A lot has been happening in ACT politics, including the passage of the Budget in the last sitting period. Speakers from all sides remarked on different budget items during a debate that spanned across two weeks, including one evening where the Assembly sat until 10.30pm – later than it has in over a decade.

Prior to the passage of the Budget, the Greens announced they had terminated their supply-and-confidence agreement with Labor. 

For my part, the agreement I negotiated with the Chief Minister after the election remains in place. I’m committed to retaining my independence and pushing the Government to do more to deliver for our community. As part of that, I’ll continue engaging in good faith with Labor while being very clear about where our views differ. 

I vote on each Assembly motion and piece of legislation based on its merits. My team and I work hard to make sure how I vote reflects the views of our community and aligns with the best available evidence. Sometimes I've voted with Labor, and sometimes with the Liberals. On several occasions I’ve voted with the crossbench against both major parties. And I’ve been a lone voice on some issues too.

What I hear from most Canberrans is that they want their elected representatives to work constructively with each other, rather than engaging in political stunts or point scoring while losing sight of what’s best for our community. But collaboration doesn’t mean lying down and accepting government inaction or incompetence in the name of keeping the peace.

I’ll continue working collaboratively across the whole Assembly, regardless of political affiliation,  to drive the changes Canberrans want from their government.

Read on to learn about some of what my team and I have been up to over the past few weeks.

• 20 Homes By Christmas

• Inquiry Into My Gambling Donations Bill

• Kingston Oval Upgrades

• Density Done Well Event 

• Data Centres 

• Protecting Our Western Edge 

• Narrabundah Basketball Court Petition

• ACT Libraries

• ECEC Update

• City Stadium

• Canberra’s Petrol Prices 

• New Donation Page

• Young Independents

• Voices of Canberra Event

• Next Mobile Office and Phone Me Friday

20 Homes By Christmas 

I passed a motion in the Assembly securing the ACT Government’s agreement to support the incredibly generous ‘20 Homes by Christmas’ initiative. Championed by Canberra local Jonny Warren, the community-led 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.  

It was great to have so many people in the gallery to see the motion pass. Jonny, Adam Mumford and Jo Farrell from Housing All Australians deserve a huge shout-out for driving this initiative forward, and continuing to work both with tradies across the ACT and with the Government to make it happen.

The motion was unanimously agreed to, and passed with minor amendments. You can read the voting record for further info here and find the final version of the motion here. 

Inquiry into My Gambling Donations Bill

An Assembly committee is currently inquiring into my Private Member’s Bill to get gambling money out of politics. When the inquiry was announced, I welcomed it as I was keen to use this opportunity to answer any questions, hear our community’s views, and dispel some of the misinformation that’s started circulating about the scope of the bill. You can find my submission to the inquiry setting out my rationale for the bill here. 

During the public hearings, I was disappointed that some of the lines of questioning pursued by Members were misleading and did not examine the actual content or practical effect of the bill. For example, the Labor committee member Taimus Werner-Gibbings told witnesses appearing for the Canberra Alliance for Participatory Democracy, Active Democracy Bean, Australian Multicultural Action Network and Canberra Multicultural Community Forum that the bill would capture contributions to community organisations like theirs, which is completely untrue.

I thought this was done in really poor faith, and may have constituted an act of contempt as it elicited responses from those witnesses based on false information provided by a committee member. While I ultimately decided not to pursue an investigation into this potential act of contempt, I did call out the poor-faith engagement on my bill both during my appearance as a witness to the inquiry and again in the next sitting period. You can listen to me speaking about this in the Assembly here. 

I was also disappointed that, despite making a submission and having been listed as a witness on the original hearing schedule, ACT Labor later pulled out and didn’t end up attending a second hearing either. Given Labor’s close connections to the gambling industry (the Canberra Labor Club is an ‘associated entity’ of ACT Labor which means it’s operated by and/or for the benefit of the party), I thought it important for the committee to have the opportunity to question ACT Labor as part of the inquiry. Their apparent unwillingness to be scrutinised as part of this process just shows exactly why this bill is necessary.

I decided to provide an additional submission to the inquiry to clear up a few points of confusion and misinformation that arose throughout the process. You can find it here. 

