Page 3355 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 19 October 2022
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government to the amount of $98 million while remaining certain that they are in a position to proceed with stage 3 tax cuts which will overwhelmingly benefit the richest in our community. As we reflect often, budgets are about priorities, and as someone who would benefit from the financially irresponsible stage 3 tax cuts, I would implore the federal government to prioritise those who are doing it tough rather than those who are doing okay.
I remain hopeful that this is a temporary pause and there will be movement on this issue. I look to the Chief Minister to advocate strongly to ensure that this measure is implemented as quickly as possible. This is a historical debt that was created before the ACT even had self-government. This debt eats a hole in the ACT government’s financial ability to provide much-needed social housing, and this debt has, in reality, probably been paid many times over. We do need to acknowledge that the clock is ticking. Building homes takes time and, if this debt is to be forgiven, it will take time to reinvest into social housing.
The ACT Greens do not, and will never, believe that an economic downturn should be met with austerity. We see it as vital that we continue our investment into public housing and measures that alleviate housing stress for those who cannot afford it. The ACT government, through the growth and renewal program, is making the biggest investment in public housing in the history of self-government. Over the last two years the government has invested an additional $12 million into the homelessness sector. The ACT government is working hard to respond to the housing crisis, but it is true that the public housing wait list continues to grow. On 30 September it reached 3,114. We need the support of the federal government.
The circumstances of each of these households weigh extremely heavily on my mind. We know that these are families who are dealing with immense challenges. In addition to financial stress, families are also often dealing with issues such as domestic and family violence, disability and mental health. It is true that we have the highest proportion of public housing in Australia, but due to our population growth the proportion is reducing. This is at a time when need is increasing. COVID-19 created a huge increase in need and, while some of that was temporary, due to border closures, job losses and other stresses, a significantly high level of need continues. We know that we do have a shortfall in social housing as compared to need.
While the ACT government is investing in building more social housing, there is no way, with our revenue base, that we can meet the full gap on our own. Waiving the historical housing debt is a simple and effective way to assist in addressing the issue of housing affordability now. It provides the ACT government with additional capacity to deliver more social housing—something that is desperately and urgently needed. The reason that we have a government is to make citizens’ lives better. Decades of neoliberal economic policy from the old parties show that we may have forgotten this. The cancellation of this historic debt would mean that more people in the ACT would be able to be provided with energy efficient class C adaptable properties. What that would mean for each of these households cannot be overstated.
As discussed in the context of the budget debate yesterday, the ACT Greens did take an unashamedly ambitious agenda to the last election. We did articulate our vision of
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