Housing crisis
[12.57 p.m.]
Ms BURNET (Clark) - Honourable Speaker, I thank Mr O'Byrne for bringing this motion to the Chamber, as well as talking about the people who are suffering. I read those comments about what people, individuals are going through from the Anglicare report. We have a lot of year 6 students in particular who come and watch parliament, and I think back to when that Housing Summit occurred in 2018, and those year sixers will be at that end of looking for housing, looking for rental properties that just aren't there. They are bearing witness to us, the generations of year 6 students, if you like, and this housing crisis and this lack of action which is occurring from this government.
We know that Tasmania is in the grip of a housing crisis. We have a dire shortage of affordable homes and an equally dire shortage of rental properties. The evidence is overwhelming and undeniable. We also know that the rapid growth of short stay accommodation is contributing to that crisis. It is driving up house prices, pushing up rents, and importantly, it is reducing the availability of long‑term rentals by shifting properties out of the residential market. We know this from Professor Peter Phibbs' quarterly reports for Shelter Tasmania. We know this from the work of Murray Cox and his global Inside Airbnb project. He scrapes data - he has done for many years - to try and get that true reflection of the housing shortage, which companies like Airbnb are creating in various cities around the world.
His 200‑page report released in March this year, The Threat of Short‑Term Rentals to Housing, lays bare the scale of the issue internationally and right here in Hobart. The government has proposed a short stay levy, and I won't pre-empt the broader debate about the merits of that levy; that debate will continue. Today's question is simpler and more important: what should we do with the revenue? I commend the member for Franklin for bringing this motion, and I'm here to strongly support it, because in the middle of a housing and rental crisis, it is frankly indefensible - and we heard the Treasurer talking about this - for the government to propose using this revenue to underwrite its policy of abolishing stamp duty. Any competent economist, and I suspect Treasury itself, would tell you exactly -
The House suspended from 1.00 p.m. to 2.30 p.m.
Ms BURNET - Honourable Speaker, I acknowledge Murray and Alina, who are the authors of the report, The Threat of Short-Term Rentals to Housing, who are in the Chamber today, welcome.
-exactly what that does. It drives up house prices, further eroding affordability. It increases demand in an already overheated market, and it puts even more pressure on a rental system that is already under strain. At a time when we should be trying to put out the fire, this policy pours fuel on it.
For decades, as I stated yesterday, governments of all persuasions have failed to invest adequately in social housing. In the pursuit of a narrow market-led ideology, we have allowed the safety net to fray, disadvantage to deepen and inequality to widen to the point we are at today, in a growing homelessness crisis that is likely to get worse owing to the war in Iran and the cost-of-living shock this is causing. This is precisely the moment when the government needs to put all the resources it has available into social housing and crisis accommodation.
Today is National Domestic and Family Violence Remembrance Day and this House will adjourn later to take part in the vigil. It is a day when we honour those who've lost their lives and stand with those still living with violence and its consequences. We must acknowledge that for many women, and in many cases their children, housing is the difference between safety and danger. In Tasmania, reported family violence incidents have risen by around 40 per cent over the past 3 years. At the same time, the housing pathways that should support victim/survivors are failing. The Family Violence Rapid Rehousing program was meant to deliver 150 homes. It is currently sitting at around 40. Those properties have now been folded into broader schemes and are no longer guaranteed for families escaping violence.
Anglicare, in its Secure Foundations report, has made it clear that families experiencing domestic and family violence must be prioritised for social housing, even when they are not already in crisis accommodation. I asked the Housing minister this morning to look at their social housing policy to ensure that people fleeing family violence are considered the highest priority for social housing because the reality is, when there is nowhere to go, people stay in situations that are unsafe. They stay because the alternative is homelessness. That is the cold reality of the connection between housing policy and domestic and family violence. That is why Anglicare and others are calling for a substantial increase in crisis accommodation, transitional housing and long-term social housing for victim/survivors, including homes suitable for families.
Coming back to Mr O'Byrne's motion. If the government is serious about addressing the harms caused by short-stay accommodation, then it should direct the proceeds of this levy to where the need is greatest. Not into a policy that inflates house prices, but into crisis accommodation and homelessness services; into the housing options that quite literally save lives, the building blocks of a better life. Today of all days, we should recognise what is at stake.
I say to the government, and I didn't hear too much from the Treasurer's response to this motion, but let's mark this day with action. Commit the revenue from the short-stay levy to expanding crisis, transitional and long-term housing for people escaping domestic and family violence because that is not just good housing policy, it is a matter of safety, dignity and justice. We owe that to those year 6s who come and watch this parliament who are now facing an uncertain future with rental and affordable housing availability. We must act, and it is a matter of safety, dignity and justice.