The committee is set to publish its report by the end of November.

Kingston Oval Upgrades

Kingston Oval is one of the ACT’s oldest sportsgrounds, having been in active use for more than a century. Last year, I stood with the Eastlake Football Club, Eastlake Cricket Club, AFL NSW/ACT and Cricket ACT in calling for the ACT Government to get behind Eastlake’s Kingston Oval Masterplan. The full scope of proposed works under the Masterplan includes upgrading the pavilion, surface upgrades, new fencing, improved lighting and more – all with the goal of being able to bring seniors footy back to Kingston Oval.

I was very glad to see the first stage of works under the Kingston Oval Masterplan commence last month. A co-investment of $700,000 from the ACT Government and $400,000 from AFL NSW/ACT will deliver a new irrigation system, an upgraded playing surface, and new lighting. It was great to stand alongside the Deputy Chief Minister, Rachel Stephen-Smith, Steve Maher from AFL NSW/ACT and Aaron Bruce from Eastlake Football Club to talk about what this means for the inner south community and turn the first sod.

As our city densifies, community facilities like this matter more than ever, and we need sufficient government investment to ensure they’re fit for purpose. While there’s a lot more work to do, this is a significant first step forward for Kingston Oval.

Density Done Well Event 

Thank you to everyone who came along to the Density Done Well forum I co-hosted with Senator David Pocock and Fiona Carrick MLA a few weeks ago.

We discussed everything from strata issues and building quality to social housing and community infrastructure. We were also joined by leading community experts including Jenny Edwards from Light House ArchiScience, building remediation expert Leanne Foresti, and Gary Petherbridge and Robin Eckermann from the Owners Corporation Network, with independent candidate for Bean Jessie Price doing a top job as MC.

We’ve got so much work to do in this area, as a territory and as a country, both to address the housing and homelessness crisis impacting our community and to ensure what we’re building now is built for the future.

A big thank you to Senator Pocock and his amazing team for putting it all together.

In case you missed the event, there is a full recording on David’s YouTube channel, which you can find here. 

Data Centres 

I know the rapid expansion of data centres is of significant concern for many members of our community. 

During the most recent sitting week, Greens MLA Laura Nuttall introduced a motion calling on the ACT Government to create an ACT Data Centre Framework, and to enact a moratorium on new data centres until the framework is in place.

While I wasn’t supportive of a strict moratorium, given we already have some 15 data centres in the ACT, I was keen to see the Government commit to strong environmental protections and to ensure our community actually benefits tangibly from any new data centres.

Overall, the debate was pretty disappointing, with the crossbench ultimately unable to secure support from either major party for some common-sense commitments focused on maximising community benefit from new data centres while mitigating the risks involved with their rapid expansion. 

You can learn more about how it played out, including the amendments I moved that were voted down, here. Remember you can always check out my full voting record to learn about significant recent votes in the Assembly. You can also watch an excerpt from my speech here. 

Protecting Our Western Edge 

During the last sitting fortnight, I asked the Planning Minister about protecting Canberra’s Western Edge. 

The Western Edge area covers almost 10,000 hectares of unique country west of Canberra, spanning from West Belconnen all the way down to Kambah. It’s an ecological sanctuary, home to beautiful rivers, critically endangered ecosystems and many threatened plants and animals. 

The Western Edge also includes some of Canberra’s most loved recreation sites including Casuarina Sands and Mount Stromlo, and is of significant cultural importance to Traditional Custodians. To me, and to many Canberrans, it doesn't make any sense to allow our city to continue sprawling out into this beautiful landscape. If we want to tackle the housing crisis while protecting the Territory’s incredible ecological diversity, we need to develop into a more compact city by focusing on sensible densification, not further urban sprawl.

Last year a resolution passed by the Assembly required the ACT Government to establish a city limit or ‘urban growth boundary’, which precipitated a community campaign from the Conservation Council calling on the ACT Government to protect the Western Edge from development by keeping it outside this urban growth boundary. 

Several Members asked the Minister about this during Question Time while dozens of Canberrans who’ve been part of the Western Edge campaign watched on from the gallery. Unfortunately we didn’t get a clear commitment to protect the Western Edge from development, despite some assurances from the Minister about the ecological value of the area. 

