Andrew Barr reaffirms commitment to lobby federal government for housing debt waiver

Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the territory government would enter an agreement with the federal government that would ensure the nearly $100 million housing debt would be reinvested into public housing, if the debt was waived.

The Opposition criticised Greens member for Brindabella Johnathan Davis for bringing forward the motion, arguing he had simply called on the government to do something it was already doing.

Mr Davis' motion called on Mr Barr to continue to raise waiving the ACT's housing debts with the newly elected federal Labor government. It also called for the Chief Minister to reconfirm the savings from the repayments would be reinvested into public housing.

"The ACT Legislative Assembly has been forced to lobby the previous federal Coalition government for our fair share for years and this changer of government presents a tremendous opportunity," Mr Davis said.

"While I credit the Chief Minister for his comments implying that there will be additional investments made in public housing should this debt be forgiven I really want to drill in on the detail here, I want to make sure it is a dollar-for-dollar increase.

"I don't want to see the federal government forgiving the historic housing debt and somehow a couple million here and a couple million there find its way through other programs and other directorates throughout the ACT government."

The ACT government has a $98.3 million housing debt to the federal government which it inherited during the transition to self-government in 1989. Over the next three years the government would have to pay $27.7 million in principal and interest to service the debt.

Following the election of a federal Labor government, Mr Barr said he would lobby Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher about the issue. He previously strongly lobbied the former Coalition government over waiving the debt, especially after Tasmania's debt was waived in 2019.

South Australia also had hundreds of millions of dollars in social housing debts to the Commonwealth waived in 2013 but this decision failed to induce any extra spending from the state government to address homelessness.

Mr Barr supported the motion from Mr Davis and told the Assembly the territory would avoid a similar situation to South Australia.

"It remains unfinished business for the territory government and one we are re-prosecuting with the new administration and obviously from the Prime Minister to the Finance Minister to our local federal representatives have already made clear, the ACT's desire to see this housing debt waived and our commitment to do just as the motion has indicated to reinvest the principal and interest back into our public housing system," he said.

"We've been very clear about what we would do were we granted a debt waiver or a debt restructuring and we acknowledge that we would have to sign up to our end of the bargain to avoid the situation that Mr Davis outlined that occurred in South Australia.

"That would need to be a bilateral agreement between the Commonwealth and the territory to achieve a shared and desired outcome."

Canberra Liberals did not oppose the motion but opposition housing spokesman Mark Parton took a swipe at Mr Davis for putting for a motion calling for the government to do something it was already doing.

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Mr Parton jokingly suggested that Mr Davis could also bring forward a motion to build the second stage of light rail or to raise London Circuit.

"We've got a motion today calling upon the Assembly and the government to do what it's already doing, none of this new and the Assembly along with all three parties in it have been pushing in different ways for years to get the federal government to waive the long term housing debt," he said.

"I just don't know why we're debating it."

Meanwhile, the ACT government will release the details of its concessional loan scheme to apartment building owners whose properties need potentially deadly combustible cladding removed in the coming weeks.

Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee accused the government for failing to address the issue.

"The need for urgent action has been continually raised by owners, corporations and strata managers but the ACT government has shown no interest in prioritising this issue," Ms Lee said.

Ms Lee put forward a motion on Thursday afternoon calling for the government to publish the details of its scheme by the end of the month and undertake an audit for any residential buildings not yet tested by September 30.

"The need for urgent action has been continually raised by owners, corporations and strata managers but the ACT government has shown no interest in prioritising this issue," Ms Lee said.

The government amended Ms Lee's motion, with Greens leader Shane Rattenbury saying the government had undertaken substantial work on the scheme with details to be released in coming weeks.

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