Page 3042 - Week 10 - Friday, 8 October 2021
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that form the ACT government, we the Greens believe there is much to be proud of in this budget. The budget partially or fully delivers around 90 of our election commitments, with the effect of making the ACT a more caring, sustainable and equal place to live. Of course, budgets are not just about the economy, because economies are about societies. The decisions we make affect people and the planet—in other words, our overall wellbeing.
The Greens did not get everything we wanted in this budget, of course. In a multi-party government, no party ever does. Were this solely a Greens government or a Greens-led two-party government, the budget would look different than it does today. Nevertheless, I also know that the budget looks the way it does today because we are part of the government and both parties of government have much to be proud of in this budget—most of all, the consistent way it prioritises community wellbeing, not just in the short term, but with action to mitigate growing threats to our wellbeing, like climate change.
The Greens are grateful to the Canberra community for electing us into a position where we can shape and shift the ACT government to be more sustainable, more caring and more just. We are grateful to our partners in government, operating through the parliamentary and governing agreement, for working together to deliver our shared agenda and the individual agendas of ACT Labor and the ACT Greens.
We are making significant headway across all areas. We have been delivering our agreed program of work and providing stable, progressive government that looks after people today and invests in actions that will support our wellbeing decades into the future. We do not see the short-termism here that is so destructive to all Australians at the federal level. With the Greens making up a third of cabinet and another three MLAs on the crossbench, this is the greenest government in Australian history.
Green values are written all over this budget. They shine through in the budget’s investments in our environment, in our invaluable community organisations and in ensuring we make a just transition to a zero emission society. Our ideas do not need to be routinely fought out through the media or by holding our Labor colleagues to ransom behind closed doors because, after 13 years of collaborative government, our parties understand and work to our shared values. In doing so, we are a government that truly represents our community.
A home for all might initially sound like an impossible proposal, but it is one that we took to the last election, because access to shelter is a fundamental human right. Every person should have a place to call home, and I would expect that Canberrans wholeheartedly agree with that proposition.
Climate action, once thought of as a Greens fringe issue, is now the name of a portfolio held by the Chief Minister. Climate change is increasingly at the forefront of economic thinking, healthcare planning, property and financial markets; and certainly, it was pulled to the forefront of all our minds when we suffocated through weeks of smoke and when a third of the land in this territory was burnt, most of it in a supposedly protected national park. We know now, of course, that whether it is Namadgi, Tasmanian rainforests or the Great Barrier Reef, you cannot draw a line
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