Wednesday, 29 November 2023

Legal and Social Issues Committee

Inquiry into the Rental and Housing Affordability Crisis in Victoria

Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (17:26): I rise to speak on the report tabled yesterday on the inquiry into the rental and housing affordability crisis in Victoria. The Greens-established parliamentary inquiry into the state’s rental crisis tabled its final report yesterday and found that a rent freeze is effective in extreme circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic. While the evidence is clear, the current rental and housing crisis is an extreme circumstance. According to the latest report by the rental affordability index, renters in every capital city across the country are currently in a worse position than they were in 2019 prior to the start of the pandemic. Therefore the Greens’ position continues to be that the government must implement a rent freeze without delay.

Over the course of the inquiry we heard just how much renters across the state are struggling. The inquiry heard stories of pregnant mothers being evicted with nowhere to go, retaliatory rent increases and elderly renters taking stock of safe bridges to sleep under in the event that they could not afford their rent anymore. Submissions to the inquiry painted a dire picture of Victoria’s acute housing crisis. Despite this, the committee’s report and recommendations predominantly convey the views and interests of property developers and landlords. Nowhere does the report recommend immediate rental relief or changes to the Residential Tenancies Act 1997, which would protect renters from the escalating crisis. Instead the report pushes for market-based solutions that will only serve to line the pockets of developers and push housing prices even higher.

To combat the silencing of renters’ voices, the Greens authored a minority report which more accurately conveys the submissions of renters, community advocates, and experts whose recommendations are not motivated by financial self-interest. The Greens report highlights the disproportionate impact of the rental crisis on marginalised members of the community, including young people, older people, LGBTQIA+ people, people with disabilities, First Nations people, those experiencing mental illness and those facing domestic violence. The Greens report makes clear that the Victorian state government has an array of policy levers at its disposal to alleviate the impact of the rental crisis on the community. Its key recommendations are centred on the implementation of urgent rent controls and the building of a significant quantity of new public housing. This is based on what was put forward in an overwhelming number of submissions from housing experts, welfare organisations, social services and renters.

The report also calls for a number of other solutions such as the inclusion of housing as a human right in the Victorian charter of human rights, stronger protections for renters against evictions and privacy breaches, cooling and energy efficiency minimum standards, an overhaul of the dispute resolution system, the abolition of federal tax incentives for investors, regulation of the short-stays industry and mandatory inclusionary zoning to include public and genuinely affordable housing in private developments. The government has so far chosen to rely on market solutions and to peddle claims about the consequences of regulating the rental market based on information from individuals and groups who stand to profit from the rental market.

This is akin to old arguments against the hazards of smoking that relied on research funded by the tobacco industry. We cannot continue to deny the devastating impacts the rental crisis is having on people across the state, especially as the cost of living rises across all domains. The government must act now, and it must act swiftly. An immediate two-year rent freeze followed by a permanent cap on rent increases is what the community of renters needs. We did it during the pandemic, and we should do it again now. The question is: will the Labor government listen to the voices of renters and experts or just continue to let developers have their way?