Capital Gains Tax and negative gearing reforms provide welcome relief for renters
The budget's reforms to negative gearing and capital gains tax are a welcome step toward fixing a rental market that's become unsustainable for everyone involved.
Years of generous tax incentives for landlords has created a churning market for rental properties. The numbers are startling: a quarter of landlords sell within a year, and most are gone within five. This turnover forces renters to move repeatedly, often through no fault of their own, driving up costs and creating instability.
This churn means renters have to move more frequently, often facing no-fault evictions and driving costs up even further. Meanwhile, cash-strapped landlords who've overextended themselves can't afford basic maintenance, leaving many rental properties in shocking disrepair.
These reforms won't solve the housing crisis overnight, but they're an important first step. By reducing the churn and providing renters with genuine security, we're moving toward a fairer housing market - one that works better for all Australians
Words matter, particularly in times of war
Something the Tasmanian Premier said in response to a question I asked in Parliament may have been missed by some.
After I asked a question about public service pay the Premier decided to answer the question as though he had something he wanted to put on the record.
“What we want to see is an end to the war ... [a] war which was very poorly executed with absolutely no plan,” he told the Parliament.
While this might be stating the obvious, the Premier is saying something the Prime Minister and the Federal Liberal Leader Angus Taylor haven’t had the courage to say.
In times like these, language matters.
When a world leader openly threatens to commit genocide, a war crime, because he isn’t getting his way in a misguided war of his own making, it needs to be called out.
When the best the Prime Minister can muster in response to Trump’s threat is to call it “bizarre”, we are failing in our moral and legal duty to ensure we don’t repeat the mistakes of World War II.
As the longest serving Liberal Leader in the country, the Premier’s unequivocal criticism of the war in Iran was important, even if it went unreported in the media.
I congratulate Premier Rockliff and encourage him and other leaders to go further and condemn the comments of President Trump threatening to annihilate an entire civilisation, to condemn the silence of Federal Labor and Liberal Parties on this war and these threats.
I urge the Premier to give voice to the feelings of Tasmanians – that Trump and Netanyahu started this illegal war, and it must stop immediately.
History has taught us, painfully, where indifference leads. The failure to call out acts of aggression, or threats of mass destruction is acquiescence.
If threats of mass violence are allowed to pass without firm, unequivocal condemnation from global leaders, they will not be the last.
Private Member’s Time: Climate Change motion
Parliament Calls on Government to Take Climate Change Seriously
For my first Private Member’s Time, on Wednesday 15 April, I moved a motion calling on the Government to appoint a Minister for Climate Change, and respond to the recommendations of the independent Climate Change Act review. I was pleased that the motion was supported by Labor, The Greens and most of the crossbench, and was passed.
Before the debate I spoke with a group of young Tasmanian science communicators, who told me they were pleased to see climate change being raised in the Parliament.
Pulse Tasmania: Tasmania needs a dedicated climate change minister, says Helen Burnet
Public Works Committee report on South Arm Road Upgrades
The Public Works Committee have published their report on the Rokeby Highway extension, which can be found here.
Helen’s dissenting report focusing on unnecessary removal of mature trees, Aboriginal heritage concerns and contamination risks at Ralphs Bay, is from p. 33 onwards.