Thank you to the Conservation Council ACT and everyone participating in their campaign to save the Western Edge. I’m keen to continue pushing the Government on this.

 Narrabundah Basketball Court Petition

Narrabundah locals have spent the last five years asking the ACT Government to upgrade their only outdoor basketball court, but to no avail. 

Significant cracks have formed on one half of the court. There’s even an anthill near one of the hoops. And neither basket sits at the recommended 10ft height. Overall, it’s in a pretty poor condition and needs quite a bit of love. 

Mark Rounds of the Old Narrabundah Community Council has launched a petition, which I’ve sponsored, calling for the Government to resurface the court and replace the hoops. It’s not a huge ask, and one which I’m fully behind.

We need more free-to-use third spaces like this if we’re serious about building healthy communities, and we need our government to look after them.

You can sign the petition here, which is open until 6 February 2027, and learn more in Region Canberra here.

ACT Libraries 

In mid-September, the Attorney-General and the Minister for City and Government Services Tara Cheyne was censured by the Assembly over recent changes the ACT Government made to library opening hours.

I disagree with what the Government is doing to our libraries, particularly the weekend closures. I think it’s short-sighted, and we should instead be looking at how to increase investment in libraries to fulfil their function as a key community gathering space for Canberrans. 

But I did not support the censure motion.

Compared to previous censures that I supported against Chris Steel for the bungled rollout of MyWay+ and Yvette Berry for mismanagement of the education, housing and sports portfolios, I did not believe the conduct of Minister Cheyne was at the same level. This wasn’t a matter of ministerial incompetence or mismanagement, but of a disappointing policy decision. That’s why I attempted to amend the censure motion to a resolution of admonishment. But my amendment was voted down and the censure got up with the support of the Liberals, who had moved the motion, the Greens and fellow independent Fiona Carrick.

My concern was that if we continue to lower the threshold and use censure motions for every policy disagreement, they’ll ultimately end up becoming meaningless. Ministers just won’t take them seriously.

You can learn more in the ABC’s article on the censure here, and you can find a detailed summary of the vote here. 

ECEC Update 

The ACT Government recently tabled its response to my motion from February calling for a significant package of reforms to improve children’s safety in the early childhood sector. 

I’m pleased to see that the ACT’s early childhood regulator, Children’s Education and Care Assurance (CECA), is now working on establishing a public register of child safety breaches – 15 months after the Government opposed my push to get these documents released to families through the Assembly.

In responding to some of the other reforms called for in my motion, the ACT Government has confirmed:

• the next phase of its early childhood strategy will have a renewed focus on child safety;

• Education Ministers are working together nationally to revise educator-to-child ratios, including addressing the ‘under the roof’ loophole;

• it is committed to building early childhood education and care centres run by not-for-profit providers alongside all new ACT public primary schools while exploring further measures to increase the number of not-for-profit services in the ACT and to safeguard their viability against for-profit providers;

• the regulator is working with other early childhood regulators across the country to keep providers with poor track records from taking over more centres through service approval transfers; and

• more resourcing for the regulator will enable a significant increase in the frequency of audits and quality assessments at Canberra’s early childhood education and care centres.

A lot of this is very pleasing, and I really want to thank the ACT Government, particularly staff at CECA, for their work to address regulatory gaps and make sure our children’s safety, wellbeing and growth is being prioritised by all early childhood education and care providers. 

I am concerned, however, at the lack of progress on some key elements of reform outlined in my motion. The Government confirmed that it is still unable to issue fines for providers that breach the National Law, in part because the ACT is the only jurisdiction in the country without a fine enforcement agency. The ACT also remains the only state or territory without an online portal for verifying Working With Vulnerable People cards, and the Government does not intend to develop this capability. You can learn more in my media release here.

City Stadium

Last week, the Capital Airport Group came out with a new proposed location for a city stadium. 

The proposal is predicated upon the successful land sale of the Archbishop's House site in Commonwealth Park, which combined with half the carpark that’s currently there would then become the site of the stadium. The land would be purchased by the Airport Group who’d then donate it to be used as the site for a new stadium. I’ve been asking the Government about this site after meeting with the Archdiocese last year and learning they might be open to selling it, but that neither level of government has ever approached them about it.

