Tuesday, 30 May 2023

Owners Corporations Amendment (Short-stay Accomodation) Bill 2023

Introduction

Gabrielle DE VIETRI (Richmond) (09:36): I move:

That I introduce a bill for an act to amend the Owners Corporations Act 2006 to put a cap on the total number of days that a dwelling can be used for short-term rental accommodation, to give owners corporations in multi-unit complexes the power to ban short-term rental accommodation in their buildings, to establish a mandatory register of short-term accommodation dwellings and for other purposes.

I would like to speak to the motion. I urge MPs: allow this bill to proceed to debate, given the context of the urgent rental crisis. Right now retired women are sleeping in cars, families are living in tents and young renters are having to line up for blocks just to inspect a property alongside dozens of other renters who are desperate for a home that no-one can afford. In short, Victorians are struggling through an unprecedented housing crisis.

The number of available rentals in Victoria has plummeted to a record low while tens of thousands of properties on Airbnb across Victoria sit empty for the rest of the year. Victoria’s almost entirely unregulated short-stay industry has played a role in this worsening rental crisis. Instead of providing secure housing for those in need, the short-stay sector is allowing investors to accumulate wealth by leasing out properties that should be homes as hotels through platforms like Airbnb. So while renters are desperate for a home, regulating Airbnbs and short stays –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Richmond, have you concluded your contribution?

Gabrielle DE VIETRI: I have not, sorry.

The SPEAKER: The member for Richmond to continue.

Gabrielle DE VIETRI: incentivises owners to put their properties on the long-term rental market. It is a quick, simple and effective way to increase the supply of rentals and one part of solving this complex crisis. I urge this bill to be debated, because we know that this issue is having an acute impact in our regional towns, where essential workers like hospo workers, teachers and aged care workers cannot find a place to live.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! Members will come to order! The Assistant Treasurer will come to order.

Ellen Sandell: On a point of order, Speaker, the member for Richmond has a right to be heard in this chamber. Even sitting next to her it is very difficult to hear her over the chatter in the chamber, and I ask whether you can perhaps bring the chamber to order.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! I would ask members to come to order and show some respect for the member on her feet.

Gabrielle DE VIETRI: Thank you, Speaker. In the city it is not much better. Melbourne’s vacancy rate is just 0.8 per cent, and right now in my electorate there are over 1000 short-stay apartments within Richmond. One provider in my electorate has 36 properties listed on Airbnb. While the state delays on action for renters, local councils have taken things into their own hands, creating policies to regulate short stays that might differ from area to area. The Municipal Association of Victoria has recently been tasked with advocating to the state government on behalf of all councils in Victoria to urgently regulate short stays because of the impact they are having across regional and metropolitan communities.

Mary-Anne Thomas: On a point of order, Speaker, it would appear that the member on her feet is wearing a badge of her political party, which I understand is inappropriate in the chamber. I ask you to clarify that for us, please.

The SPEAKER: Order! Is the member for Richmond wearing a party-political item? I would ask you to remove it.

Gabrielle DE VIETRI: It is a pronoun badge, but I am happy to take it off.

The SPEAKER: Thank you.

Gabrielle DE VIETRI: Thank you, Speaker. This issue needs to be addressed right now, and that is why we are introducing this bill. It will cap the number of days an investment property can be listed on Airbnb or other short stays to 90 days maximum to release investment properties onto the long-term market. It will seek to empower owners corporations to decide whether or not they allow short stays in their buildings. Residents should live in a community, not in a de facto hotel. This bill will establish a mandatory register of short-term properties so that we can properly hold property owners to account and regulate the industry. Victoria is embarrassingly behind on this issue; jurisdictions across the globe have introduced short-stay regulations. I am appealing to MPs in this chamber to let this bill be brought to debate. The prevailing attitude that results in the rejection of non-government bills stands in the way of problem-solving in an urgent housing crisis and stands in the way of democracy.

Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Health Infrastructure, Minister for Medical Research) (09:42): I rise to oppose the introduction of the bill. This is yet another example of grandstanding by the Greens political party, a party who have demonstrated time and time again that they actively oppose housing developments in this state, be they social housing developments or indeed developments to bring on –

Ellen Sandell: On a point of order, Speaker, the Leader of the House knows that reflections on other members are not appropriate in this chamber. This is a very narrow debate about the procedure of first reading a bill, not about attacking other political parties.

