Hobart housing solutions needed

The Independent Member for Denison, Andrew Wilkie, spoke at the Hobart Homeless Expo and Protest Picnic today, and will call on all levels of government to work together to address the housing crisis.

“There’s no doubt that there is significant pressure on housing accessibility in greater Hobart,” Mr Wilkie said. “We only need to look at the number of people who are being forced to couch surf, commute unreasonably long distances to work, access crisis accommodation and even live in tents at the Hobart showground and elsewhere.”

“But the solution won’t come from politicians wringing their hands because what we need is for all levels of government to get serious about fixing this problem. In many ways this housing crisis is because of a failure of public policy by a series of federal and state governments over many years.

“For example the State Government must immediately commit to building more crisis accommodation and affordable social housing. We also need to reform the way we regulate short-term visitor accommodation like Airbnb.

“But the Federal Government has an equally important role to play. For a start they must waive Tasmania’s housing debt which costs us $15m a year in interest payments and is the single biggest brake on Tasmania being able to invest in social housing.

“The Federal Government also needs to commit to changing the tax system, where policies like negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount favour wealthy investors at the expense of people trying to buy their first home.”
Independent Member for Denison, Andrew Wilkie