I tried to make the most of Budget Estimates last month, asking plenty of questions about government policy and expenditure decisions across a wide range of portfolio areas. I’ll share more about Estimates below, but first I wanted to mention a couple of petitions in case you missed them.
Closing the Gap
Hopefully you've seen the news that I'm pushing for the ACT to become the first state or territory to Close the Gap in life outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We’ve been talking about Closing the Gap for 20 years, and I believe my first Private Member’s Bill can help get us there, but I need your help to get it across the line. If you want to see the bill passed when it’s debated in the Assembly later this year, please sign the petition below and share this link with your networks.
SIGN THE PETITION SUPPORTING THE BILL
Wakefield Gardens
Last week, there was a devastating fire at 91A Wakefield Gardens in Ainslie. Tucked just behind the Ainslie Shops, this site has been vacant for 20 years, and there’s been a strong chorus of community voices calling for the building and surrounding gardens to be revitalised. Back in June, I sponsored a petition calling on the Government to invest in a community-led plan for the site. The fire doesn’t change that — this remains a unique opportunity to reactivate what could be an incredible community asset for the inner north.
SIGN THE WAKEFIELD GARDENS PETITION
I'm also hosting a community forum on the future of Wakefield Gardens on Friday 12 September, where we can come together to discuss ideas for the site. I’ve been collaborating with a small group of locals on a community-led vision for Wakefield Gardens that we’ll share at the forum, as well as seeking further input and volunteers to sharpen that vision and bring it to fruition. I'd love to see you there. You can learn more and RSVP to the event on my website.
RSVP TO WAKEFIELD GARDENS COMMUNITY FORUM
Allegations of Public Sector Misconduct
During Estimates, I asked the Head of Service four times whether she had received any complaints or concerns, or had any issues raised, over the last five years relating to senior public servants failing to follow administrative arrangements or appropriate ministerial reporting lines. She repeatedly answered “no”.
Following this, former Greens MLA Emma Davidson, who held ministerial roles in the previous term of Government, wrote to the Chief Minister detailing two complaints she had made to the Head of Service within six weeks regarding senior public servants failing to brief her on matters within her ministerial portfolios in 2022. These allegations clearly contradicted the evidence provided by the Head of Service in the Estimates hearing. I was copied into the letter and subsequently wrote to the Estimates Committee requesting that the letter be made public in the interests of transparency, and that the Head of Service be given the opportunity to correct her evidence.
The Head of Service provided further information in response, but I did not consider that her response appropriately addressed her failure to disclose the complaints under questioning, so I have requested that the Committee more fulsomely consider the integrity of the evidence given during the hearing.
I’ve also referred the issue to the Public Sector Standards Commission because, while I’m not in a position to determine conclusively who’s right or wrong, the allegations raise serious concerns about the integrity of our public institutions – allegations which should be properly investigated and addressed. One of the allegations made by then-Minister Davidson was that after she raised a complaint about a senior public servant not briefing her on a critical matter, that public servant started cancelling scheduled meetings with the Minister. If true, that’s pretty alarming behaviour.
You can see what I had to say about it in my media release here.
Working to uphold the integrity of our public institutions, and of the Assembly, is a responsibility I take seriously as an elected representative. This matters because these institutions significantly impact people’s lives. One of Ms Davidson’s portfolio areas in which briefings were allegedly withheld from her was youth justice, and we’ve just seen another report on the Bimberi Youth Justice Centre, which has revealed questionable use of force by staff and insufficient recording of incidents. This is something I spoke out about last year after an earlier report found, among other issues, that children in detention weren’t being allowed to hug visiting family members.
We’ll find out if the Estimates Committee makes any findings when it tables its report tomorrow, and I’ll keep you posted on what we hear back from the Public Sector Standards Commissioner.
I’ve since added a new whistleblowing page to my website providing information on how people can disclose sensitive matters of public importance to my office. You can check it out here.
Payroll Tax (Mis)Calculations
In another Estimates hearing, I asked Treasury officials about their plans to reduce the ACT’s payroll tax threshold from $2 million to $1.75 million. I learned they haven’t factored into their forward estimates an obvious reality that many people will change their business models, including by cutting down on staff, to avoid paying the extra tax.
When South Australia changed their payroll tax threshold in 2019, the number of businesses that clustered just under the new threshold increased by 21 per cent, and the number of businesses just above the threshold decreased by 18 per cent. If the same thing happens here in the ACT, Treasury’s revenue projections in the Budget will be way off.
You can watch the Estimates exchange in a clip on my LinkedIn page here.
CSIRO Ginninderra Housing Opportunity
I was disappointed to hear from the Suburban Land Agency during Estimates that a business case still has not been finalised for the development of the former CSIRO Ginninderra site for housing. This is something Senator David Pocock has been very vocal about, given the opportunity for thousands of new dwellings - with a significant portion of social and affordable housing - on this massively under-utilised piece of land.
Transfer of the land from the Commonwealth to the ACT Government has been under discussion since 2015, and was approved in February this year, so the fact there is still no finalised business case for consideration by Cabinet shows an alarming lack of proactive planning from the ACT Government. I found the responses about the tardiness a bit insulting to the desperate Canberrans I’m hearing from who are in need of a home, including single parents, young people, and vulnerable women escaping violence.
I commented further on this in a Region Canberra article here.
Early Childhood Education and Care
In the wake of devastating revelations about poor regulation of the early childhood education and care sector and Working With Vulnerable People (WWVP) schemes in other jurisdictions, I used the Estimates hearings to dig into how these systems work in the ACT.
I’ve had a number of serious concerns raised with me about system gaps, including that the ACT is the only jurisdiction without an online WWVP card verification portal, which the Minister confirmed during Estimates. This means that organisations who receive a worker’s WWVP card can’t be sure it’s actually valid until they manually email Access Canberra about it, which I’m told most organisations do in periodic batches.
The recent national reforms announced in this space are promising, but I will continue to push the ACT Government for urgent action at the Territory level.
You might also recall I recently moved a motion in the Assembly calling for the release of documents about incidents of child abuse and neglect in ACT early childhood education and care centres over the last five years. I’ll provide another update when those documents are released.
Partly prompted by that motion, I attended a roundtable last week on early childhood education and care organised by the Children First Alliance alongside Greens MLA Laura Nuttall, which was also attended by the Minister for Education and Early Childhood Yvette Berry, Senator David Pocock, and independent MLA Fiona Carrick.
It was a very productive discussion, where we heard from not-for-profit providers and educators about the need for reform, including providing greater support for those in the sector who are working hard to deliver quality early childhood education and care.
There's plenty more I could tell you about Estimates, having questioned government officials and Ministers during hearings spanning more than two weeks, but I'll leave it there for this newsletter. If you're interested, you can have a look at some of the questions on notice that I lodged here (search for 'Emerson').
Next Mobile Office
My next mobile office is at Watson shops on Friday 5 September from 3pm to 4pm. If you’re available, please come along for a chat and let me know how I can better represent you in the Assembly. You can RSVP here.
We've got a lot of work coming up in the office, with five sitting weeks over the next two months! You can keep up to date along the way through my social media accounts – see my signature block below for links.
Thank you for your support.
Tom