ACT Labor and Greens ministers at loggerheads on housing

ACT Housing Minister and deputy Labor leader Yvette Berry last week told a parliamentary inquiry the ACT government supported the federal Labor plan, which the Commonwealth has said would generate 30,000 social and affordable housing properties in its first five years.

"This is not a personal attack on anyone at all in this space, but it is frustrating that we're having to go through a process federally where funding is ready to flow and it is being held up in the Senate by various other politicians," Ms Berry said.

But Mental Health Minister Emma Davidson, a member of the Greens, told the same committee the following day the ACT government did not support the plan.

"I'm an ACT government minister, I would know if there was a position on this. There is not," Ms Davidson said.

Ms Davidson said she was not aware of an official government position and said she believed the ACT needed to negotiate a better deal than the one offered by federal Labor.

"We need social and affordable housing construction investment and we need Commonwealth to help us with the resourcing to be able to do that," she said.

"But the difficulty is that that future fund is a gamble and it could well see the housing crisis get worst.

"What we really need is a better deal from Commonwealth government with a commitment to invest more in social housing year on year. If we can negotiate a better deal from the Commonwealth government, absolutely we want to be able to get the best position we possibly can for the ACT."

Ms Davidson said, after questioning from Labor's Dr Marisa Paterson in an Assembly inquiry into cost-of-living pressures, she wanted to see funding for social housing flow to the ACT as quickly as possible.

"The difficulty is that we've got a situation where young people are in crisis. They're dealing with multiple problems from climate change to COVID to the housing crisis to the casualisation of the workforce to their growing student debts," she said.

"If we don't fix this problem, these young people will and should come for our jobs. And we'll be giving them no option but to eat the rich."

Homelessness Minister Rebecca Vassarotti, also a Greens member, said in a statement she supported the federal Greens' position on social housing investment, which includes an indexed $5 billion annual fund of investment and putting a national rent freeze on the agenda for a national discussion.

"Labor needs the Greens' support in the Senate to pass their bill, and anyone who's interested in fixing the housing crisis should be advocating for a better deal for Canberrans. While I understand there are productive discussions between the ACT government and federal government on a range of proposals, we need a much more ambitious plan to solve our housing crisis," Ms Vassarotti said.

Ms Berry said in a statement on Wednesday she and Chief Minister Andrew Barr had already had discussions with the Commonwealth on proposals to grow the number of social and affordable houses in the ACT.

"This includes the management of the the ACT's historical housing debt and the future of surplus federal government land holdings in the ACT," she said.

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"We are also continuing to work with the federal government to finalise the implementation of the housing accord.

"After nearly a decade of neglect from the previous coalition government on social and affordable housing, it is a welcome discussion to be having. We welcome additional Commonwealth investment into the ACT's social and affordable housing stock."

The federal Labor housing fund plan would use the return from investments to pay for social housing costs, which the Greens say is a "gamble".

"The federal government must negotiate with the Greens to fix their housing policy and provide a better deal for Canberrans. Under their current proposal, Labor's Housing Australia Future Fund will see the public housing waitlist grow, the housing crisis worsen and do nothing for renters," Ms Vassarotti said.

"Spending from the 'future fund' will be capped at $500 million and won't be indexed to inflation, which means locking in a real cut to housing funding every year. In 2022 the fund lost 1.2 per cent, which would have seen a $120 million loss and no money spent on housing."

The Greens want to use negotiations to introduce a national freeze on rent increases for a two-year period, at least $5 billion of investment in public and community housing and $1 billion for First Nations housing.

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