The ACT Greens have made their intentions for the coming territory election clear: they hope to capitalise on the growing frustration and resentment directed at the housing market.
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The resentment is easy to understand. Housing is frightfully expensive. Saving up for a place of your own is devilishly hard work, particularly if inheriting is not a viable financial plan.
The alternative is generally renting, a frequently miserable experience.
Federally, the Greens have been upfront they want to position themselves as the party of renters. It's not just about dam blockades and the environment anymore. The Greens see their political future in offering a different take on the big economic and social questions of our time. Where people are going to live is chief among them.
Labor's response on Thursday afternoon was to cast the Greens' policy into the realm of impossibility. Labor didn't say significantly expanding the number of public housing dwellings was, at its core, a bad idea. Who would disagree? The trouble is how quickly it can be achieved.
Dismissing it as a promise the minor party can't keep was the obvious choice for the party that has been in government for two decades and has not driven significant increases to public housing stock. Labor's Housing Minister, Yvette Berry, had to apologise for an ill-devised program of relocating public housing tenants to redevelop blocks to add properties.
Canberra's population continues to grow and public housing stock reached its lowest level in a decade, figures released in 2023 showed.
The Greens' announcement included an independent policy costing the party paid a consulting firm to complete. That demonstrates a level of seriousness. They want to pick political fights on detail; that's where they think they can win.
Spending $5.9 billion over 10 years and deliver an extra 10,000 public housing properties may well prove too ambitious. The construction industry is already constrained. A public developer is not without considerable risk.
But the Greens' role in territory politics has been to push Labor along. Think of light rail. There can be little doubt that Greens ministers piping up have sped up some things.
To the Greens' own supporters, the minor party needs to stand out as the outfit ready to push further again. The party knows what it is like to be nearly wiped out of the Assembly; after a record six-seat result in 2020, they're evidently emboldened to challenge received political wisdom of what government is for.
Recasting what public housing can and should do for Canberra is certainly a way to do that, and there's a growing constituency of people fed up with business as usual this pitch will reach.
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.
