The year is almost at an end, and I’m proud of how my team and I have worked with our community this year to achieve some important outcomes. There’s loads more to do in 2026, which I’m looking forward to getting stuck into after a bit of a break over the next couple of weeks.
In the meantime, I've got a few updates to share from the last month.
- Bondi Terror Attack
- End-of-Year Community BBQ
- $10 million in Lake Lighting Funding
- Another Scathing Report on First Nations Outcomes in the ACT
- Community Sport Infrastructure
- Small Business Catch-Up
- Senior Secondary Language Studies
- Office Shutdown
Bondi Terror Attack
It’s difficult to respond to the horrific attack in Bondi on Sunday in any way that feels like it comes close to approaching the gravity and tragedy of what happened. Like every Australian, I’m completely devastated for the victims, their families, the Jewish community, and our country.
The diversity of our multicultural society is one of our greatest assets, and it’s sickening, heartbreaking, frightening and infuriating to see that undermined in the most evil of ways.
The steps we take next as a country are critical. Division is exactly what terrorists seek to create, and we can’t let them succeed. We do that through solidarity and unity as a community, and as a country.
It’s important to acknowledge that, amongst the devastation of this tragedy, we’ve also seen the best of humanity on display. Heroes running straight towards danger to attempt to stop the murderers, protect fellow community members, and care for the injured.
Australians have also turned out in record numbers to donate blood. Now we need plasma more than blood. You can book an appointment to donate via Lifeblood here.
The Legislative Assembly has set up a condolence book in honour of those affected by this terrible tragedy, which you can sign online here.
Of course there's a lot more to say and do about what happened on Sunday, but I'm not sure this newsletter is the place for it. You can find my public statement on the attack here.
And if you need support, please contact:
Lifeline 13 11 14
Kids Helpline 1800 551 80
JewishCare 1300 133 660
End-of-Year Community BBQ
Thank you very much to everyone who took the time to attend my community BBQ at the end of November.
I really enjoyed coming together to reflect on what’s happened over the last year, discuss priorities for the year ahead, and hear from so many of you about the issues you care about.
I’d welcome any feedback on how future events like this could be improved, and if you’d like to see me host more similar – or different – events in 2026.
$10 Million for Lake Lighting
I was stoked to learn this week that the Federal Government has committed $10 million for further lighting upgrades around Lake Burley Griffin, announced as part of the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO).
This follows the ongoing advocacy of Kim Elms, founder of Every Street Matters, and several other advocacy groups and community members who’ve raised the issue of how to make Canberra safer for people, especially women, when out exercising. You might remember that I brought a motion to the Assembly back in June calling on the ACT Government to improve lighting across the Territory, and to advocate to the National Capital Authority for improved lighting around Lake Burley Griffin.
It’s fantastic to see the NCA taking swift action to address these concerns, and it would be great if the ACT Government followed their lead. Unfortunately, when I brought the motion, ACT Labor suggested that I was “missing the point” by focusing on lighting when it comes to increasing women’s safety while exercising. There is of course so much work needed to address this deep-seated issue at a societal level, starting with men’s behaviour change - as was also acknowledged in my motion, which you can read in full here.
Evidence shows lighting also has a real impact, and this is something very tangible that governments can do to help. In fact, the ACT Government’s own 2023 Gender Sensitive Urban Design Framework states: “Better lighting of public spaces and pathways ranked the highest as a way of improving the safety of public spaces.”
Improved lighting is a win for all of us – it supports safety year-round, and it’s also an excellent active travel investment. Given the number of very dark areas across Kurrajong, including in quite high-traffic locations, I’ll keep pushing for the ACT Government to step up here.
I welcomed the announcement from the feds, alongside Kim and Pedal Power ACT in a statement that was picked up by Canberra Daily here.
This was part of a number of MYEFO announcements affecting Canberra, including a $233 million funding boost for the CSIRO. Credit to Senator David Pocock for the immense pressure he’s been applying to help bring this about. There's plenty more needed in this area and, if you haven’t already, you can sign David’s Save the CSIRO petition here.
Community Sport Infrastructure
My supply-and-confidence agreement with Labor includes a commitment to longer-term community sport infrastructure planning.
When I asked during Annual Reports hearings about the prospects of developing a long-term community sport infrastructure plan, Sport and Recreation Minister Yvette Berry MLA baulked at the idea on the grounds that funding decisions of future governments may not align with the plan, and sporting organisations might be disappointed if the plan isn’t followed.
