$10m Burrangiri upgrade adds no beds, MLAs tell ACT government

The ACT government on 20 October defended a $10 million upgrade of the 15-bed Burrangiri Aged Care Respite Centre in Rivett. The works will not add a single bed and will close the Weston Creek facility for about a year from July 2027. Independent MLAs and aged care advocates say the project breaks a promise to lift respite capacity.

Health Infrastructure Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith told the Legislative Assembly the works were “far more than a lick of paint and some new carpet,” and said the building’s unreliable base infrastructure was likely to cause service disruptions and would deter a provider from running the centre as it stands.

Why it matters

Burrangiri is the ACT’s only dedicated short-term respite centre for older Canberrans and people with disability, and a year-long closure removes all 15 of those beds from the system during the works, with only an interim-provider arrangement from July 2027 to fill the gap until a longer-term operator is selected in 2027. The government’s case rests on the building itself: Stephen-Smith argued converting it to a different facility classification would cost more to build and to run than restoring it to its current standard, which is why the $10 million is going into kitchen, bathroom, electrical and climate systems rather than new capacity.

Independent MLA Fiona Carrick said the first question should have been what respite services Canberra actually needs, not how to fix the existing building, and called for a demand analysis before committing the funding. Independent MLA Thomas Emerson said the government should be pressing the Commonwealth for additional funding rather than defending a project critics see as a retreat from an election commitment. The Save Burrangiri Action Group and Council on the Ageing ACT, joined by several ACT politicians, wrote to Finance Minister Katy Gallagher alleging Labor had promised capital funding for a new or expanded facility; Gallagher has rejected that characterisation. The dispute sits alongside a wider pattern of ACT capital works facing scrutiny over cost and scope before delivery is locked in, as with the lakefront stadium pitch now before Chief Minister Andrew Barr.

The numbers

The $10 million project, funded through a Commonwealth allocation to retain Burrangiri’s existing 15 beds, covers replacement heating, cooling and ventilation systems, upgraded electrical infrastructure, a new commercial kitchen, accessible and dementia-friendly bathrooms, double-glazed windows, upgraded clinical and staff areas, reconstruction of courtyard extensions, landscaping and bedroom refurbishment. No contractor has been named publicly. The centre’s bed count stays at 15 before and after the works, and the government has not put a figure on unmet respite demand in the territory; the gap between demand and the current 15-bed capacity remains unquantified in the public record.

What’s next

An expression-of-interest process for an interim service provider to run respite care from July 2027, while Burrangiri is closed, opens later in October 2026. A separate process to select a long-term operator is expected to run in 2027, after the centre reopens. Other respite options moving through the system in the meantime include a Goodwin Aged Care proposal still under consideration, a dementia village with respite beds planned by HammondCare in Curtin, and a two-bed expansion of Palliative Care ACT’s Leo’s Place. Until the EOI closes and an interim provider is named, the service gap created by the closure remains open.