How Canberra became a progressive paradise - and a housing hell

Canberra has always been one of Australia's more divisive cities. With its cold climate and designed to encourage work, Canberra is a city of binaries - you either love it, or love to hate it.

But in recent years Canberra has developed a new reputation as Australia's most progressive city.

Labor has held power in the ACT, often in coalition with the Greens, since 2001. More than two decades later, the territory is a vanguard of progressiveness for the country, with Canberra heralded as a "laboratory of democracy".

The chief minister, Andrew Barr, the first openly gay person to lead a government in Australia, says it's the result of governments working in lockstep with the population.

"Both the progressive nature of the city and a long-term progressive government has resulted in us being the first jurisdiction in Australia to pass many pieces of landmark legislation," he said.

The recent move to make abortion healthcare free and universal is just the tip of the iceberg; Canberra earned the ire of Peter Dutton when it became the first to decriminalise marijuana for personal use and later this year small amounts of other illicit drugs will also be decriminalised in a bid to get more people out of the addiction cycle. It has allowed pill testing since 2018.

"The ACT has led the nation with a progressive approach to reducing the harm caused by illicit drugs with a focus on diversion, access to treatment and rehabilitation and reducing the stigma attached to drug use," the health minister, Rachel Stephen-Smith, said in October last year.

"This sensible reform is based on the expert advice that a health-focused, harm-reduction approach delivers the best outcome for people using drugs."

The government has put in motion plans to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14, something most of the rest of Australia is still wrestling with, although there are still serious problems with prisons and incarceration.

The ACT was the first Australian jurisdiction to be powered by 100% renewable energy and pushed ahead with policies for electric vehicles, even when they were accused of "ending the weekend".

It banned billboards to reduce distractions and commercial interferences. It is phasing out stamp duties (swapping it for general rate increases, which some find controversial). The government is contemplating banning gambling ads because of the harm they cause.

It is working on strengthening anti-discrimination laws, including putting a positive duty on workplaces and individuals to eliminate discrimination and harassment, as well as expanding the coverage of discrimination law to cover sporting activities, for example.

Victoria may often claim the mantle as Australia's progressive capital, but the ACT has quietly been pushing progressive policies, even before it was self-governing.

It was second, after South Australia, to decriminalise homosexuality and may have been first if it wasn't for its reliance on the federal government to pass legislation.

The ACT began recognising same-sex couples in 1994.

Rosemary Follett became the first woman to lead a government in Australia when she became chief minister in 1989. Kate Carnell chalked up two firsts for the Liberal party in the ACT - in 1993, she became the first woman to lead when she became Liberal opposition leader and two years later was the first Liberal woman to lead a government in Australia.

Carnell's minority government was just the second time the Liberals have held power in the ACT, where they have been in opposition since 2001.

Conservatives don't tend to do well politically in Canberra - Zed Seselja learned that lesson the hard way when he was unseated in the Senate by progressive independent David Pocock.

So what came first - progressive policies or a progressive population? Barr thinks it's a mix of both - "partly by design - driven by much of the population's commitment to higher education and public service".

"It is also a result of demography," he says. "Canberra is the fastest growing capital city in the country."

It's also one of the youngest - the population has grown by 25% in the last decade alone, mostly driven by people aged between 18 and 39 arriving for the education and work opportunities.

Because Canberra is a city designed for career growth, Canberrans tend to be better educated, on average, than Australians in other jurisdictions. And according to census data, they are also less religious.

But with that growth has come one of the downsides of progressive politics - housing paralysis. Canberrans, in the aggregate, are more likely to work as full-time professionals and to be paid higher salaries - which they need as living in Australia's most progressive city doesn't come cheap.

The Australian National University advises students they'll need more than $31,000 a year to cover basic costs if planning to live alone, more than double the annual youth allowance rate. It's also about $10,000 more than the home affairs department advises international students they'll need for a year of living and studying in Australia.

Canberra is also often the nation's most expensive city to rent in, mostly because there is not enough supply. Part of what makes the territory so ahead of the legislative curve is also a big part of the reason the government seems hamstrung to solve its housing crisis - consultation. The ACT government doesn't move in any direction without consulting and that includes where to build and what to do with existing land.

The population may be approaching half a million, but its housing infrastructure has not kept pace. Nearly one in every 150 residents are on a waiting list for public housing. Just under 10% of the population are living in poverty, with housing costs one of the major drivers.

Barr says he and the government are working on solutions.

But in some ways, the same people who push for social justice reform and evidence-based policies in health, climate and justice, are barriers for the much-needed housing reforms.

Growing at a faster rate than the other capitals means a more urgent need for more homes, but the Greens have environmental concerns about further greenfield expansion, which was how the ACT used to provide for its housing needs.

The 2020 governing agreement between Labor and the Greens requires at least 70% of all new housing will be within existing boundaries, meaning infill. But no one can agree on where.

Subdivisions are all but impossible thanks to what's known as the RZ1 zone, which means lowrise, single dwelling and low-density housing and covers about 80% of residential land. Attempts to knock down old homes to build affordable housing have been met with strong and in many cases successful challenges. Canberra might have been built to attract the nation's best and brightest, but it was also divided by class reflected in its suburbs - and block size, despite its egalitarian beginnings. A century later and no one seems willing to see it change.

And so, Canberra is stuck - leading the way on progressive causes other states and territories still struggle to touch, while mired in nimbyism that's wedged its own population. How the ACT government solves this might just end up being another lighthouse for inner-city populations struggling with the same battles.