Chief Minister Andrew Barr says it would be "a perversion of Australian democracy" for the Commonwealth to wipe Tasmania's historic housing debt but not do the same for other jurisdictions, including the ACT.
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Mr Barr met with federal assistant minister Michael Sukkar on Wednesday to argue his case for the Commonwealth to waive the ACT's $115 million housing debt, which dates back to the start of self-government.
The push comes after the Commonwealth this month agreed to waive Tasmania's $157 million state housing debt, in a deal brokered by Tasmanian crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie in exchange for her support for the Coalition's tax cut package.
The Tasmanian government must spend all of the money saved on public and affordable housing, under the agreement.
After his meeting, Mr Barr told reporters that the federal government had effectively issued an "open invitation" for states and territories to request to have their own historic housing debts waived.
However, the ACT is in a far weaker negotiating position than Tasmania, given it does not have a crossbench senator, such as Ms Lambie, whose vote the Coalition needs to pass contentious legislation in federal parliament's upper house.
But Mr Barr said a state's political bargaining power, or lack thereof, should be irrelevant.
"If you need a crossbench senator from your state in order to get an outcome on a public policy basis then we have a real problem," Mr Barr said.
"I don't think the current federal government went into its arrangement with Tasmania with a view that it would block every other state achieving the same outcome - that would be a real perversion of Australian democracy.
Mr Barr said he would keep arguing the ACT's case until it got a "satisfactory outcome".
"It is entirely untenable for the Commonwealth to do one special deal with Tasmania and leave the rest of the country out. That just won't stand politically.
"There will be senators from other states who will demand the same outcomes for their jurisdictions. Once you get half the country in such an arrangement, it will be entirely untenable to not include the other half.
"Australian politics has not reached that level of duplicity and corruption - we are much better than that.
"I'm confident that the Commonwealth will strike the right deal".
The ACT has two historic housing loans from the Commonwealth which were provided at the start of self government in 1989.
The territory will have to pay back about half of the $27 million it will receive this year from the Commonwealth under the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement to service the debts.
If the debt was to be waived, Mr Barr said the ACT government would be able to effectively double the size of its planned $100 million investment in affordable housing.
He said building dozens of additional units each year would help meet growing demand for social housing in the ACT, while also stimulating activity in the construction sector.
Mr Sukkar did not respond directly to The Canberra Times' question of whether the Commonwealth would waive the debt.
Instead, he said: "The Commonwealth will continue to collaborate and work closely with state and territory governments, local councils and key stakeholders, including industry and community bodies, to help shape a shared vision and priorities to address these important issues."