Mould infestations, broken windows, open cracked walls and exposed wiring left unrepaired across public housing in Canberra shows the government has allowed residents to languish in "Third-World conditions", the head of the powerful CFMEU says.
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Zach Smith, the union's ACT and national secretary, said the ACT government had failed in its duty of care to residents while also wasting an "egregious" amount of ratepayers' money on a maintenance contract.
"We're seeing life-threatening issues like collapsing retaining walls, faulty smoke detectors and exposed wiring being left for months without any sign of being fixed," Mr Smith said.
"Every Canberran should be shocked and appalled by what the ACT government has done here."
Mr Smith launched the extraordinary political intervention, calling on ACT Housing Minister Yvette Berry to fix the "disgraceful situation".
"Anything less would be a serious failure of her duty," he said.
Mr Smith vowed the CFMEU would make public housing maintenance an issue at the ACT election, and warned there would be "serious consequences" if the government failed to act.
"For a Labor government to have presided over this situation is an affront to the party's core values," he said.
The ACT branch of the CFMEU has been hosting barbecues for tenants of ACT Housing properties, collecting information from residents about unaddressed maintenance issues.
The union asked residents whether they had experienced maintenance issues that were not fixed.
One resident told the union they had given up on having their smoke alarm repaired, while another said they were left with no back door for seven months over winter.
"No safety for children. Mould in kitchen and bathrooms exposed (black). Toilet pipe blocked and sewage raw contaminated left not cleaned over a month - still not," one resident's response to the union's survey said.
Residents also told the union they have struggled to have issues repaired or contractors show up to fix problems.
"Yes called many times," one resident said when asked whether they tried to have an issue repaired. "Emails were sent to individuals for different jobs. I asked for numbers to call and was told to wait for a call back. Have called many times. Months have passed."
Another resident said: "Called and told my housing manager, he said he would look into it. I haven't heard back. That was about six months ago."
An ACT government spokesman said: "With more than 10,000 social housing properties and 20,000 tenants across the ACT, repairs and maintenance is a huge, ongoing job, and it's one the government takes very seriously.
"That being said, there is always room for improvement.
"The ACT government will continue to look at every option to improve the public housing experience for tenants, ensure the best value for money and work in good faith with stakeholders and tenants."
The Canberra Times has previously reported a public housing tenant in Canberra's north was forced to live with a mice infestation for two years and, in a separate case, a mother of three who was moved into a property that was signed off as safe by the maintenance contractor but later deemed "unsafe" by Housing ACT.
Housing tenants are encouraged to copy complaints about maintenance they have made to the maintenance contractor to Housing ACT.
The CFMEU in 2022 called on the government to in-source the maintenance work of public housing.
The ACT government awarded Programmed Facility Management a six-year maintenance contract for ACT Housing properties in November 2018. It was worth $48 million a year.
The first term of the contract expires on October 16, but has up to two four-year extensions.
Programmed Facilities Management relies on a subcontracted workforce of more than 80 ACT businesses to deliver maintenance repairs.
Spotless had been awarded the contract in 2005, but an Auditor-General's report, released in late 2016, found the contractor had failed to properly oversee its own, and its subcontractors', work. The audit also revealed a series of inadequacies in Spotless' maintenance work.
The Canberra Liberals have previously described the maintenance of public housing as a "diabolical failure".
"I regularly receive representation from public housing tenants saying that Housing ACT is either not responding to their basic maintenance requests or taking extraordinary time to even look into the situation," Mark Parton, the opposition housing spokesman, said in 2022.
An independent review of the territory's budget papers last year noted the ACT's population had grown by just over 24 per cent between 2011 and 2022 but public housing stock "remained stagnant and even slightly declined since 2018".
Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
