Thomas introduced a motion calling on the ACT Government to back the community-led ‘20 Home By Christmas' campaign. Championed by Canberra local Jonny Warren, the initiative seeks to renovate 20 of Canberra’s vacant public housing properties and get tenants into them before Christmas, with labour and supplies provided pro-bono by industry. 

In his remarks, Thomas highlighted that Canberrans are concerned about the shortage of public housing in the Territory, the rise in homelessness and the length of our public housing waitlist. 

Labor moved amendments to the motion, which incorporated further language around privacy requirements, provided further context to public housing vacancies, and specified that the campaign would work under Housing ACT’s maintenance manager, Programmed Facilities Management. These amendments had been negotiated with Thomas prior to the debate and were supported unanimously by the Assembly. 

Thomas’s motion also called on the Government to commit to reducing the average vacancy time for properties requiring maintenance or upgrades to an average of no more than 90 days, and to revise Housing ACT’s own accountability indicator for public housing occupancy to at least 98 per cent. He reflected both in the motion and his remarks that the average vacancy time for properties requiring maintenance or upgrades was currently 284 days, which Thomas had uncovered through Estimates questions, and the occupancy rate for public housing properties was just 95 per cent.

Labor moved additional amendments seeking to revise the 90 day target to exclude properties requiring extensive repairs or maintenance that would reasonably take more than 90 days to repair, while also watering down the call to revise Housing ACT’s occupancy target to “look at revising”. These amendments were opposed by the Assembly. 

Independent Fiona Carrick moved an additional amendment, which sought to firm up Thomas’ proposed target for an average turnaround time of 90 days for public housing properties requiring maintenance or upgrades into a formal accountability indicator. This was supported unanimously. 

The motion, as amended, passed unopposed. You can find the final version of the motion here.