I met with representatives from the Capital Airport Group on the day they launched the proposal for a briefing. There’s clearly a lot more work that needs to be done to sharpen up the idea, including clarifying how the promised aquatic centre fits into all of this and figuring out what event-day transport arrangements would look like, but in general I think a stadium in this location would do wonders for Civic and could be absolutely transformative for our city. 

The reality is that we need a new stadium – the current one is at the end of its useful life according to the ACT Government’s own asset management strategy. Pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into a new facility out in Bruce, which is a pain to get to and where there’s nothing to do before or after a major event, doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. On the other hand, a centrally located stadium with a roof could attract major music and sporting events that we’re missing out in Canberra, as well as providing an attractive home for the Brumbies, Raiders and Canberra United, and would bring a lot of new life to our CBD before and after events. The additional economic activity this would generate would ultimately mean extra tax revenue for the Territory to help fund all the other things that desperately need investment at the moment. 

It also sounds like there’s significant potential for private investment in a city stadium, and it’s a more compelling investment option for the Commonwealth given the location, which means it could be cheaper for the ACT Government than rebuilding out in Bruce.

I’ve been hearing strong views on both sides of this idea. I’m aware that for a lot of people talking about a new stadium while we’ve got major problems in core areas like health, education and housing seems like a failure of prioritisation, but I’m really keen to hear what you think about this proposal. Please let me know if there are any questions or concerns you’d like me to raise with the proponents.

You can learn more in this Region article here.

An artist’s impression of the proposed stadium

Canberra's Petrol Prices

During one of the September sitting weeks, I backed Opposition Leader Mark Parton’s push for the Assembly’s Economics Committee (which I’m a member of) to investigate fuel prices in the ACT.

Canberra has some of the most expensive fuel in Australia, and although a lot of the policy levers sit outside the ACT Government’s control, it makes sense to investigate the impact of the so-called ‘Canberra tax’ at the bowser. 

There’s a lot more we could be doing to reduce our fuel consumption in the ACT, and I’ve expressed my frustration at the Government’s unwillingness to show more ambition in supporting and incentivising active and public transport as one way of doing that.

Obviously high fuel prices are having a huge impact, not only on households but also on community organisations, small businesses and rideshare drivers, as well as workers who rely on driving to make a living. 

In my remarks, I spoke about the need to examine whether recent anti-price gouging measures are having any impact on prices, and to get to the bottom of why exactly Canberrans are getting ripped off at the bowser.

You can learn more in this Region article here.

New Donation Page

Since I was elected, I haven’t taken any cash donations to support my work. I’ve had a few people reach out recently asking how they can contribute, so my team has now set up this functionality on my website.

For a small team without the resources of a major political party, these donations will help me advocate for community-backed, evidence-based policies that make Canberra a better place to live. 

Donations received before we start thinking about the 2028 election will largely be used for things like letterboxing, campaigning on local issues, and communicating with people across Kurrajong. I know budgets are tight for many of us at the moment, but if you’re able to, my team and I would hugely appreciate any one-off or monthly contributions – no matter how small. 

You can learn more and donate here.

Young Independents 

The Young Independents Project is running consultations with young people (aged 35 and under) about their experiences with politics. You can schedule one here. They are also holding an introductory event in Downer on 28 October – details are available here. Check it out if you’re interested in getting involved, or know any young people who might be!

Voices of Canberra Event 

On 10 November at 7:30-8:30pm, Voices of Canberra is hosting an online forum to unpack what it will take for a community independent to win the federal seat of Canberra. Resident expert on all things elections, Glenn Cummings, will lead the conversation. You can RSVP to participate here.

My Next Mobile Office and Phone Me Friday

My next Mobile Office is in Manuka on Friday 23 October at 12-1pm. You can RSVP here.

My next Phone Me Friday is on 16 October at 3-4pm. RSVP here. 

You can find all my upcoming events here.

Please reach out any time on [email protected] or call on (02) 6205 1475 during office hours.

Thanks for your support, 

Tom