Independents for Canberra candidates intend to sit on the crossbench rather than forming part of a coalition government, says leader Thomas Emerson. 

“Community members are asking who independents might support in government,” he said.

“Today we are asking the major parties: who in our community will you support in the next term of government? What standards will you uphold? Which unmet needs will you take action on?

“Who will commit to making the ACT the first jurisdiction in Australia to legislate a Future Generations Act?”

“We’ve hosted many public community meetings over the last nine months, spent hundreds of hours at street stalls, had thousands of doorstep conversations, engaged in continued online interaction with people from across the ACT, and had 20 community members from diverse backgrounds put their hands up as candidates. This extensive engagement has given us a strong sense of what our community wants from our elected representatives.

“People want more accessible and responsive MLAs. They want more accountability, increased transparency, and an honest assessment of the challenges we’re facing. Above all, people tell us they want real action, not just talk.”

The party’s Statement of Expectations came from the community, he said.

“If Canberrans decide to elect an independent crossbench on October 19, we will do all we can to ensure the next government delivers on these expectations,” he said.

“Anyone wanting to know who we would support to form government should ask the major parties who among them will uphold these expectations.

“Echoing calls from our community for positive change, all Independents for Canberra candidates have collectively agreed we would expect any prospective governing party to uphold a set of core behavioural and policy commitments”

They include:

1. Introducing a Future Generations Act requiring the development of a community-led vision for the Canberra we want for generations to come and establishing a Future Generations Commissioner tasked with ensuring government decisions align with that vision.
2. Respecting and protecting the rights of people of all cultures, races, ages, abilities, genders, and sexualities.
3. Taking no backward steps on climate action, voluntary-assisted dying or abortion access.
4. Moving forward on reconciliation with First Nations communities and taking real action to Close the Gap.
5. Creating a social housing funding trigger, providing Housing ACT with guaranteed capital and recurrent funding sufficient to carry out a systematic transformation of our social housing system, putting us on a trajectory to reduce priority housing list wait times to an average of 30 days and high needs housing wait times to an average of 90 days by 2030.
6. Establishing a Strata Commissioner.
7. Clearing 75 per cent of the elective surgery waitlist within the first 12 months.
8. Funding the Strong Foundations education reform program sufficiently to ensure its full implementation within four years, while delivering a concurrent program to catch up the children who fell behind prior to the completion of the Inquiry into literacy and numeracy in ACT public schools.
9. Supporting our most vulnerable community members by closing the 30 per cent funding gap that has emerged across the community sector and pegging all future community sector contracts to population growth plus inflation.
10. Commissioning a comprehensive independent inquiry into the ACT’s criminal justice system to investigate rates of reoffending, youth offending and diversion, policing approaches and resources, justice reinvestment, bail, sentencing, corrections, the Alexander Maconochie Centre, and family, domestic and sexual violence.
11. Increasing dedicated housing options for women and children escaping violence.
12. Improving the ACT’s jurisdictional competitiveness for small businesses, including by tackling insurance costs.
13. Establishing a peak body to advocate for community sport, and funding a 10-year strategic plan for the maintenance, improvement, and expansion of community sport facilities.
14. Constructing a purpose-built multicultural centre that meets our multicultural community’s requirements.
15. Working with the private sector and local creative communities to deliver a new Canberra Festival.
16. Establishing a Night-Time Economy Commissioner tasked with reinvigorating Canberra’s nightlife.
17. Protecting the Western Edge from development, focusing instead on habitat preservation and biodiversity restoration opportunities to the west of our city’s current footprint.
18. Ensuring a separation of powers between the positions of Chief Minister and Treasurer.
19. Banning political donations from the gambling industry.
20. Carrying out a snap audit of all outstanding report recommendations agreed by the ACT government, and taking immediate action on its findings.