QT: Short‑Stay Accommodation Levy

Ms BURNET question to the PREMIER, Mr ROCKLIFF

[10.18 a.m.]

Reining in the short-stay boom requires a planning solution, not a levy. In 2018, the Legislative Council committee on short-stay accommodation recommended that for properties other than a principal place of residence, local government authorities be provided with discretionary powers to issue permits regarding short-stay accommodation. Your government has ignored that recommendation despite constant calls from councils, the Tasmanian Council of Social Service (TasCOSS), the Tenants' Union and Shelter Tasmania for you to implement it as a means to tackle the housing crisis. I know minister Mr Vincent is genuine about wanting to reduce homelessness and pressure on the rental market, so what's actually stopping you introducing planning mechanisms to allow councils the power to refuse short‑stay applications?

ANSWER

Honourable Speaker, I thank the honourable member for the question. The broad part of your question is the challenges we have with housing, which has been experienced across this nation and elsewhere, and every state is under housing pressure. That is why there's not just one solution. The solution that you put forward will not fix the housing crisis. What we need to ensure in the policy setting sense from the Tasmanian government is that every single Tasmanian needs to have and should be in a position to have that aspiration of owning their own home. A number of our policies are targeted towards that. The other areas, of course, we need to ensure that fundamentally every single Tasmanian has that right to be safe and have a roof over their heads. There's other areas of responsibility, including residential tenancy amendments; whether it comes to other incentives to ensure that our housing supply is increased, it's not just one area which we need to address. We've got the short stay accommodation levy, which we've been very open with the Tasmanian community and it's in the parliament now.

While Tasmania has seen an increase in growth in short stay accommodation in Tasmania, as I say, this is apparent across other states as well. This type of accommodation does contribute significantly to our visitor economy. We cannot deny that. It is important to our visitor economy. It's to the tune of $3.5 billion visitor spend annually, which is important when it comes to growth and jobs.

It's important to note that 51.1 per cent of the homes listed as short stay accommodation are actually primary residences, so in many cases we're seeing Tasmanians letting out a room or two in their own home. That means these are not homes that otherwise would be in the rental pool. In fact, analysis undertaken in both Queensland and New South Wales has found that short stay accommodation is not the main contributor to housing availability and affordability issues. That was to my point at the beginning of answering your question. It's complex. The important matter around crisis accommodation is that we are there building crisis accommodation for those in need and, importantly as well, doing what we can to increase supply as well. The more houses we have will ease the pressure on housing affordability.

Supplementary Question

Ms BURNET - Other states have used planning mechanisms, Premier. You said it won't fix the problem. It's part of the solution, but it's something that a parliamentary committee has suggested and councils, peak bodies, shelter and homelessness bodies are crying out for. Why won't you move on putting in planning solutions? Why is it so difficult, Premier?

Mr ROCKLIFF - The important matter is we shouldn't not just look at one area in isolation. Our focus is actually on supply and more homes. More land expansion to build homes ‑

Ms Burnet - That's not going very well.

The SPEAKER - Honourable Deputy Speaker, you've asked your question.

Mr ROCKLIFF - incentives to build homes, and incentives to ensure that every Tasmanian has the possibility to own their own slice of Tasmania and that aspiration. Those that are not within reach, of course, particularly vulnerable Tasmanians, we need to ensure when it comes to fair rental affordability. We've made movements in that with legislation this year which I'm proud of. Help to Buy, the Deputy Premier. It's a complex area. A lot of areas that we are focusing on.

The SPEAKER - The Premier's time has expired.