‘It reminds me of Rio during the Olympics’: accusations fly as Canberra’s vulnerable moved to make way for developers

Abstract

Hundreds of public housing dwellings in the inner suburbs of a major Australian city have been sold to make way for slick new apartments, which the government defends by building new dwellings for the needy at the city’s margins.

No, it’s not the New South Wales Liberal-National government’s sale of public housing at Sydney’s Millers Point, this is happening in Canberra under the Labor-Greens government led by Andrew Barr.

New figures released under freedom of information show there are now 397 fewer public housing dwellings in Braddon than in 2014, with further big reductions along the Northbourne light rail corridor in Turner (123), the inner south in Griffith (150) and Red Hill (146).

Although increases were recorded in Coombs (152), Moncrieff (143) and Gungahlin (100), the Australian Capital Territory had about 200 fewer public housing units in June 2019 than in 2014. Budget papers confirm that a target for public housing stock of 11,809 was missed, with just 11,700 at the end of 2018-19.