Page 1594 - Week 05 - Thursday, 2 June 2022
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As my motion details, the ACT government has a debt of $98.3 million to the commonwealth, due to investments in housing made prior to self-government. Other states had a similar debt which arose from other arrangements. In Tasmania, the debt has been waived entirely. In South Australia the debt has been partially waived. I might take this moment to add here, though, that what is unique about the debt that the ACT and the Northern Territory face is that that debt was acquired at a time when we did not have self-government. This seems like a basic infringement of the fundamental principles of democracy: that we have landed with a debt from a time in which we were not democratically represented.
Over the next two years alone, this historic housing debt will cost Canberrans about $30 million. This is more than the annual provision of $25 million made to support people who are at risk of, or experiencing, homelessness. Let me underline that fact one more time: over the next two years the ACT government is due to spend more in servicing its housing debt to the commonwealth than we currently pay frontline services to help those living roughest.
Unfortunately, locally, persistent activism by my fellow politicians from both Labor and the Greens to have the ACT’s debt waived did not result in any response from the former coalition government and did not find an advocate in our former coalition senator. Prior to this issue being raised in this year’s federal election, fellow Greens MLA Caroline Le Couteur proposed amendments to a motion put forward by Liberals leader Alistair Coe in 2019 calling on the parliamentary leaders of this Assembly to write a joint letter to the Prime Minister to support the waiver of historical housing debts from the commonwealth government. This amendment was supported by our colleagues in ACT Labor but unfortunately rejected by Liberal MLAs.
It is curious that, with all their newfound zeal for solving the housing crisis at a local level, our local Liberals would reject steps to create a significant dollar injection into public and social housing for the poorest Canberrans. In doing so, they missed a once in a lifetime opportunity to actually realise their dream of being able to provide more for Canberrans without raising taxes.
Of course, without ring-fencing the funds, there is no guarantee that this money will be injected into housing, where it can make the most difference to vulnerable Canberrans. In South Australia, for example, after the debt was partially forgiven, state government investment in housing actually decreased. The risk of the money going astray is why my motion calls on the government to commit to all of the savings—dollar for dollar, no spare red cent—being invested directly into the purchase and construction of public housing.
Federally, significant housing inequality reform advocacy will continue to be carried by the Australian Greens, now represented by 12 senators and four members of the House of Representatives. The Greens remain absolutely adamant that we cannot fix this housing inequality situation without changing the incentives for investors that skew the market towards them. We hope that our colleagues on the hill can work collegiately to repair the uneven playing field that benefits the rich and excludes the poor across every jurisdiction in Australia. We also hope that they support our call to build one million new public houses across our nation.
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