2026-08-26
The Legislative Assembly's Select Committee on the Fiscal Sustainability of the ACT has today tabled its final report – raising serious questions about what the Labor Government is choosing to spend public funds on, and who they're leaving behind.
ACT Greens Leader Jo Clay MLA said the findings, drawn from independent economist Saul Eslake's analysis and months of evidence, expose a government that mistook spending for delivering.
"Budgets are about choices. This report shows the ACT Labor Government grew their spending faster than revenue. Meanwhile we've watched Housing ACT staff, public school teachers and school assistants, and waste collection workers striking over pay and conditions. We've watched public library hours cut.
"Finding 6 is damning. Government’s been telling Canberrans they won’t cut frontline services, but they’re not even tracking which workers are frontline and which are not. So how do they know?" said Ms Clay.
Public housing crisis deepens as Commonwealth funding is squandered
The Committee found the Government has failed to grow public housing supply in line with population growth and has no systematic strategy for securing Commonwealth funding.
"The ACT didn't even apply in the first round of the Housing Australia Future Fund. We scraped together just 85 homes in round two. While we're gambling everything on round three, the last round, our public housing waitlist grew from 3,000 to over 3,600 households this term – and it’s still rising.
"When there isn't enough public housing, low-income Canberrans are forced to compete in an expensive private rental market, or pushed into homelessness or crisis accommodation."
Government continues subsidising gambling harm while gambling tax loophole stays open
The Committee has recommended lifting gambling tax revenue and channelling it into harm minimisation and regulation.
"Gambling tax in the ACT sits below the national average, while the Government will hand out $8.6 million this year in public money to the horseracing industry.
"And Federal Labor's deal with the Coalition means the gambling industry keeps getting a free pass to profit off harm in our communities. It's time the ACT Government ends this,” said Ms Clay.