Fifteen days to the election.

ACT Labor: 5,000 affordable rental dwellings

Two months ago, ACT Labor promised to build 30,000 more homes by 2030. Those 30,000 homes, chief minister Andrew Barr and housing minister Yvette Berry announced today, will include 5,000 affordable rental homes: public housing, community housing, build-to-rent and below-market key worker housing.

“A holistic approach to increasing supply in every market segment,” Mr Barr said. “Combined with zero stamp duty for first-home buyers, it is a comprehensive and deliverable package to increasing housing supply.”

The 5,000 homes would include purchasing in new areas like Molonglo; knockdown rebuilds; buying homes off the market; and prefabricated concrete homes, Ms Berry said.

Labor intends to expand the Housing ACT property portfolio to 13,200 homes by the end of 2030. This is 1,000 more public housing homes beyond the Growing and Renewing Public Housing Program and the Social Housing Accelerator.

Labor promises that the new public housing would be a major project in the next term, involving  budget investments and partnerships with Housing Australia, superannuation funds, community housing providers, and build-to-rent firms. They plan to partner with larger states to purchase modular housing, reducing time and costs, and to release land each year for public and community housing.

The $80 million Affordable Housing Project Fund would be increased to $100 million, and Labor supports federal legislation for build-to-rent and help-to-buy schemes.

Labor would invest an additional $5 million in services for chronic homelessness, youth homelessness, older women, and those escaping domestic violence.

Seventy-five public housing properties would be made available for specialist housing and homelessness services, including Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, adding to more than 700 already operated by community housing providers.

The maintenance program would be improved: Labor plans to bring public housing properties under direct government management by 2026.

ACTCOSS CEO Dr Devin Bowles welcomed Labor’s commitment to additional public housing, but said it would “substantially slow”, not “fully stop or reverse”, the decline in public housing stock, which had fallen from 12.2 per cent in 1989 to 5.7 per cent in 2024.

ACT Shelter CEO Travis Gilbert said 1,000 additional public housing properties would provide life-changing outcomes for more than 2,000 Canberrans “perennially failed by our housing market and in urgent need of secure homes, affordable-to-income to rent…”

ACTCOSS and ACT Shelter insist that Canberra needs 10 per cent of its housing to be public or community housing by 2036, and that more than half of the remaining 3,500 planned dwellings must be community housing.

“Overall, Labor’s commitment is an important step toward solving the housing crisis, but there is more work to do to reduce the public housing waitlist,” Dr Bowles said.

Mr Gilbert also appreciated Labor’s alignment with federal housing initiatives and their commitment to a dedicated tranche of 75 properties with support funding for people experiencing long-term homelessness, as ACT Shelter has called for.

“It is always refreshing to see systemic advocacy reflected in election commitments.”

Shadow housing and homelessness minister Mark Parton was sceptical. “The Growth and Renewal Program was initially supposed to be finished in this term, and it’s still not. We’ve only just reached the level of public housing that we had in Canberra a decade ago, and I’m not sure that anyone believes that this will be delivered.”

Mr Parton noted that the government reallocated money from the sale of public housing assets to fund light rail, rather than to public housing.

“You could expect more of the same, given the huge and absurd expense of stage 2, in its entirety, of around $4,000 million,” Mr Parton said.

The Canberra Liberals have committed to 125,000 additional dwellings by 2050, on the Kowen Forest plantation, Symonston, and the former CSIRO site.

“So many people are … excited at the prospect of a government that won’t be strangling land supply for the benefit of their own coffers, that want to provide homes for the people who need them.”

The ACT Greens, however, criticised ACT Labor’s public housing proposal as underwhelming.

“By leaving the bulk of their housing strategy to the market, ACT Labor’s will leave many Canberrans stuck with astronomical mortgage repayments and incredibly high rents for decades to come,” Greens deputy leader Rebecca Vassarotti said. “Even worse, even with the current public housing waiting list, this plan will leave over 2,000 people still without a safe place to call home.”

The ACT Greens claim that only their commitment to build 10,000 affordable public homes by the end of the decade will solve the housing crisis.

“Because these homes will be built by the government, Canberrans will be sheltered from the investors’ market set up by the Federal Labor and Liberal parties, instead having a stable rent that doesn’t break the bank,” Ms Vassarotti said.

Independents for Canberra leader Thomas Emerson doubted whether Labor would be able to deliver on its commitments without being held accountable by independent crossbenchers. The ACT’s public housing stock had been reduced under 12 years of Labor-Greens government, Mr Emerson noted; the ACT had the highest rate of persistent homelessness in the country; the condition of the public housing stock was the second worst in the nation; the public housing waitlist had grown by 80 per cent in the last six years, and more than 3,000 applicants were waiting, some for five years.

“How could 1,000 new dwellings over the next six years possibly satisfy the level of need in our community?” Mr Emerson asked. “That figure reveals a conscious decision has been made to leave desperate people unhoused.

“We have consistently failed to provide a safe place to sleep for those who most need it. This announcement, though welcome, does not show the level of ambition needed to turn that around.”

Canberra Liberals: Tuggeranong sports

As part of their plan for Tuggeranong, the Canberra Liberals have promised $5.4 million to the Tuggeranong United Football Club to upgrade its Kambah facilities and $1.5 million to the Brindabella Blues Football Club to build a new pavilion at Calwell.

Stan Mitchell, president of Tuggeranong Utd, said the community would benefit: clubs from all over Canberra (including Belconnen) use the club’s facilities. However, the government has not painted lines in the carpark despite several requests over the last three years, local member Mark Parton said.

“This government,” Mr Parton said, “has no commitment to grassroots community, and the Canberra Liberals are standing up today, saying, ‘We do have that commitment; we will follow through, and we will get this done’.”

The Canberra Liberals would also improve the water quality of lake Tuggeranong; build a new walk-in centre with both GPs and nurses; expand the afterhours GP service; upgrade playgrounds; fix roads and potholes; and fund grassroots community organisations to support vulnerable Canberrans.

“Tuggeranong has been left behind by this long-term Labor-Greens government, and we are here to put it back on the map,” Mr Parton said. “The people of Tuggeranong deserve better facilities along with public transport options, healthcare and cost of living relief and that is what a Canberra liberals government will provide.”

Independents for Canberra candidate Vanessa Picker said she was concerned that much of the proposed funding in the Liberals’ Tuggeranong plan was “a quick fix for deeply rooted problems and ongoing disparities”. She said that offering vouchers to help with school costs, for instance, did not address deeper issues, such as a severe lack of resources and teachers to the point where schools shut early.