In the introduction, we said that nobody in the ACT has a plan for solving our challenges, and so we wanted to start that conversation. To that end, we shared our thoughts on how to build a better Canberra:
· The first essay argued that human flourishing is the purpose of government, and economic growth is essential to flourishing.
· The second essay argued that Canberra has the necessary ingredients for people to flourish but that we’re falling short.
· The third essay argued our economic model — relying on the Commonwealth to drive population growth — is broken and isn’t capable of delivering, for Canberrans.
· The fourth essay argued that our economic model has produced scarcity, and institutional failures have allowed scarcity to persist, which is why we need reform.
· The fifth essay argued that we need to embrace abundance as a governing philosophy and a reform program spanning housing, business, and the public sector.
· The sixth essay argued for how we can realise abundance here in the ACT and actually deliver better lives for Canberrans.
We are grateful for the feedback we have received to date. If you haven’t already, you can share your own thoughts here:
Next steps
Although the introductory essay series is now complete, our commitment to a better Canberra goes on. We’re going to take a short break before we come back with a new series focusing on the most important issue facing the ACT: housing affordability.
Andrew Barr said housing in Canberra was ‘horrifyingly unaffordable’ back in his first speech to Parliament in 2006. We recently got him on the record, confirming that things are ‘more challenging now than 20 years ago’ (see P1436) and that the ACT has problems with both housing affordability and housing diversity (P1437).
He’s absolutely right. But his Government isn’t doing enough to fix it.
So we’re going to explore why housing affordability matters, what is causing the affordability crisis, and what we can do about it — and then we’re going to campaign for changes that will make a real difference in people’s lives.
It’s clear that the only way we are going to see change in Canberra is if local people come together and work to make it happen. That means working together to understand our problems, come up with solutions, and persuade the community of the need for change.
If you want to be part of what comes next, get in touch and let us know. If you haven’t already, you can subscribe to stay in the loop.
Thank you for reading.