I don’t accept this response, which implies governments should never plan beyond the election cycle. Frankly, it just seems like a massive cop out to me, particularly given the same party has now been in power in the ACT for 24 years. Not wanting to prepare a long-term plan because you might actually be held accountable to it also strikes me as really poor leadership.
How can we possibly meet our community’s sporting infrastructure needs – which take time and considered budgeting – without a plan for doing so? The Minister’s response leaves me unsurprised that so much of our local sporting infrastructure is dilapidated or, worse, missing.
In the coming year, I’ll continue making the case for a 10-year community sport infrastructure plan, which was raised as a priority by multiple witnesses during our recent community sport inquiry hearings.
You can read the online Canberra Times story about this issue here.
Small Business Catch-Up
I was glad to be invited by SME Gateway to speak, and chat with local business owners, at their end-of-year function last week alongside Senator Pocock.
Canberra is a great place to live, but it can be a very tough place to do business. I consistently hear from local small business owners about disproportionately high rents, insurance premiums and other costs threatening their viability in the ACT. This is a challenge I experienced personally as a small business owner before entering politics.
Small businesses aren’t just the backbone of our economy; they’re core to the vitality of our communities. There’s a lot more we could be doing to back local businesses, including through procurement changes, more client-oriented public service systems and insurance reform. If you run a business in Canberra and have views on what the ACT Government should do differently to support local SMEs, please reach out via [email protected].
Senior Secondary Language Studies
During the final sitting week of the year, I stood alongside Liberal MLA Chiaka Barry and Green MLA Jo Clay in support of Ms Barry’s motion on language education in ACT public schools.
The motion followed the announced closure of CIT Solutions, which has been responsible for running a program that offers after-school classes for multiple different languages for college students whose schools don’t offer the language of their choice.
I’ve been following this issue for months, and wrote to the Education Minister earlier this year calling for the ACT Government to step in and deliver this program themselves as is the practice in most other Australian jurisdictions.
It’s a simple and logical solution that could be run as a cost-recovery model, which is exactly what’s been done up to this point, with minimal imposition on the Government. It makes even more sense in a small jurisdiction where not every school will be able to find teachers for multiple different languages (if any!), which is why this program has been run privately with success since 2017. Unfortunately, with CIT now vacating the space because it’s not really their core business, the Government has been very reluctant to step in or respond with any kind of meaningful action, despite their own Language Education Action Plan from last yearcontaining a commitment to “Explore options for alternative delivery models for public school language education programs” by the end of 2025.
The upshot is that many public school students won’t be able to continue studying languages in Years 11 and 12 that they’ve studied throughout high school, unless they’re willing to travel across the city to go to an out-of-area school that’s disconnected from their local community.
Ensuring our public education system offers high-quality language learning opportunities is critical, particularly given our role as the national capital. I’m keen to keep working with advocates Frank Keighley, who founded the original specialised languages school, Jim Gilchrist, whose daughter’s education is impacted by CIT Solutions’ closure, and other affected community members to push for the ACT Government to change its stance on this.
You can learn more in this Region article here.
Another Scathing Report on First Nations Outcomes in the ACT
In the same week as my Closing the Gap Bill passed, a scathing report from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body was tabled in the Assembly showing that just four of 22 targets under the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Agreement are on track to be met.
The report concludes that the ACT is now in a worse position than when the ACT Agreement was signed back in 2019, and delivers 56 recommendations.
It’s a brutal report card from the Elected Body. The ACT Government cannot keep disregarding its promises to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Canberrans while their life outcomes continue to worsen. This is exactly what my Bill – now Act – is intended to change.
You can read my media release on the report here.
The ABC followed up with an excellent story featuring First Nations community leaders Paula McGrady (to my left in the photo below), Joe Hedger, Katrina Fanning and Elected Body Chairperson Maurice Walker, who articulate their experiences of racism and systemic failure in the ACT. You can read/watch it here.
Office Shutdown
We're closing the office for the Christmas break on Wednesday 24 December and reopening on Monday 12 January. During this time, emails and calls will not be answered, as my team will be having a well-earned break.
On that note, I want to say a massive thank you to everyone in my team for all the effort they’ve put into delivering for our community in 2025. I’m very fortunate to have an office full of fantastic, enthusiastic, hard-working, intelligent, hilarious people who make it such a joy to come to work each day.
We will be back on deck and ready to crack into more advocacy and community-driven policy work in the new year. If you have any feedback or issues you’d like me to take a look at, please get in touch.
As always, thank you so much for your support.
Wishing you a very happy, safe and restful festive season.
Catch you in 2026!
Tom