Page 4841 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 1 November 2017
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despite the fact that this government is approaching two decades in government, we are always working on making things better. This motion speaks to where we have accepted that things change and, as those things change, policy must respond.
Over the last three months the ACT government has been in an in-depth discussion with Canberrans on housing and homelessness in the territory. Having spent the last 10 years implementing the 63 initiatives recommended in the affordable housing action plan, we have asked the question: “What has worked well?” We asked people what can be done to improve the current situation here in the ACT. While a lot of feedback was supportive of the work that has already been done, there were some clear opportunities raised for improvement. This is how this government, now in its fifth term, will move forward: by working with the community and asking these questions in order to learn what needs to be improved and updated. The ACT housing and homelessness summit does not just tick a box on the parliamentary agreement; it sets the tone for this government’s commitment to continued improvements in public policy.
In 2007 the ACT government developed the affordable housing action plan. Ten years on, recognising the need to revisit our approach, we are in the process of reviewing the plan and developing the ACT housing strategy, which will set out our reform agenda in housing and homelessness for the next 10 years. This is not the only example of our undertaking periodic review of our policy settings. Approaches in other areas such as education and family violence are also being re-examined. I thank the Deputy Chief Minister for showing leadership and foresight in engaging the community and stakeholders in all these policy debates.
The process followed in developing the ACT housing strategy also highlights our commitment not just to consultation but also to engagement. The housing and homelessness summit was the first of its kind in Canberra, marking the innovative nature of this government in carrying on public discourse. Perhaps more impressive was the lead-up to the summit. On 28 July 2017 the minister began community consultation with the release of the Towards a new housing strategy: an ACT community conversation discussion paper. This started a seven-week period of intensive engagement with a range of community groups, stakeholders and members of the public.
Over this period there were 2,399 visits to the ACT government’s your say website. People visiting the website stayed for an average of four minutes and 30 seconds. There were 3,350 social media views and 166 online surveys completed. Across 26 community workshops, 337 participants representing some 125 different organisations were involved. The six community drop-in sessions held across Canberra hosted 129 attendees. The consultation received seven online comments, 38 one-on-one or small group interview submissions and 36 formal submissions. All of these numbers are impressive but mean nothing if we do not learn what we need to learn from them and produce a culmination of those lessons in mapping out the path ahead. So the ACT government hosted the first ACT housing and homelessness summit on 17 October this year. The summit drew on the extensive consultation which preceded it.
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