The decline in public housing stock in Canberra is "unacceptable" and the government should look long and hard at its plans to sell properties, a backbencher has said.
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The Greens' Johnathan Davis said the government needed to consider buying dwellings on the private market to boost the stock of public housing.
"I am surprised that I am begging the Housing Minister to expand the size of the housing portfolio. That is shocking to me based on everything I understand to be true about the Housing Minister and the ACT Labor Party more broadly," Mr Davis said in an interview with the Sunday Canberra Times.
"Why am I now at a point where we're having this conversation?"
Tensions between Labor and the Greens in the Legislative Assembly have become heightened as the federal Greens have stopped short of supporting the federal Labor government's proposed housing future fund.
ACT Housing Minister Yvette Berry in question time late last month said ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury's comments that his party would have preferred more investment in public housing had "boggled" her mind because the party was "standing in the way of more social and affordable housing funding".
"I very respectfully ask the Canberra Liberals and the Canberra Greens to get out of my way so that I can build more houses," Ms Berry said.
Ms Berry said the public housing waiting list in the ACT troubled her and federal Labor's housing future fund would benefit the territory.
"The Housing Australia Future Fund would bring some great opportunities here in the ACT to build even more social and affordable homes," she said.
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An independent assessment of budget papers, released on Friday, noted the ACT's stock of public housing had failed to keep up with population growth and planned extra dwellings would only return the number of properties to 2018 levels.
The ACT has 10,744 public housing properties, data released in January from the Productivity Commission's annual reports on government services showed.
The territory had 11,181 public housing dwellings in 2018, down from 11,619 in March 2008.
The ACT government plans to add 400 new public housing properties to its stock by 2025.
Mr Davis, the Greens' member for Brindabella and the party's spokesman on housing, said the government should "put a plug in the leak" of the public housing stock and pause selling properties as part its renewal program.
The government has been selling public housing sites to fund new public housing.
"The housing stock has been in decline and there appears to be no ambition to revisit either the strategy to sell or the strategy to purchase established properties," Mr Davis said.
Mr Davis said he was considering all his options that could force change to the government's approach to public housing.
"It is not in my job description to make life easier for the ACT Labor Party," he said.
A parliamentary inquiry into cost-of-living pressures in May recommended Housing ACT's capacity to deliver more public housing needed to expand and the territory should buy dwellings in the private market to boost stock.
Mr Davis said the tripartisan recommendations of the inquiry, which he chaired, demonstrated there was a cross-party acknowledgement the approach to growing public housing stock needed change.
A recommendation for a performance audit of the renewal program, extra staff for Housing ACT and a halt to dwelling sales demonstrated all three parties in the Assembly acknowledged issues with public housing, he said.
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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.