The SPEAKER: Order! I ask the Leader of the House to come back to debate on the bill before the house.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: These are extremely serious issues that we know are being experienced by renters and indeed those seeking to enter the housing market right across the state. That is why our government will do the hard work that is required before you bring legislation to this place. Consultation with community and with industry, the preparation of a bill in response to policy – that is what our government will do. Again, we are opposing this. It is grandstanding, and it wastes the time of this house on a very important day when we should be discussing the budget.

Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (09:44): I am delighted to speak briefly on this motion. There are two matters before us: the first is whether non-government members should be able to bring bills to this chamber and have them debated; the second is whether this bill in particular is something that is important and urgent enough to be brought on now. I think yes to both of those things. Firstly, this government does not allow any bills or matters to be brought by non-government members for debate and vote. We are the only parliament in the Westminster system that does not have non-government business time or general business time that allows backbenchers, opposition members and crossbenchers such as the Greens to bring bills on behalf of our constituents to have them voted on, and that is something that needs to change. It is completely undemocratic, that system, and it is something that needs to change urgently.

Secondly, on the motion before us about whether this particular bill to cap short stays in our state is important and urgent enough to bring on – it absolutely is. I was looking back over my record in Parliament, and I first raised this, I believe, in 2014 – nine years ago. The Leader of the House talks about needing to go through proper process in order to make change on these issues. Well, this government have had nine years to address this issue, and in my electorate of Melbourne we have seen this huge proliferation of short-stay apartments, which means that people are really suffering. They buy into apartment buildings thinking that they are going to live in a community, thinking that they are going to have all the benefits of living in the inner city with close-by neighbours in a tight-knit community, but actually what ends up happening is they end up living in de facto hotels. They end up paying extra for things like the wear and tear on the lifts and the communal facilities. They end up having neighbours that they do not know. They want to live in a community, and I think everyone has a right to live in a community. I have completely lost count of the number of constituents who have contacted me about this issue, particularly those in the CBD and Docklands, represented by groups like We Live Here, who are volunteer community groups who have banded together around this issue because it is affecting people so deeply. They deserve to live in a community.

That is one element of the issue, but now we are also seeing this huge rental crisis biting, and we are seeing that people simply cannot afford to rent a home or buy a home and people have nowhere to live. I had a constituent just the other day talk to me – Nat; she has got a young child in primary school in my electorate. She lives in the inner city in the CBD. Several people in her son’s school have had to move out of their school zone because they simply could not find a place to live. She has seen notices – emails and things – from real estate agents in the CBD talking about how they can ‘jack the rents up’ and ‘Now is the right time to do it’. It is pushing people like her out of our city, and that is not what any of us wants. As the member for Richmond said, we have thousands and thousands of properties sitting empty most of the time, when those properties could be properties that people live in. We actually have the supply; we are just not using it. We are using it for private profit for people who have multiple properties rather than the fundamental human right of everyone deserving to have one home and one place over their head.

These are very sensible reforms that the Greens are putting forward, that I have put forward since 2014, that we have put forward and prosecuted many times, but the government has decided not to pick up. We do not know exactly why that is. Is it the influence of property owners? Is it that they are too scared to tackle this reform? We do not know, but let us bring this bill on for debate. Let us have that debate. Let us talk about the best way to do this. We have got a model for regulating short stays that we think will work. We think it will work to create more housing affordability and create communities for our constituents, who deserve to live in communities. If the government wants to have a different model, let us have that debate, but why will it not even let this bill be brought on for debate? That is the key question. I very much urge this government to adopt the measures put forward in this bill. If they will not let it be debated because it is a Greens bill and the government do not want to give the Greens any credit, fine – take it. We will freely give you this bill, and you can pick it up and introduce it as your own.

Darren CHEESEMAN (South Barwon) (09:49): It is somewhat disappointing that I have to again rise to my feet. The reality is that the Legislative Assembly –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Caulfield! The member for Caulfield and the Leader of the House will come to order.

Darren CHEESEMAN: Thank you. The Legislative Assembly is a chamber of government, and what I have had to say on a number of occasions in debates over the last four or five years is: if you want to have a say in this place, get yourself elected to government, because it is the government that sets the agenda in this chamber. To the Greens, again, you are in here politically grandstanding. If you wish to waste the time of the Parliament, go and get yourselves elected to the Legislative Council, where you will get the opportunity on a Wednesday to debate the things that are important to you. This is a chamber of government. We believe in establishing good public policy through our normal –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Malvern will come to order.

Wayne Farnham: On a point of order, Speaker, I ask you to ask the member to stop using the word ‘you’. It is a reflection on you.

