Cassy O'Connor MP | Greens Leader
Anglicare’s annual Rental Affordability Snapshot, released today, has again highlighted the depths of the state’s rental crisis. It paints an all too clear and depressing picture of the desperation felt by so many Tasmanians.
The report reveals Tasmania is the least affordable place in the country to rent and has the fastest growth in homelessness. Yet Premier Jeremy Rockliff is more interested in pandering to the suits in the AFL and spruiking a billion dollar stadium than tackling the deepening rental crisis.
The Premier can’t feign compassion for homeless Tasmanians or those in housing stress, when he is making a deliberate choice to prioritise the profits of wealthy property investors.
Tasmania’s frontline housing services and renters are calling for real action. Like the Greens, they want limits on short stay accommodation, an empty homes levy, and a ban on no cause evictions and unreasonable rent hikes. Yet the Liberals refuse to even consider any of these common sense, evidence-backed policies.
There are exactly zero affordable rentals available for most Tasmanians, with young people among the hardest hit.
The Liberals are allowing investors to rip hundreds of homes out of the rental market and convert them into largely unregulated commercial operations, in the form of short stay accommodation.
Of course, the Premier and Deputy Premier are two of those short stay investors.
Thousands of houses sit empty around the state for no good reason, while the Liberals also refuse to consider a vacant homes levy.
Premier Rockliff’s refusal to address the rental crisis is driving more people into homelessness and financial hardship.
There are real solutions that could be put in place right now if Jeremy Rockliff was serious about making a difference to the rental crisis, but the Premier is simply a bystander to the crisis, doing Gill McLachlan’s billion dollar bidding and cheering on a stadium while Tasmanians suffer.
He should be utterly ashamed of himself.