Page 1258 - Week 04 - Thursday, 5 May 2022
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landlords in this city to utilise that option. For any landlord interested in finding out more information, please contact my office. We would be happy to connect you with the appropriate providers.
The Canberra Liberals labour on the release of greenfield land as the singular solution to all our problems—an issue we will once again debate this afternoon—only further demonstrating this Canberra Liberals opposition to be environmental vandals and ignoring the real pressures causing this crisis.
The Greens know that solutions to this crisis can meet our obligations to the climate and the right of all Canberrans to a healthy environment. With Greens in government, we have committed to building 400 new social housing dwellings in this term of government alone. We have made the single biggest investment in homelessness services this city has ever had. We are committed to increasing the supply of affordable rentals and we are building Common Ground in Dickson.
While rental affordability is impacting people and families right across Australia, it is our responsibility as a local government to do what can be done in our city to reduce rents and support people on low and no incomes to obtain secure housing. As a crossbencher, one of my roles in this Assembly is to advocate for solutions to the problems that my constituents face and put forward new ideas to be debated and discussed by all decision-makers in this place. While I am not able to implement policies directly, I take my role as an advocate on this side of the chamber very seriously.
In March I put forward a motion calling on the Standing Committee on Economy and Gender and Economic Equality to conduct an inquiry into vacancy taxes. As I said at the time, such an inquiry would allow us to work out exactly how many residential properties are vacant in Canberra and why. This work is so important while Australia grapples with a housing affordability crisis. We cannot afford to have a single home in Canberra vacant while we have so many who need a home. This week the committee took up that request. Committee chair Leanne Castley has announced an inquiry into this issue, and I look forward to participating in that inquiry.
The reported rental vacancy rate in Canberra has reached an all-time low, decreasing to 0.5 per cent. This indicates that there is a heavy undersupply of available housing driving up the rental price. We need to take a look at what is limiting the supply of rentals.
Since the arrival of Airbnb in the Australian market in 2012, property investors have enjoyed the option of removing their properties from the long-term rental market and shifting them into the platform-based, short-term accommodation industry. While originally pitched as a spare room rental scheme, over the past five years or so we have seen enormous growth in the number of whole properties being listed on Airbnb. A search on Airbnb in Canberra this week for a place to stay for two adults indicates that 80 per cent of the over 300 listings in Canberra are entire homes.
As my motion notes, an entire residential dwelling which is used for platform-based, short-term accommodation is a habitable dwelling removed from the long-term rental
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