Cassy O'Connor MP | Greens Leader
Newly released data* shows the unaffordability of Tasmania’s rental market continues to worsen, with rents expected to keep going up and up.
In line with their ongoing neglect of struggling renters, the Rockliff Government’s response is to do nothing.
Tasmania’s devastating rental crisis has continued to deepen for years now.
Tens of thousands of people are in financial hardship as a direct result, and more Tasmanians than ever are being pushed towards homelessness.
Whenever figures like this are released, Premier Jeremy Rockliff and his Liberal colleagues are quick to point to their plans to build more homes.
The truth is most of these homes won’t be available for many years, and we need action now.
The Liberals need to act immediately to put in place rent controls, ban no-cause evictions, and to put strong limits on short stay accommodation like AirBnB.
Instead they refuse to do anything to address the rental crisis, and have chosen to funnel taxpayer funds into propping up the lobby group for landlords – who just happened to support them at the last election.
Leaving Councils to tackle the issue of short-stay accommodation is not good enough. After many years of a short-stay fuelled rental crisis, only a few Councils have taken action.
Meanwhile the Labor Opposition has so far refused to support the Greens’ calls for genuine reform to the state’s rental laws.
Tasmanians have suffered under the weight of the rental crisis for far too long.
It’s well past time for the major parties to stop making excuses and to start supporting the action that will make a real difference to people’s lives.
*New data from PropTrack shows 8% annual growth in rental rates