Introduction
Welcome!
Canberra is a beautiful city, and a great place to live and work — but it’s getting harder to enjoy the good life here.
Financial pressures, like the cost of living and housing affordability, are getting worse; there are fewer opportunities to create or build something of your own; and budget pressures are forcing cuts to government services and jobs. Which means more people are giving up on the ACT: graduates look for work elsewhere, young families buy their first homes elsewhere, and entrepreneurs start their businesses elsewhere.
This simply isn’t sustainable. But nobody in the ACT has a plan to get us back on track and enable Canberrans to flourish.
We don’t have all the answers either, but we have some ideas and we want to start the conversation. So, over the next six weeks, we’ll share our thoughts on what we need from government, what’s driving our challenges, and what we could do differently, in order to build a better Canberra.
If you haven’t already, you can subscribe using the below button.
About us
Building a Better Canberra is brought to you by Leanne Castley MLA and Dr Jonathon Deans.
Leanne is the independent Member for Yerrabi and a former ACT Leader of the Opposition. JD is a Canberra-based economist and policy wonk.
This Substack is a joint project between Leanne and JD — but also with you. We hope that you’ll engage by letting us know where you agree and disagree, sharing your own ideas, and collaborating with us where there’s an opportunity to make a difference.
This isn’t the usual way things are done in the ACT. But if we want to build a better Canberra, we need to do something different.
You can get in touch with us using the button below, by leaving a comment on any of our posts, or by emailing building@bettercanberra.com.