Advocacy Publications

The ACT Council of Social Service has submitted its 2026-27 Budget priorities. We call on the ACT Government to invest in Canberra’s social infrastructure and protect those experiencing hardship.  Our 2024-25 State of the Sector survey shows rising poverty alongside increasing demand for services in the ACT. Frontline workers tell us people are struggling to afford essentials like utilities, food and housing, let alone health and dental care.  What we recommend  ACTCOSS has made 19 recommendations across five priority areas:  Alleviating poverty and cost of living for low-income individuals and families;  Valuing the community sector;  Strengthening investment in social housing and homelessness […]

In supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander determination, ACTCOSS continues to be guided by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body (ATSIEB; The Elected Body), Ngunnawal Elders, the ACT’s existing ACCOs and the broader community of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with connections to the lands of the ACT and region. Our submission […]

Energy is Essential! Multicultural ACT residents deserve to benefit from energy policies and supports in the same way as other Canberrans. However, they may face additional barriers that restrict their ability to do so. The current context of a rapidly changing energy system presents an opportunity to meaningfully incorporate the needs of Canberrans into the […]

ACTCOSS’s submission to the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) welcomes the AER’s efforts to improve protections for consumers experiencing payment difficulties. ACTCOSS supports energy access as a basic human right and our submission highlights our opposition to disconnection as a response to financial hardship. Our key recommendations include: the minimum disconnection amount should be significantly higher […]

ACTCOSS’s 2025–26 comprehensive budget statement arrives at a critical moment. Too many Canberrans can’t afford basic essentials amid relentless cost-of-living pressures, wage growth below inflation growth, 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 […]

ACTCOSS has provided feedback to the ACT Inspector of Custodial Services through the Healthy Prison Revew 2025 process to highlight critical systemic failures within the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC). Drawing on consultations with community organisations, lived experience advocates, and service providers, the submission outlines urgent reforms needed to improve safety, dignity, rehabilitation, and reintegration for […]

ACTCOSS is gathering evidence to advocate for better funding and workforce support in the lead-up to the 2025-26 Budget. We know the Government is going to be making hard funding choices this year, and we want to make sure that the community sector’s value is promoted as effectively as possible. This survey will help ACTCOSS […]

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, […]

This factsheet provides an overview of factors driving energy hardship nationally and in the ACT. It also contains recommendations aimed at addressing energy hardship. 

Incarceration is expensive, ineffective and in most instances doesn’t leave our community safer. While the ACT Government has promoted justice reinvestment as a policy approach, too many Canberrans remain trapped in a cycle of harmful and costly incarceration. To break this cycle and build safer communities, the ACT Government needs to further reinvest away from […]