{"id":33189,"date":"2025-06-15T00:48:55","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T14:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=33189"},"modified":"2025-06-15T00:48:55","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T14:48:55","slug":"community-sector-downpayment-must-be-the-start-not-the-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/06\/15\/community-sector-downpayment-must-be-the-start-not-the-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Community sector downpayment must be the start, not the end"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The ACT Greens say today\u2019s pre-budget announcement from the minority Labor Government is enough for the community sector to survive, but not enough to create a truly strong safety net for people in Canberra.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMore people than ever are turning to local community organisations to cover the basics like food, housing, healthcare and household needs, so if today\u2019s funding announcement is the end of it, that\u2019s a real problem,\u201d said ACT Greens Leader Shane Rattenbury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Greens have been working with the community sector ahead of this year\u2019s budget to really pressure Labor not to balance the books at the expense of people who most need the government\u2019s support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday\u2019s announcement shows pressure works, and we\u2019ve got to keep pushing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf Labor uses this budget to shut down the Rent Relief Fund or cut other essential supports, even more people are going be forced to seek help from the community sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday\u2019s announcement only helps community organisations with multi-year government funding arrangements. Other services have an anxious wait, year after year, to find out if they\u2019ll be able to keep operating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat has real life consequences for Canberrans who may lose their jobs, their support networks, or the roof over their heads,\u201d Mr Rattenbury said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday\u2019s announcement of $10 million sounds nice, but spread across two years and 150 organisations \u2013 an average of $33,000 per year won\u2019t go far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you hold this $5 million per year up against the $100 million we could raise every year from taxing big corporations in a way they\u2019d barely notice, you see how much more the government could do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m urging the Treasurer to take up the Greens\u2019 proposal<\/a> and raise extra revenue from the banks, the supermarkets, the airlines and the big retailers, which are contributing to cost of living pressures while racking up billions of dollars in profits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese corporations that love the ACT for being a prosperous, growing market should contribute more to our community. A drop from their ocean would be a significant pool of revenue for the ACT Government to properly fund the services Canberrans really need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe ACT Greens\u2019 vision is for Canberra to be a genuinely progressive city where we look out for one another. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve got community services as a priority in our balance of power agreement that allowed Labor to form minority government, and why we\u2019re watching the unveiling of this budget very closely.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ACT Greens say today\u2019s pre-budget announcement from the minority Labor Government is enough for the community sector to survive, but not enough to create a truly strong safety net for people in Canberra. \u201cMore people than ever are turning to local community organisations to cover the basics like food, housing, healthcare and household needs, … Continue reading “Community sector downpayment must be the start, not the end”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33190,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33189\/revisions\/33190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}