Braddock would know, his own government introduced the ACT targeted assistance strategy back in 2011, and it has not been substantively updated or reviewed since this time. There have been piecemeal changes to some of the concessions, but no overarching review or update.
The targeted assistance strategy was designed to ensure that those most vulnerable in our community receive the support they need, and clearly this has not been the case more recently under the Labor and Greens government. A review of the strategy must ensure that it is effective, targeted and efficient. Given this government’s quite frankly shocking record in poverty and homelessness, I look forward to seeing its tabling in this place in due course.
Here in this Assembly we have the privilege of making decisions at both the territory and local government level that impact the lives of those who call Canberra home. The Labor and Greens members in this place, including their backbenchers, have been given the enormous additional privilege of being in government. Mr Braddock could and should be using this privilege to make sure his party colleagues in the executive actually get on with delivering on their rhetoric.
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