A new Essential Guardian poll shows 60 per cent of Australians support a freeze on rental increases.
Greens candidate for the federal seat of Richmond, Mandy Nolan, has welcomed national polling data showing strong public support for the Greens’ housing policies.
Ms Nolan says this is a policy the Greens have been pushing but is opposed by the Labor government.
‘In the middle of the worst housing affordability crisis in decades, the government is doing nothing to help renters. We need an immediate two-year rent freeze,’ says Mandy Nolan, who last week announced she’s running again in Richmond. The federal electorate has been held by the Labor incumbent Justine Elliot for almost two decades.
Another report this week confirms the national crisis in rental affordability is getting worse, with estimates from ANZ CoreLogic that low-income households must now spend over half their income on rent. When renters are paying more than one-third of their income in rent they are considered to be in rental stress.
‘All of us in this electorate know stories of teachers, nurses and other essential workers who can’t afford houses or rents here. Rents have spiralled out of control,’ says Mandy Nolan, who led a protest rally last summer for action against unrestrained holiday-letting.
Just last month the Independent Planning Commission (IPC) recommended a strict annual 60-day cap for holiday-letting in Byron Shire following community campaigning to try and free up more local houses for renting, including a submission from the Greens candidate.
‘As a past chair of the Women’s Village Collective, I’ve seen the dark side of the housing crisis in our community. But I’ve also lived it. I’ve been a single mum living in a rental. I know the housing stress first-hand’ says Nolan.
Local resident Professor David Henry famously told the Planning Commission’s public hearings about a hospital doctor and trained firefighter who recently wanted to move to the area but could not even find a house to live in.
‘This crisis is undermining the fabric of our community,’ says Henry.
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