Short Stay Levy Bill passes, but won’t solve crisis

The Short Stay Levy Bill has passed the House of Assembly. However, debate on the Bill has confirmed that this Government has little interest in regulating or reducing the impact of the short-stay accommodation sector on Tasmania’s housing crisis.

Short-stay accommodation is fundamentally a planning issue, and local councils are best placed to manage its growth in line with community needs. Since 2018, councils have been calling for the power to refuse short-stay permits where appropriate. This call is supported by TasCOSS, Shelter Tasmania and the Tenants’ Union. Yet when I asked the Premier this week why councils are not being given these powers, he showed no willingness to act, leaving councils to continue to confront the challenges of short-stay accommodation with one hand tied behind their back.

At a time when Tasmanians are being forced to live in cars and tents — or to leave the state altogether — due to a critical shortage of affordable homes and rentals, the Government’s only response is to try and help people buy their first home. That approach does nothing for the growing number of Tasmanians who either cannot afford to buy or do not wish to.

Instead of directing revenue from the Short Stay Levy into crisis accommodation and homelessness services — as Parliament called for yesterday — the Government is persisting with its dumb policy of stamp duty relief for first home buyers. This measure will simply drive up property prices further. That’s great if you already own one or more homes, but it does nothing for the 30% of Tasmanians competing for a rapidly shrinking pool of rental properties.

New York based expert Murray Cox, who is currently in Hobart, and whose Inside Airbnb project has exposed the global housing impacts of short-stay accommodation, has highlighted what effective regulation can achieve:

“When regulation becomes enforceable — through mandatory registration systems, primary residence requirements, data sharing mandates, or platform liability provisions — the effects can be immediate and dramatic. In several cities, thousands of entire-home listings disappear from platforms almost overnight. These units, previously operating as de facto commercial accommodation, can return to the long-term housing market.”

But he also warned “These outcomes are not automatic — they are the result of sustained political will and enforceable compliance mechanisms.”

That is why today I successfully moved amendments to the Short Stay Levy Bill requiring the Commissioner for Taxation to collect and report data based on levy payments from platforms. Despite Government opposition, this amendment passed. My amendment is a win for councils, researchers, and renters, who will finally have access to more reliable information about the impact of short stays on the Tasmanian housing market.