The Community Action Party believes that the ACT Government has a vital role to play in the provision and supply of sustainable, high quality yet affordable housing to the community.
Housing in the ACT is expensive and hard to find. Although this is part of a wider national trend in all of Australia's capital cities, local factors such as a slow release of land for development have not helped. Demand exceeds supply and the number of homeless people is still rising. The Party supports private home ownership, a strong public housing system and adequate crisis housing services.
Equity
The Party will work with community service organisations and other relevant bodies to provide increased housing support for families.
The Party does not support the Government's rapid increase in residential rates, which aims at eventually abolishing stamp duty altogether. It supports an independent review of the land tax system and the change of use tax in the ACT with the objective of improving equity.
The Party will help renters to buy their own homes by abolishing stamp duty for first-time buyers who become owner-occupiers of residential property valued at five times the median income.
The Party will reverse inequitable clauses in the unit title legislation.
Public housing
The Party supports the provision of sufficient public housing spread throughout each community in the ACT to meet demand. However, it does not support the construction of large-scale public housing projects which merely become concentrations of disadvantage.
The Party supports the provision of sufficient adaptable housing for the elderly and people with disabilities. The Party will investigate the provision of integrated supported accommodation for high dependency care so that carers can continue living with their ageing or disabled family members when they require full-time formal care.
The Party supports rents for public housing that reflect the tenant's ability to pay and provide the tenant with stability and consideration. We support schemes that help long-term tenants with adequate incomes to move out of public housing.
Tenants who own another residence should in principle lose their entitlement to public housing.
The Party believes that public housing must be maintained to an appropriate standard, with a fair contribution by tenants.
The Party will work with crisis accommodation providers to increase the supply of crisis accommodation in Canberra to meet the growing need.
The Party will support community housing schemes.
Sustainability and (re)development
The Party believes new developments must contain a mixture of house sizes and styles.
All new housing – in new developments and redevelopments – must meet stringent design standards of resource efficiency, noise pollution, adaptability (for ageing people) and accessibility (for people with disabilities).
The Party rejects the loss of urban green spaces within or adjacent to existing suburbs to construct housing.
Tenancy law will be changed so that the resident, and not the owner, is billed for their own water consumption.
The Party will support programs that assist private home-owners to install insulation, double glazing, solar energy, and other environmentally friendly technologies.
The Party will investigate the provision of high quality, low cost, environmentally friendly pre-fabricated housing in the ACT.
Tenants' rights
The Party will strengthen tenants' rights to make it harder for landlords to break lease agreements and will regulate rental blacklists to prevent discrimination.