Page 1591 - Week 05 - Thursday, 2 June 2022
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seriously consider my bill and provide their feedback. I have opened it up to public consultation for two months. I will be seeking the views of Canberrans, law and public administration subject matter experts and anyone else interested in government transparency and accountability. I look forward to further discussing my bill when it is formally tabled and debated.
Housing—debt to commonwealth
MR DAVIS (Brindabella) (2.54): I move:
That this Assembly:
(1) notes that:
(a) the ACT Government has a housing debt of $98.3 million owed to the Australian Government;
(b) this debt is from investments the Australian Government made into the ACT’s housing portfolio prior to self-government;
(c) between the 2022-23 and 2024-25 financial years, the ACT Government will pay the Australian Government $27.7 million (in principal and interest) to service these debts;
(d) other state and territory governments also have historical housing-related debts to the Australian Government from the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement;
(e) South Australia has had some of this debt waived by the Australian Government;
(f) Tasmania has had all this debt waived by the Australian Government;
(g) the ACT Government has been advocating to the Australian Government for our debt to be waived since 2019, with Senator Seselja, former Minister Sukkar and former Treasurer Frydenberg, acting on behalf of the former Coalition Government, having rejected, ignored, or delayed consideration of these multiple ACT requests;
(h) the ACT Greens went to the federal election with a call to waive the ACT’s historical housing-related debt;
(i) Senator Katy Gallagher has historically shown support for this debt to be waived; and
(j) incoming Senator David Pocock has also called for this debt to be waived;
(2) further notes that:
(a) the Parliamentary and Governing Agreement commits the ACT Government to delivering an additional 400 public housing dwellings by 2025;
(b) the Parliamentary and Governing Agreement also outlines the ACT Government’s ambition to deliver 600 additional affordable housing dwellings by 2025-26;
(c) the Parliamentary and Governing Agreement also makes a range of other commitments to make housing more affordable and support people experiencing homelessness including:
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