The Greens (WA) condemn Housing Minister John Carey\u2019s claim that WA\u2019s rental crisis fuelled by a growth in short-term accommodation is the responsibility of local councils, and urge the Cook Labor Government to do more to address its devastating impact on the long-term rental market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an ABC News article<\/u><\/a> published this morning, Minister Carey said the state government \u201chad done all it could\u201d on the rental crisis, placing the responsibility for solutions instead onto local councils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Australia, housing laws and policies are overwhelmingly the responsibility of state and territory governments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Greens (WA) are calling on the Cook Labor Government to introduce bold regulatory reforms in order to push more investment homes into the long-term rental market and ease the squeeze on renters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This should include greater incentives to push short-term accommodation back into the long-term market, and greater financial penalties and restrictions on short-term accommodation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tim Clifford MLC, Greens WA spokesperson for Housing and Homelessness:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMinister Carey has hit a new low by throwing local councils under the bus for a rental crisis his government is responsible not only for fixing, but for creating in the first place.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt absolutely beggars belief that the Minister thinks this is what the state government doing its job looks like.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMinister Carey says he wants to see fewer short-term rentals and yet he seems totally unwilling to do anything meaningful about it. Has he forgotten that he\u2019s the Housing Minister, for God\u2019s sake?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRenters need immediate relief while we work on long-term solutions, like building the new houses the government continues to point to as a panacea. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat means looking at stronger regulations, rental reforms like banning no-fault evictions, vacant property taxes, and limiting short-stay rentals to 90 days a year.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLast week the ACT Parliament passed Greens-led legislation enshrining housing as a human right. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Greens will take every opportunity to achieve the same bold reforms we need here in WA \u2013 because if what Minister Carey says is anything to go by, WA Labor has done its job already.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Brad Pettitt MLC, Greens WA spokesperson for Housing (Planning):<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s deeply troubling to hear Minister Carey say the state government has done all it can to address what is clearly a spiralling rental crisis.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAll they have done is create a list with rental numbers that we already knew.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis government must do more to discourage the move towards short-term accommodation in what is the worst housing crisis in living memory.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe need stronger incentives for bringing short-term rental properties back to the long-term market, but carrots alone are not enough. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe also need sticks in the form of new regulations and penalties for those who choose to stay in the short-term market and make a substantial profit. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat could look like limiting the number of nights a dwelling can be rented for short stays, or imposing a targeted tax on residential properties left to sit vacant.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt there is a place for short-stays, but the status quo is unsustainable, unfair to renters, and leaving families homeless.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Greens (WA) condemn Housing Minister John Carey\u2019s claim that WA\u2019s rental crisis fuelled by a growth in short-term accommodation is the responsibility of local councils, and urge the Cook Labor Government to do more to address its devastating impact on the long-term rental market. In an ABC News article published this morning, Minister Carey said the … Continue reading “Greens (WA) urge stronger action on rental crisis as Housing Minister Carey says job is done”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35083,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35082\/revisions\/35083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}