The
Rockliff-Ferguson Government and Housing Minister Guy Barnett continue to
ignore the dire state of Tasmania’s housing and rental market despite a
mountain of evidence.
The
unprecedented struggle faced by Tasmanians to get a roof over their heads has
yet again been laid bare in a new report by rental
property review group RentRabbit which highlights the state’s top seven
rental suburbs which are desperately short of rental housing.
The
report shows rents in those suburbs have increased between 11.8 and almost 16
per cent over the past year and families are spending between 43 and 53 per
cent of their income on rent – well above the definition of housing stress.
Vacancy
rates in the areas – including Rokeby, Moonah, Mowbray, Ulverstone and Kings
Meadows – are below the one per cent mark.
This
is yet another clear indication of a government that over almost a decade has
simply failed to build and confront a housing crisis that it created and
continually fails to provide solutions.
Successive
Liberal governments have not prioritised housing and the Rockliff-Ferguson
Government is now doing the bare minimum as it scrambles to play catch up.
Bad
economic management continues to fail Tasmanians who are desperate for housing.
There was not enough in the recent
State Budget to address the lack of affordable and social housing despite big
promises by the government.
Almost 4,400 families are
languishing on the public housing waiting list and the average time to house
even the most urgent of them has now blown out to an astonishing 90 weeks.
Meantime the government has promised to spend $1.1 billion to build 10,000 new homes in the next decade which means the Rockliff-Ferguson Government should be delivering three homes a day – every day – right now.
Ella Haddad MP
Shadow Minister for Housing
