Mr BAYLEY (Clark) – Honourable Speaker, I too rise to talk about public housing and thank the member for bringing this on. It is a critically important topic, and we take the opportunity to talk about this at every opportunity we get. I acknowledge upfront that, as has been said already, that this is one of the key issues that comes through at my office in terms of constituents needing help. Housing is a fundamental human right. It is a right and it is a responsibility of government to provide a roof over the home of every single Tasmanian who needs it, and we are consistently failing here.
I’m happy to acknowledge upfront that this is a complex issue and this is a multi-jurisdictional issue. There are issues for local government in this space, in terms of planning and other resourcing and planning. There are issues for the federal government and there are big issues when it comes to capital gains tax, negative gearing and the like. I acknowledge my federal MPs who have done fabulous work in this space. There is no doubt that there is more that the Tasmanian government can do as well.
We’re talking this is about public housing, but every public housing tenant would like to be in their own private dwelling. It must be said that issues in terms of reining in short-stay accommodation, in terms of renters’ rights have to be part of this debate. It was welcome to hear the minister yesterday acknowledging that he has short-stay accommodation and dealing with short stay accommodation in his sights. That is welcome, and we urge him to take action quickly on that because it is stripping whole homes out of the rental market.
We do note that the 5 per cent levy that this government promised two elections ago has not been delivered. It’s been kicked into the long grass; that was going to be invested into other housing initiatives, and it is simply hasn’t materialised. That’s not good enough. We are watching the minister and his response to short-stay. When it comes to renters’ rights, it’s welcome we’ve given renters the right to have pets in their properties, but it doesn’t end there. We need to end unfair no-cause evictions. We need to control out-of-control rents. We need to make sure properties have minimum standards so that helps deal with electricity costs and other issues to do with comfort and quality of life.
We need to make sure that tenants can undertake minor modifications, whether it be for disability access, whether it be for communication, safety or security, it is really important. Report after report has demonstrated that rental stress is increasing in the community. In June, TasCOSS highlighted that rental affordability is at an all-time low and that rental costs had increased by 43 per cent since 2020. This is what’s driving people to public housing; this is why the public housing wait list is growing ever greater. It’s because people simply can’t afford to secure their own private rental and vacancy rates, as has been said, are at all all-time low. For the second year in a row there were zero properties affordable in the state for people on some of the lowest incomes.
In September, the Tenants’ Union published their report on Tasmanian rents. Over the last year on the northwest coast. Rents have gone up by 7.8 per cent, greater Launceston by 6 per cent, greater Hobart by 4.6 per cent. This is adding to the cost-of-living pressures on people in addition to food, power, fuel and all the impacts of having a family if they have one. This is driving people to public housing, and public housing is a really important backstop for people that is our responsibility to deliver. In an ideal world, it’s temporary until they get back into the private market, but for some people who are in challenging situations it’s a permanent prospect and it is on us to give them something permanent.
The Homes Tasmania dashboard, as has been said, is now at record levels with 5330 applicants. That’s not 5330 Tasmanians, it’s 5330 applicants. Many of them have partners and children or grandchildren, and they’re waiting ever longer.
Anglicare released their report that shows that many people are sleeping rough. There’s been an 88 per cent increase in people sleeping rough, 54 per cent of people living in unsuitable dwellings and, shockingly, a 60 per cent increase in children as part of that mix seeking accommodation.
It was great to hear the minister acknowledge that Homes Tasmania is simply not doing enough. The Greens didn’t support its institution as a public non-financial corporation in 2022. Clearly something needs to be done. Choices on budget day about how we deal with these issues are political choices, and I raise again the issue of the stadium, investing money in the stadium, and the focus of government as opposed to the needs of Tasmanians.
Time expired.
