ACTCOSS CEO Dr Devin Bowles wants the ACT Government to make more proactive investments in the social and community services sectors, rather than delivering reactive money injections. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
Invest in people earlier, save money later: that’s the call from the ACT Council of Social Service (ACTCOSS) as it pushes the ACT Government to bolster the money it spends on social infrastructure and services.
ACTCOSS has released its State of the ACT Community Sector Report 2025, arguing that while the ACT Budget might be under pressure, the answer wasn’t to pull money from the social and community sectors.
“There is no point in cost-cutting today, as that will only deepen disadvantage and drive up future spending on acute health care, emergency accommodation, and crisis supports tomorrow,” ACTCOSS CEO Dr Devin Bowles said.
“Both Canberrans and the budget would thrive if there was more systematic investment in the sort of preventative services that help people stay on their feet, like those delivered in the community sector.”
ACTCOSS’s 2026-27 Budget priorities make 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 services, supporting self-determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and improving transparency and accountability of the budget process.
Among the recommendations is a call for the ACT Government to provide a $20 million-a-year lift to the community sector (from the 2027-28 financial year), a commitment to early contract renewal decisions for homelessness services (at least six months before expiry), a review of concessions and government assistance (including the ACT Targeted Assistance Strategy, which has been unchanged since 2012), and ensuring community sector premises are fit-for-purpose, accessible and resilient to extreme weather.
The 2025-26 ACT Budget included a $10 million funding boost for community sector organisations.
“Whatever changes the ACT Government makes to manage its fiscal challenges, whether reducing expenditure or generating revenue, it is critical that it is sustainable and does not deliver an undue burden on those experiencing disadvantage,” the budget submission argued.
“Many Canberrans are experiencing a degree of precarity that will be much more easily managed now, rather than doing nothing and hoping it doesn’t get worse.”
Dr Bowles acknowledged it could be difficult to decide where money should be invested, especially across responsibilities as vast as the ACT Government’s, but had some suggestions.
“[This is] public health 101: investing in earlier interventions keeps people out of hospitals and the justice system,” he said.
“Intervening earlier in people’s lives … and keeping them out of crisis in the first place.
“The more a person’s socially connected, the better their physical and mental connections, it becomes a lot less expensive [later].”
Dr Bowles pointed out the ACT Government was the largest contributor to the community sector, but annual adjustments to funding hadn’t taken into account policy changes such as increased minimum superannuation payments and long-service leave.
“It’s not reasonable to ask a highly feminised workforce, doing extremely emotional and intelligent work, to be shouldering a load the government should be shouldering,” he said.
He also argued that the ACT Government should be able to access the Commonwealth’s Disaster Ready Fund to upgrade the buildings where the community sector was delivering its services, especially as it also delivered supports during emergencies such as bushfires and storms.
“Many of us are in disused buildings, and that’s part of our funding package … if you’re trying to deliver a service, the space that you deliver it from makes a huge difference,” Dr Bowles said.
“We’re not in appropriate buildings … and that may affect the delivery of services when the community most needs them.”
The past five years have seen large increases in the costs of housing, food, utilities and petrol in the Territory, outpacing increases in wages and government supports.
According to ACTCOSS, more than 36 per cent of Canberrans reported difficulty affording food this year, and community services were increasingly being used for the first time by some working-class Canberrans who were struggling to manage the costs of essential goods and services.
Dr Bowles hoped the suggestions made in the ACTCOSS budget submission would be implemented — for the good of the social and community services sectors, and Canberra more broadly.
“Austerity is not the answer. The ACT Government needs to invest in upstream measures that deliver social infrastructure to support a thriving Canberra,” he said.
“Our recommendations aim to deliver sustainable, fiscally responsible reforms that invest in preventing disadvantage and inequity in the ACT for the long term.”
