Month: September 2023

The Community Affairs References Committee inquiry into the worsening rental crisis in Australia has today delivered its interim report, with the committee currently able to agree only on two recommendations:

Recommendation 1

The committee recommends that the Australian Government take a coordinating role to implement stronger rental rights.

Recommendation 2

The committee recommends the Australian Government continue investment in public, social, community and genuinely affordable housing.

Committee Chair Senator Janet Rice has used the Chair’s additional comments to urge fellow committee members not to ignore the extensive and comprehensive evidence presented by renters and housing bodies that unlimited rent increases are worsening the housing crisis, as renters are forced out of homes they can’t afford or into significant financial stress.

Excerpts from the Chair’s Additional Comments as reported by Senator Janet Rice:

Recommendation 3: The Australian Government coordinate with the states and territories to freeze rental increases for two years, followed by a limit on rental increases of 2 per cent every 2 years. Both freeze and the ongoing limits should be attached to the property, not the specific tenancy or lease. The reference date for the freeze on rental increases should be backdated to avoid rents being increased in anticipation of the restrictions. The freeze and ongoing cap should apply to new properties where starting rents are set at the median rent for the area and property type. 

Australia is in a housing crisis. With successive governments chronically underfunding and privatising public housing, there is currently a shortfall of public and genuinely affordable housing of around 750,000 homes, the private rental market is increasingly the only option for renters, which has led to a system of exponential rental increases and stress and insecurity for renters.

The Greens believe that the evidence provided to the committee makes it clear what needs to be done to address the worsening rental crisis. Urgent reforms are needed, beyond those currently being undertaken by Government.

We find it extraordinary and extremely disappointing that both Labor and Liberal have not committed to stronger recommendations in this report that reflect the severity and urgency of the housing crisis. The weak recommendations that have been made ignore the heartfelt evidence presented to the Committee about the impact that the rental crisis is having on people.

Urgent action is needed to alleviate the burdens placed on renters by ongoing rent hikes that are largely a product of a lack of investment by governments in public and community housing over the decades. The Commonwealth government must listen to the powerful evidence provided by renters at this inquiry and immediately work with states and territories to freeze and cap rental increases.

Australia is in the midst of the worst rental crisis that many Australians have ever lived through. Asking rents have gone up by 35 per cent since the start of the pandemic, and they’re forecast to go up by another 10 per cent this year. A record number of Australians are set to rent for life, and a record number of Australians are currently renting. Six hundred and forty thousand households are in severe rental stress

• May Azize, Everybody’s Home

Many witnesses told the committee how unrelenting and devastating rental increases can be to a person’s finances and wellbeing. 

Amity said: 

With increasing rent, we’re making choices between skipping meals and skipping medical appointments and missing important family milestones because paying the rent always has to come first. Househunting queues are getting longer more competitive, and we’re putting up with crappy things for fear of another rent increase or a no-grounds eviction. We often talk about how we just pay the rent, stay quiet and hope the landlord will forget about us and leave us there.

Leanne told the committee: 

I have always lived with the anxiety that others have told you today: the fear of the next rent increase and eviction at short notice

Martina said: 

We were told that we had to move out of our property of $600 per week rent. It’s a three bedroom that I shared with two other persons. The owner wanted to increase the property to $650, and we negotiated it to $640. Initially they agreed, but one of the housemates decided that he could not afford the property, so we lost the property. Then the other housemate and I were trying to secure the property, saying that we’re happy to pay $650 and asking them to give us a chance to find another housemate. Because of that, the real estate came back to us to say that the owner had changed his mind. They increased the rent to $680. Sorry.

Jo shared that since moving to Queensland she has had to move seven times, costing her over $14,000. She told the committee that: 

In several of the properties I’ve rented, maintenance has been very poor. ..Getting air conditioning installed in a top-floor flat with no ceiling fans in Queensland was problematic, despite temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius. This same landlord increased the rent at every chance she could. When I finally called time and moved out, she did the same to the next tenant and the next tenant and the next tenant. In the year following my departure, she drove three tenants out with this aggressive approach. Her response? It’s what the market demands. 

The committee also heard how unregulated rental hikes have driven a family to move into a caravan and a single mother being forced to live in a share house with her baby. 

