ACT Labor’s Plan for Gungahlin

ACT Labor has released another regional plan, this time for Gungahlin. It promises to expand Gungahlin Town Centre to the east, with a new CIT, public library, and park. $10 million would be invested to reduce congestion and improve pedestrian safety.

Labor would build a new health centre, emergency services station, and indoor sports centre in Casey; more public playgrounds and facilities, including a new skatepark and netball courts, in Jacka; expand Gungahlin College and build a second public college in Nicholls; build a pavilion and expand the Taylor District Playing Fields; and create a walking and cycling path to connect Hall Village to the Gungahlin path network.

ACT Greens promise more compact Canberra

The ACT Greens have announced they would change zoning rules to encourage Canberra to grow in, not out; in their opinion, a more compact city would be more convenient and affordable.

The Greens say that too many homes are being built on the outskirts of the city, “isolating people and almost requiring them to have a car to access health, education, and community events”.

The Greens say they would stop urban sprawl, and instead set a clear city boundary beyond which Canberra would not develop – as Melbourne and Adelaide have done – and allow ‘missing-middle’ dwellings (townhouses, terrace houses, and dual occupancies) to be built everywhere within the current footprint.

“The other parties want you to believe that solving the housing crisis means concreting over all our green space and developing on the outskirts of Canberra,” Greens planning spokeswoman Jo Clay MLA said. 

“That wrecks our environment, locks in heat islands, and it’s expensive for the government to build all those new roads, transmission lines and services to support the sprawl. 

“We’re in a cost-of-living crisis and living on the outskirts costs Canberrans more time and money. It locks people into paying for a car and petrol for every trip they take.”

Chief Minister Andrew Barr believes that the Greens’ policy would restrict the capacity to supply more housing to the market in suitable locations. He advocated for a balanced approach between infill development and new suburbs, particularly in the Molonglo Valley, while protecting environmentally sensitive areas. The ACT, he noted, already had city limits, such as national parks and nature reserves.

“The risk with the proposal the Greens have put forward is that it won’t enable enough housing to be built for our growing population, and they put too much upward pressure on house prices and rents,” Mr Barr said. “In the end, what we are arguing about or disagreeing about is a relatively small but still significant opportunity for some new suburbs to be built over the next 10 to 30 years.”

Gambling reform: Labor vs Greens

Shane Rattenbury, ACT Greens Leader and Gaming Minister, has accused ACT Labor of blocking gambling reforms. 

Mr Rattenbury said that he presented a “best-practice, costed, and expert-endorsed proposal” to apply mandatory cashless gambling and mandatory precommitment with default loss limits and time limits across all ACT pokies, linked by a central monitoring system (CMS). 

Mr Rattenbury said the proposal reflected the agenda the Canberra Gambling Reform Alliance put forward for all political parties, and was designed to prevent Canberrans from falling victim to the dangers of poker machines, and clubs from taking excessive amounts of money from vulnerable Canberrans.

“The ACT Labor party has avoided, delayed, and ultimately rejected these best-practice reforms,” Mr Rattenbury said. “It will come at the cost of the community’s wellbeing and livelihood.”

ACT Labor has promised to reduce the number of electronic gaming machines to 1,000 by 2045. While Labor would introduce mandatory online gaming, a CMS is no part of their approach. In their view, Chief Minister Andrew Barr said, the Greens’ policy would lock in more poker machines, and a CMS (as Labor MLA Dr Marisa Paterson, former director of the ANU’s Centre for Gambling Research, has explained) would be both inefficient and costly.

“The operator is just another gaming industry behemoth – the New South Wales run one is run by TAP,” Mr Barr said. “It’s expensive, and in and of itself, can be circumvented by people just going across the border into Queanbeyan.”

Mr Rattenbury, however, says that implementing a CMS would cost less than 5 per cent of poker machine profits over the next 20 years. 

“To the Greens, that is an entirely affordable option, and frankly pretty cheap when you think about the negative social harms we could avoid by taking real action on poker machine reform.”

The Greens want the Canberra Liberals to support their legislation next week in the Legislative Assembly to implement effective harm reduction measures.  

Mr Barr said Labor would focus on reducing the number of machines and putting in place sensible and practical harm minimisation measures.

“I think there is a pathway forward here, but on the eve of an election, that’s perhaps not the easiest environment in which to get the Greens party to compromise,” Mr Barr said. “On many things, as we are seeing, there’s quite a lot of announcements from them at the moment that are just not practical or achievable, that they are making now. That’s what election campaigns are like.”

Throsby playing fields

District Playing Fields will be constructed on the site earmarked for the Throsby Home of Football.

Sports minister Yvette Berry said the ACT Government made the decision because Capital Football withdrew its financial contribution, and the change in plans enables facilities to be provided more quickly.

A district playing field refers to sporting facilities that serve several suburbs and comprise several fields with at least one pavilion. The total area must be at least eight hectares, and provide appropriate lighting and other safety requirements as they are heavily used for night-time training.

The government will engage a consultant to design the sportsgrounds. Construction will begin in 2026.

LGBTIQA+ included in census

Questions about sexuality will be included in the 2026 Australian census, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced, following a backlash over the initial decision to omit questions on gender identity, variations in sex characteristics, and sexual orientation.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics will run a trial on “one question about sexuality”, and people will have the option not to answer it, Mr Albanese said. 

The prime minister denied the government had been forced to back down from omitting questions on sexuality in the census.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr had said the decision not to add new questions to the 2026 Census was disappointing. He said he was “pleased to see some movement on this matter”.

The ACT Government will survey ACT LGBTIQA+ communities every two years; work with the University of Canberra to improve LGBTIQA+ community data collected through the Living well in the ACT Survey; change YourSay panels to gather more data; and strengthen and Expand the Safe and Inclusive Schools Program to ensure schools collect data and support LGBTIQA+ children, young people, and their families.

LGBTIQA+ Canberrans can participate by joining online discussions, voting in quick polls and taking surveys.

With AAP.