Page 3045 - Week 10 - Friday, 8 October 2021
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of a human right, driving the affordability crisis Canberrans experience every day. ACTCOSS, in its cost-of-living report in August this year, had this to say:
Unemployment and household reliance on income support payments are the major drivers of income poverty in Australia.
ACTCOSS notes in its report that during the first outbreaks of COVID-19, during the period from April to September last year, the Australian government effectively doubled the rate of JobSeeker by introducing a coronavirus supplement of $550 per fortnight. This saw the ACT’s poverty rate drop from a pre-COVID 8.6 per cent to 5.2 per cent. This experience of brief respite for many of those on income support underscores the possibilities if our federal government chooses to assist. Now that JobSeeker has sunk well below the poverty level again, we are faced not only with worsening inequality but also worsening health outcomes in the midst of a pandemic.
It is the Liberals who keep Australians in poverty, with a poverty payment instead of a welfare payment. And it is the Liberals who refuse to take any meaningful action on climate change, who ignore renewables and pour government funds into propping up fossil fuels. It is also the ACT Liberals who keep preselecting Zed Seselja to represent them in the Senate, who uses his position to block restoring our territory rights, to fail to even turn up to the marriage equality vote and to stand in the way of action on climate change. I call on the Liberal opposition to get its own house in order and demand that its representatives deliver for the ACT before it criticises the work of this government to make up for those federal failures and look after people.
We understand that when we fund services to lift people out of poverty it is an investment in our whole community. For the first time in nine years, this budget lifts base funding for the specialist homeless sector. We have lifted it by 12.7 per cent. That is a better normal for these invaluable organisations and the Canberrans who rely on their services, and it is thanks to our first Greens Minister for Homelessness, Rebecca Vassarotti.
In addition to investing in homelessness supports, this budget’s investment in affordable and social housing is the most significant in the history of self-government in the ACT. We took a bold vision to the election in our home for all package, calling for 400 new social housing and 600 new affordable rentals, and this budget sees us well on the way to achieving these goals.
We acknowledge this is still a work in progress and delivering this ambitious commitment will require both innovation and insights from our community partners to resolve the wicked problem of homelessness and housing affordability. Housing is a fundamental human right and our proposals, like build-to-rent, which are funded in this budget, will provide more affordable, long-term, stable rentals. The massive $80 million investment in public housing maintenance will also ensure the ACT government is a responsible landlord, offering homes that are fit for all.
For years, local environment groups have been calling for long-term, secure funding instead of having to negotiate annual funding agreements with the government. In our first year of having a Greens environment minister, we have switched to four-year
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