The many stories of significant hardship that the inquiry heard illustrate the dire situation of renters across the country and the need for immediate relief from skyrocketing rents. Intervention measures such as rental caps and/or freezes were proposed by many of the witnesses with lived experience.

Robyn noted: 

So what will help? Immediate intervention. There has to be immediate intervention. From our perspective, based on my renting experience, we need an immediate cap on rent increases—a flat rate or linked to the CPI. Low rental vacancies and high demand mean that it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to negotiate smaller rent increases. They won’t; that’s it. The proposal—which I think has been proposed by National Cabinet or by governments in the media—to limit rent increases to once every 12 months as a way of relieving rental pressure on tenants is absolute nonsense, as my own experience demonstrates: with a 12-month lease it went up 33 per cent.

Samira suggested: 

There are actions that can be taken by the government to reduce rent rises—that property owners can only raise the rent by a percentage of the value of any repairs or improvements made over the year to that property, in line with CPI increases.

Amity said: 

There’s just no end in sight to our rent increases. Some of the rent increases people are getting are just awful, and it feels like it’s this system that is about to explode. I don’t think a rent freeze will fix any of that, but I feel like it could give us some breathing room to go: ‘Okay, we are in a crisis. Let’s just bring some balance back into the system while we sort out the more systemic stuff and stuff that might take a bit longer.

Many submissions supported the testimonials of renters and recommended an urgent limit to rental increases.

The Rental and Housing Union stated:  

Regulating rents is central to resolving the housing affordability crisis. This can be done by limiting the frequency of rent increases, regardless of occupancy and requiring empty houses to be put onto the rental market or acquired by the state to be added to the housing market.

Better Renting highlighted that: 

Limits are not just an affordability measure — they also support stability for both individual households and for neighbourhoods. They recognise the legitimate interest that tenants have in being able to remain in their home, and so part of their benefit is making it less likely that households are forced out by sudden and large rent increases.

Urgent action is needed to alleviate the burdens placed on renters by ongoing rent hikes that are largely a product of a lack of investment by governments in public and community housing over the decades. The Commonwealth government must listen to the powerful evidence provided by renters at this inquiry and immediately work with states and territories to freeze and cap rental increases.

— Excerpts end —

Comment attributable to Committee Chair Greens Senator Janet Rice said:

“Australia is in a housing crisis. With successive governments chronically underfunding and privatising public housing, there is currently a shortfall of public and genuinely affordable housing of around 750,000 homes, the private rental market is increasingly the only option for renters, which has led to a system of exponential rental increases and stress and insecurity for renters.

“The Greens believe that the evidence provided to the committee makes it clear what needs to be done to address the worsening rental crisis. Urgent reforms are needed, beyond those currently being undertaken by Government.

“We find it extraordinary and extremely disappointing that both Labor and Liberal have not committed to stronger recommendations in this report that reflect the severity and urgency of the housing crisis. The weak recommendations that have been made ignore the heartfelt evidence presented to the Committee about the impact that the rental crisis is having on people.

“Urgent action is needed to alleviate the burdens placed on renters by ongoing rent hikes that are largely a product of a lack of investment by governments in public and community housing over the decades. The Commonwealth government must listen to the powerful evidence provided by renters at this inquiry and immediately work with states and territories to freeze and cap rental increases.”

Greens Housing and Homelessness spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather MP said:

The Greens stand with the 78% of the country and over 8 million renters in calling for a freeze and cap on rent increases, and we won’t stop fighting until the one third of this country who rents gets to finally live with dignity. 

The committee heard countless horrific testimonies of renters who had copped sometimes over $200 a week rent increases, and the evidence is crystal clear that the answer is we need a freeze then cap on rent increases.

To conclude otherwise and fail to specifically address unlimited rent increases through this inquiry would be in contradiction to the evidence presented, and would be another triumphant failure of Labor and the Liberals to do anything to protect renters.

With 78% of the country now supporting a cap or freeze on rent increases, and Germany now introducing a 3 year freeze on rent increases, Labor has to decide whether they really want to go to the next election as the party of property investors and banks, or finally stand up and represent the one third of this country who rents. 