The SPEAKER: Order! I am very pleased that members have taken notice of my ruling, and I do ask all members not to use the word ‘you’.

Darren CHEESEMAN: Thank you, and of course I will not use the word ‘you’, but I think we have just seen at its finest the Liberal–Greens coalition coming in here to waste the time of this chamber when we have an important business program to get through this week. I will be voting, along with my colleagues, against this motion because we have important work to get through this week. We will be getting through that work. We are the government, we set the terms of debate in this place and we will continue to do so.

James NEWBURY (Brighton) (09:51): Contrary to what the previous member said, this is actually the people’s chamber, and the debate this morning is about whether or not the non-government members of this place have a right to introduce matters into this chamber – and they have the right to introduce matters into this chamber. On the substance of this bill we do not agree with the Greens. I will make that clear: we do not agree with the Greens. We oppose what they are proposing today. But we absolutely support their right to use this place – the people’s chamber – to put that forward. We absolutely support their right to do that. We have said that previously. I am sure we will do it again. When it comes to members of the non-government parties seeking to move items in this chamber, we will support them on that principle alone, not on the substance. I say to the government: this is the people’s place, and the words that just came out of the previous member were entirely arrogant. They go to the heart of the problem with this government. It is outrageous. This is the people’s place, and none of us should forget it. We on this side know it. Those on the other side have absolutely forgotten it, and it is disgraceful.

Michaela SETTLE (Eureka) (09:52): I rise to oppose this motion. The first thing I would like to acknowledge is that the opposition are not supporting the bill, and I wonder if the people that got the member for Richmond over the line on Liberal preferences are aware that she is coming in here to propose motions that they will object to. So on the substantive nature of this motion, it is pretty extraordinary –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Nationals will come to order.

Michaela SETTLE: to see the grandstanding from those on the other side.

The member for Richmond, perhaps when she was on a council, might have been able to put a motion like this, instead of standing along with other Greens councillors to vote down public housing in her area. The hypocrisy and the grandstanding from the Greens member for Richmond is pretty extraordinary when she has stood to make sure that people continue to not have suitable housing.

This government has worked again and again and again to support the most vulnerable in our community, and we will continue to do that. This government works hard and consistently to make sure that the legislation we put before the house serves the most vulnerable and serves all the community, and we will continue to do that. This government will continue to look at the issues of housing affordability, and we will continue our big build. We will not be objecting to social housing in our communities. We will be standing with the vulnerable in our communities, not just standing in Parliament to grandstand.

Assembly divided on motion:

Ayes (32): Brad Battin, Jade Benham, Roma Britnell, Tim Bull, Martin Cameron, Annabelle Cleeland, Chris Crewther, Gabrielle de Vietri, Wayne Farnham, Sam Groth, Matthew Guy, Sam Hibbins, David Hodgett, Emma Kealy, Tim McCurdy, Cindy McLeish, James Newbury, Danny O’Brien, Michael O’Brien, Kim O’Keeffe, John Pesutto, Tim Read, Richard Riordan, Brad Rowswell, Ellen Sandell, Ryan Smith, David Southwick, Bill Tilley, Bridget Vallence, Peter Walsh, Kim Wells, Jess Wilson

Noes (53): Juliana Addison, Jacinta Allan, Daniel Andrews, Colin Brooks, Josh Bull, Anthony Carbines, Ben Carroll, Darren Cheeseman, Anthony Cianflone, Sarah Connolly, Chris Couzens, Jordan Crugnale, Lily D’Ambrosio, Daniela De Martino, Steve Dimopoulos, Paul Edbrooke, Matt Fregon, Ella George, Luba Grigorovitch, Bronwyn Halfpenny, Katie Hall, Paul Hamer, Martha Haylett, Mathew Hilakari, Melissa Horne, Natalie Hutchins, Lauren Kathage, Sonya Kilkenny, Nathan Lambert, Alison Marchant, Kathleen Matthews-Ward, Steve McGhie, Paul Mercurio, John Mullahy, Tim Pallas, Danny Pearson, Pauline Richards, Tim Richardson, Michaela Settle, Ros Spence, Nick Staikos, Natalie Suleyman, Meng Heang Tak, Jackson Taylor, Nina Taylor, Kat Theophanous, Mary-Anne Thomas, Emma Vulin, Iwan Walters, Vicki Ward, Dylan Wight, Gabrielle Williams, Belinda Wilson

Motion defeated.