The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury
ACT Shelter: A Half Century of Advocacy and Community Voice
Wednesday, 26 November 2025
Congratulations to everyone involved with ACT Shelter on marking 50 years of contribution to the Canberra community.
Canberra’s housing story is unusual. By the late 1950s, 84 percent of all homes here had been built by government. Public housing was not an exception. It was how teachers, nurses, families and public servants came to settle and shape the city. When that model began to change in the early 1970s, the question of who could afford a home became sharper and more urgent.
It was in that moment that ACT Shelter took root. In February 1975, housing activists, tenants, students, union representatives and public servants gathered at University House for the first meeting of what would become ACT Shelter. Those early conversations recognised that housing affordability is not just a policy issue. It is about people’s ability to live with dignity and connection.
The organisation’s history since has been marked by persistence. The Havelock House campaign in the early 1980s showed what organised advocacy and community pressure can achieve. The Inquiry into Homelessness in 1984 helped reshape local policy. In more recent years, ACT Shelter has stood up for renters’ rights, contributed to public housing renewal debates, and continued to speak for those who are too often overlooked in housing decisions.
As a Federal Government, we are taking housing seriously. We are investing in more social and affordable homes, supporting large-scale construction, and working with the states and territories, including the ACT, to boost supply. We know that safe and secure housing is foundational to wellbeing and participation.
To everyone who has guided, staffed, volunteered for and sustained ACT Shelter over five decades, thank you. Your work has made Canberra fairer, more inclusive and more aware of the importance of housing justice.
Congratulations on 50 years, and every best wish for the work still ahead.
ENDS