The Greens have listened to the renters at these hearings. Now it’s time for Labor and the Liberal listen to renters, not the property industry and vested interests, and freeze and cap rent increases.

With the announcement of his COVID-19 inquiry, the Prime Minister has put political interest over Australia’s national interest.

He has rolled over to Labor Premiers and in doing so, the Prime Minister has broken a key promise that he took to the Australian people at the last election.

He promised that he would hold a royal commission or deep inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic, looking at the response of all governments across Australia.

It is incredibly disappointing that the Prime Minister has walked away from his commitment.

Our response to the pandemic followed a uniquely Australian path, and it allowed us to come out of the pandemic with health and economic outcomes that were world leading.

But there is no denying how critical it is that, now the worst of the pandemic has passed behind us, we learn from the lessons that COVID-19 provided and how we could have improved our response.

This is in our national interest, and it is about our preparedness as a country.

Instead, what we have from the Prime Minister is a quasi-inquiry into the pandemic, concocted with a Terms of Reference that specifically excludes the states and territories, and with an approach that looks like a witch-hunt against the former Coalition Government.

Any inquiry into Australia’s COVID-19 response that does not involve the states and territories should be seen for what it is – purely a protection racket for Dan Andrews and Anastasia Palaszczuk.

In the absence of any powers to compel the involvement of state and territory governments, the Prime Minister’s inquiry is a wasted opportunity to be proactive about Australia’s preparedness for future pandemics should they arise.

Light must be shone in on all of the decisions that were taken following the outbreak of COVID-19 in our country, particularly considering the significant role played by the states and territories, who were often responsible for decisions that most impacted on Australians lives and on their livelihoods.

Actions like lockdowns, testing regimes, state border closures and other restrictions that were placed on the Australian people, which we know are still having ongoing implications.

And despite what the Prime Minister may seem to believe, an inquiry must also recognise that the pandemic did not end on 22 May 2022.

In fact, under the current government, we saw more Covid-related deaths in aged care in 8 months than in the entire first two years of the Pandemic.

And for this inquiry have any integrity and credibility, international comparisons and Australia’s standing relative to other countries must also be considered.

All of these factors must be looked at as part of a proper and thorough investigation that is genuinely aimed at bolstering Australia’s pandemic preparedness.

Otherwise, all we have here is a half-baked inquiry, merely aimed at distracting from Labor’s shambolic handling of today’s issues and expunging Labor Premiers’ past decisions.

It has been revealed that the Albanese Government is secretly reaping hundreds of millions of dollars from tens of thousands of Australian businesses through a compulsory tax, the ‘Skilling Australians Fund’ levy, which should be being allocated to specific skills projects with state and territory governments but is instead being banked to Labor’s Budget bottom line.

The Skilling Australians Fund was established as an ongoing arrangement by the Coalition Government in 2017 to ensure the businesses that benefit from employing migrants also contribute to skilling Australians. It established a direct link between the levy and skills projects that have benefitted hundreds of thousands of Australians to gain in-demand skills.

If a business wants to bring in a skilled migrant they are required to pay up to between $3000 and $5000 dollars per worker once off or between $1200 and $1800 yearly through the levy. This funding is then allocated to specific skills projects to support Australians to gain training for in-demand jobs.

The Fund was managed through the National Partnership on the Skilling Australians Fund between the Commonwealth and states and territories which ran from 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2022 when it lapsed. Over a year after the agreement concluding a new agreement has not been reached.

The Albanese Government has confirmed it is still collecting money through the levy and is banking the money in to consolidated revenue.

Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Shadow Minister for Skills and Training and Shadow Minister for Small and Family Business, Sussan Ley said the revelations confirm thousands of hard-working Australian business owners are being ripped off by Anthony Albanese in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.

“Australian business owners will be rightly outraged to know that Anthony Albanese is using a levy they pay in good faith to prop up Labor’s budget bottom line – this money is supposed to be guaranteed to go towards skilling Australians not paying for Labor’s pet projects,” the Deputy Leader said.

“The Coalition will always stand for skilling Australians, today businesses see yet again that when Labor can’t manage money, they come after yours – this is very sneaky stuff from Anthony Albanese.”

This revelation comes as the Albanese Government’s recently released review: A Migration System for Australia’s Future, refuted complaints from small businesses about the costs of the levy, arguing the levy could be “justifiably higher”.

