Mark Parton MLA is the Shadow Minister for Transport, Housing, Gaming and Racing and Member for Brindabella.

I love this city. It’s the best in the world. I cannot fathom how Canberra’s homelessness situation is the worst in Australia, and that it continues to deteriorate.

Twenty-two years of Labor/Greens government have left a legacy of broken promises and policy failures leading to a perfect storm in the ‘housing unaffordability’ space.

But at least we have a tram.

The Greens went to the last ACT election in 2020 with a clear election promise to end homelessness.  Despite promising ‘a home for all’, in their power sharing agreement with Labor, the Greens prioritised spending on the tram above homelessness. We all know that the ACT Government has sold public housing, from which the profits made were syphoned off and sent to the tram.

• Funding off the rails? Liberals say public housing financed light rail (7 September 2022)

It gets worse. The Greens Minister for Housing, Rebecca Vassarotti, is still promising ‘a home for all’; it’s just that there’s no time frame on the promise. It’s an aspiration without genuine action, and it must be categorised as a broken promise.

Just like their proposed tram to Woden, the Labor-Greens Government have failed to say when their planned tram would arrive and how much it would cost.  Experts suggest it won’t arrive until 2034 and will cost at least $3 billion, if it goes ahead.

• Light rail has gone off the rails, Canberra Liberals say (5 December 2022)
• Canberra Liberals will call on government to stop light rail (7 February)
• ACT government vetoes opposition call to stop light rail (8 February)

It gets worse.  The latest Report of Government Services (ROGS) data paints a diabolical picture of persistent homelessness in Canberra, with the worst rate in Australia. 42.9 per cent of homeless clients have spent more than 7 months over a 24-month period experiencing homelessness in 2021-22.  This is nearly double the national average of 26.6 per cent.  Tasmania, with its comparable population to Canberra, has the next highest rate at 32 per cent.  42.9 per cent is a decline in persistent homelessness from 40.9 per cent and 34.1 per cent from the previous years of 2020-21 and 2019-20 respectively. And this is just the people who are known to service providers.

Homelessness rises in ACT while social housing dwindles (27 January)

After 22 years in Government, the day before the ROGS report was released, they announced $2.6 million in extra funding. That is like causing a house fire and turning up with a bucket of water. Except it gets worse, as Canberra’s homelessness services are bracing for an expected $2 million cut as the current federal government has not allocated money to extend the funding.

• ACT community sector calls for no cuts to homeless services funding (22 February)

This comes at a time when the ACT Government’s annual payment to Canberra Metro to run the Gungahlin tram is $59 million p.a., when rental prices are the highest in the nation, land tax is the highest it has ever been and is a handbrake on the supply of rental properties and affordable rental properties.  At a time when we have just had the wettest and coldest year on record in more than a decade, the homeless are doing it tough.

What message does the broken promise on homelessness, the dismal homelessness data, and the excessive spending on the proposed Woden tram paint for a single person trying to get a roof over their head or a parent trying to put a roof over their children’s head? As one Greens member put it: “This is the hardest city to be poor in.” 

After 22 years of Labor/Greens Government, Canberra should not be in this position.

I work every day with the people who have been let down by this inefficient machine. I’m able to pressure the government to get better outcomes for some individuals, but it’s not enough. I look forward to a time when a Canberra Liberals government can genuinely provide help for those who need it. Not proceeding with the $3 billion tram to Woden will free up a lot of dollars that could be spent towards that end.

The Greens have left behind their election promise on homelessness, and Labor and the Greens have left behind those that need it most and the hard-working rate-paying Canberrans who pay for it.