ACT housing debt waiver 'not in this budget' but not never

Last week during a press conference, the Minister and ACT senator - who has been in charge of a budget audit process since the May election - stated the Albanese government was "not in a position" to waive the debt.

This seemingly black and white position came despite her urging in opposition for the Morrison government to forgive the debt, which is being compounded by interest payments.

In an interview with The Canberra Times, Senator Gallagher revealed the continuing existence of historic housing debts, ACT or the national figure of $1.6 billion, is not a closed book.

"It's not in this budget," she said.

"And that's what I was trying to say, 'look, it's not in this budget'. [Treasurer] Jim [Chalmers] and I've got letters from everyone asking for housing debt to be waived. $1.6 billion. And there's all this other stuff happening with housing, which is also what I told David Pocock."

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Housing debts are from historic long term advances from 1945 to the late 1980s provided at a fixed interest rate to the states and territories to provide public housing. To add to this, at the time of self-government, the ACT and NT also received assets transferred from the Commonwealth.

The ACT has a $98.3 million housing debt and a land and building debt of $2.2 million, while an extra $33 million in interest payments is expected to build over the next 19 years. The ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has been trying to get the territory's debt waived since the Morrison government agreed in September 2019 to set aside Tasmania's $150 million housing debt through a deal with Senator Jacqui Lambie.

After raising the ACT debt during the election, Senator Pocock last month put the government on notice, warning it will be "front of mind" when considering legislation later this year for a $10 billion election promise. He has also flagged last week that he might raise it as part of industrial relations changes to be introduced this week to Parliament.

Senator Gallagher said she is still talking to the ACT government about the debt and answered 'no' when specifically asked if waiving the ACT debt was a closed book.

"I can't just see it through the prism of the ACT, which, when they people asked me about the $100 million housing debt, the question to me should be, 'what are you doing about the $1.6 billion worth of housing debt?' because I can't see it in isolation of other requests," the minister and former ACT Chief Minister said.

"But I do accept the ACT government's view that they want to say, look, 'with all of this being negotiated, we want you to consider the housing debt as part of that', and I think that's a reasonable request."

However, the senator was clear on the matter of Senate deals, saying she does not want to do them as a blanket rule as she has been critical of past deals.

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