A federal inquiry into Australia’s deepening rental crisis has been branded a “waste of taxpayers’ money” after politicians failed to agree on solutions.

The final report of the inquiry into the nation’s rental woes was quietly released by the Community Affairs References Committee on December 5 last year after thousands of submissions from organisations and angered tenants.

However, Labor and Coalition senators made separate proposals while the Committee chair, Greens senator Janet Rice echoed her party’s policies issued last year that had failed to garner broader support.

Ms Rice said she found the views of other committee members “staggering” given the evidence presented.

“I think we’ve got a really good solid body of recommendations that we will continue to be pushing to be implemented,” she said.

“There was a lot of consensus in the community about what needs to happen, it’s just the major parties aren’t listening to it.”

One of the major points of difference between Ms Rice, Labor and Coalition senators were their views on rental caps and freezes, with Coalition senators believing they “should not be considered”.

Despite the Green’s proposal for a rental freeze to be implemented shut down after the Housing Australia Future Fund bill was passed late last year, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) managing director Michael Fotheringham said they’d continued to use the party platform in the inquiry and ignored testimony pointing out how damaging it would be.

“They weren’t actually interested in evidence unless it supported the view they came in with at the start,” Dr Fortheringham said.

He added that the funds earmarked for the inquiry “could have been used to support someone’s accommodation”.

Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA) chair Nicola McDougall said the final report wasn’t “worth the paper that it was written on”.

“Why are they putting forward these recommendations, which clearly don’t have the support of the federal government and doesn’t have the support of Labor or Coalition senators,” Ms McDougall said.

“What a waste of taxpayers’ money.”

She said it appeared the proposals made by the Chair seemed to be copied directly from “the Greens’ playbook”, even though it did not have the support of the national cabinet, Coalition or Labor Senators involved in the inquiry.

“The cabinet supported a move towards a national standard of no more than one rent increase per year for a tenant in the same property across fixed and ongoing agreements,” Ms McDougall said.

Real Estate Institute of Victoria president Jacob Caine said it seemed Committee members “stuck to their corners and their own agendas” with nothing particularly productive coming from the inquiry.

Real Estate Institute of Australia president Leanne Pilkington said it was disappointing there was no unified set of recommendations backed by the Senate Committee and hoped for more action when it came to increasing housing supply.

Tenants Victoria chief executive Jennifer Beveridge said the primary benefit of the hearings from state and federal parliamentary rental inquiries had been hearing directly from renters and tenants organisations about the challenges people were facing in the community.

“We’ve still got a considerable way to go to see practical changes implemented to benefit renters, but awareness of the extent of the problem has certainly grown and these Victorian and federal inquiries have contributed to this awareness-raising,” Ms Beveridge said.

“Renters are a growing group, and their needs can’t be ignored by our elected representatives.”

PowerHousing chief executive Nicholas Proud said the lack of consensus on a federal level was the situation confronting the country and why Australia was in a housing crisis in the first place.

“(There) does need to be a coming together of all sides of politics at the federal level to start championing the needs of many people that aren’t being heard or struggling and I think that’s going to be more and more evident,” Mr Proud said.

“A chair has a view on the inquiry or the hearings and submissions and takes a view on that; that’s leadership.”

Originally Published: Sarah Petty | Realestate.com.au | 18 January 2024

https://www.realestate.com.au/news/federal-inquiry-into-rental-crisis-branded-a-waste-of-taxpayers-money/

“Licensed by Copyright Agency. You must not copy this work without permission.”