According to official Government figures the levy raised over $73 million in the final quarter of 2022 alone and over $250 million over 2022.

Communities across regional Australia will be left without critical workers like nurses, aged care staff, teachers, mechanics, and chefs because of Labor’s changes to the visa system.

And more migrants will move to Australia’s capital cities, further worsening housing shortages and the rental crisis.

According to media reports today, Labor will allow migrants on temporary work visas to leave their jobs in rural Australia and move to the cities to work. This at a time Labor is bringing 1.5 million people into Australia over five years through their Big Australia by stealth policy.

Labor will sever the connection between migrants, the businesses that sponsor them and the regional communities in which they operate.

Labor will also index increases to the Temporary Skilled Migration Threshold, which will lock out regional and rural businesses from sponsoring skilled workers, because their costs and wages are lower due to their location.

Because of Labor, businesses that sponsor temporary workers to live and work in regional Australia expect to lose key staff, impacting their ability to operate. Labor’s changes will be a disincentive for them to sponsor skilled migrants because they will all end up in the cities.

Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Dan Tehan said Labor always made a mess of immigration.

“Labor want the 1.5 million people they are bringing to this country to all live and work in our major capital cities as part of their Big Australia by stealth policy,” Mr Tehan said.

“Labor’s changes will see Australians in regional communities lose access to key services while people living in capital cities will face higher rents, worse congestion, and more demand on government services, like hospitals and schools.

“When the local mechanic closes because they have no workers to fix cars, and the corner pub closes because they have no cooks to keep the kitchen open you can blame Labor. Why would a business spend money, time, and effort to recruit workers to fill skills shortages if that worker can leave on day one and move to the city?

“Labor isn’t listening to regional businesses and they’re not listening to regional communities. We want a better Australia not Labor’s Big Australia.”

Almost one hundred thousand spectators are expected to line Newcastle Harbour to catch a glimpse of thrilling aerial displays and flypasts as part of the Newcastle Williamtown Air Show 2023.

City of Newcastle has partnered with the Royal Australian Airforce (RAAF) to host the one-off event on Saturday 18 November, with a RAAF aircraft flying display at 10am to 12.30pm and again at 1.30pm to 4pm.

Formation and aerial displays will feature heritage and vintage aircraft like the Harvard, Winjeel, Spitfire, Mustang and Canberra in addition to flypasts from F/A-18F, EF/A-18G Super Hornet and the Growler.

City of Newcastle will host free viewing areas at Nobbys Beach, Foreshore Park and Stockton, featuring family-friendly activities to create a festival atmosphere at the free community event.

Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said the spectacular community event was not to be missed, offering something for both die-hard aviation enthusiasts and families looking for a fun weekend out.

“City of Newcastle is proud to partner with the RAAF to deliver the Newcastle Williamtown Air Show 2023,” Cr Nelmes said.

“Newcastle’s spectacular coastline will be on display for tens of thousands of visitors to see all the action over Newcastle Harbour, Nobbys Beach, Foreshore Park and Stockton.

“Attracting major events of this calibre is a testament to Newcastle’s growth as a world-class events and cultural city and indicative of a thriving local economy.

“Newcastle continues to shine as a destination and we look forward to welcoming locals and visitors to both air displays on Saturday 18 November and showcasing the diversity of what our city has to offer including its rich heritage, natural scenery and vibrant cultural scene.”

A Park and Ride facility will operate from McDonald Jones Stadium with parking available at Stockton located within an easy walk to prime vantage points.

“We encourage spectators to make the most of public transport options available to ease traffic congestion with the crowd numbers we are anticipating,” Cr Nelmes added.

A ticketed premium viewing area at Fort Scratchley will provide access to the only licenced viewing site for both air shows, with a variety of food and beverage options available to purchase. Tickets are on sale now and are restricted to patrons 18+.

Tickets to the RAAF Open Day at Williamtown on Sunday 19 November will go on sale on 1 October.

For more information about the Newcastle Williamtown Air Show 2023, 18 to 19 November 2023, visit www.visitnewcastle.com.au/air-show-2023 or www.airforce.gov.au/news-and-events/newcastle-williamtown-air-show-2023