ACTCOSS ACT Budget Priorities 2025–26 – Preliminary Statement

ACTCOSS’s 2025–26 preliminary budget statement arrives at a critical moment. Too many Canberrans can’t afford basic essentials amid relentless cost-of-living pressures, stagnating wages, and a deepening housing crisis. For people on low incomes, the situation is untenable: the public housing waitlist is so overstretched that only the highest-need cases are housed, while the rental market remains out of reach, forcing impossible trade-offs between food, healthcare, utilities, and education.

In ACTCOSS’s preliminary budget submission, we call for the 2025-26 ACT Budget to

• urgently address the deepening housing crisis
• alleviate cost-of-living pressures for low-income individuals and families
• properly resource the community sector
• prioritise and resource self-determination and community control for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities

This preliminary statement aims to give the ACT Government ample time to factor these priorities into their budget planning. However, it precedes the 2025-26 ACT Budget Roundtable Consultations. A more detailed budget submission will follow the Roundtables, reflecting insights from the ACT Community Sector.