Page 3348 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 19 October 2022
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(b) the Commonwealth commitment to work with States and Territories to construct an additional 30,000 social housing dwellings across the country;
(c) the Chief Minister and the ACT Government have publicly committed that savings from a debt waiver would be reinvested into new social and community housing; and
(d) the Chief Minister will, on behalf of the ACT Government, continue discussions with the Commonwealth to maximise social and affordable housing construction in the ACT; and
(4) calls on:
(a) the ACT Government to report back to the Assembly by the final sitting day of 2023 on the progress of these discussions, including the total debt waived, the interest saved, and plans for public housing investments, in accordance with the motion passed by the Assembly on 2 June 2022; and
(b) the leaders of all parties represented in the Assembly to continue to communicate with the Commonwealth Finance Minister, and other relevant Ministers, to advocate and seek clarification from the Federal Government on the potential to waive the historic ACT housing debt, given the ACT Government’s stated policy to reinvest this funding in further housing.”.
MR DAVIS (Brindabella) (4.35): I am pleased to speak to this motion and to the Chief Minister’s amendment. For those Canberra families who no doubt have livestream of the Assembly on permanently at home but have not yet learned about some procedures of this place, let me walk you through it!
On Monday, when you get into the office, one of the wonderful attendants around here will deliver one of these. It is the notice paper. It will tell me and other members what members intend on debating in the Assembly this week. I saw on the notice paper here notice No 2 from Mr Parton. I got to reading it over a morning coffee, and I thought, “Gee, this is good stuff; the bloke has seen the light,” and then I got to point (c), and I thought, “This is starting to look awfully familiar,” and then point (2), and I thought, “I have seen some of this before.” It is an absolute carbon copy of the motion I brought to the Assembly in June of this year!
I really appreciate the continued endorsement from the Canberra Liberals of the work of the ACT Greens in this place and the policy positions brought forward by the ACT Greens and by the Greens across the country. It was just earlier this week we saw the Leader of the Opposition bring a motion to this place to discuss the issue of poverty in this country. She wanted the government to inquire into using Australian Greens terms of reference for a brand-new Senate inquiry launched and led by the Australians Greens Senator Janet Rice, taking a national approach to this issue.
I wonder if we are foreshadowing for the 2024 ACT election—“The Canberra Liberals: they are Greens policies but we just do not like Labor,” which might be a bit of a vision into the Canberra Liberals’ real inability to have to compete in the game of politics against two political parties who, while they often sometimes agree sometimes do not agree.
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