The last Ballina Council meeting saw a straightforward request from staff for more information about the short term rental accommodation situation in the shire (as it relates to NSW government policy) turn into an elaborate saga.
The meeting began with several Ballina councillors who have a financial interest in short stay accommodation refusing to absent themselves from the discussion, noting that according to the agenda what was being discussed was ‘just a report’. As it turned out however, a number of last minute amendments meant a simple item became substantially more complex, taking almost two hours to debate.
Staff’s initial request was to seek endorsement of a submission in response to the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure’s discussion paper on short and long term rental accommodation, which closed for public comment on 14 March (Ballina was granted an extension). This document seeks to examine the impacts of STRA on the housing and tourism sectors of affected communities.
Cr Rod Bruem initially sought to block Ballina Council’s submission entirely, after making a speech suggesting the typical AirBNB host in Ballina was assisting with the housing shortage, supported critical care workers, and motivated by altruism.
Cr Kiri Dicker pointed out that these arguments were strangely similar to talking points recently put forward by the lobby group for the holiday letting industry. Cr Bruem denied any connection.
New level of absurdity
Cr Dicker responded by saying the short term letting debate had now reached ‘a whole new level of absurdity’, particularly the claim that short term letting was preventing older women slipping into homelessness. ‘It’s ridiculous to suggest that short term hosting holiday does not take houses out of the rental pool,’ she said.
She supported the existing submission, which does not include caps, but suggests councils should have more control over where short term letting could take place.
Following a question from Cr Simon Chate, Ballina Council staff member Matthew Wood sought to clarify the reasons for making a submission, which he described as primarily an information seeking exercise to help council understand the tourism and housing implications of short term letting, with much data from the letting companies currently unavailable or incomplete, and the state government also needing to better explain the state of play.
Cr Phil Meehan said he was disturbed by the amount of ‘misinformation being bandied around regarding STR… and it’s predominantly from one political party who have decided to mount a platform around it.’
He said holiday letting of houses had been ‘a fabric of coastal communities in NSW since I was a young fella [and] suddenly we have an attack on this area which is part of the fabric of Australian life.’
Failing to find enough support to block council’s submission entirely, Cr Bruem then sought a number of last minute amendments, saying ‘I don’t think we should be putting in a submission that does not reflect an accurate community position.’
Cr Dicker said it was unreasonable to have a number of complex points presented for debate at short notice with no time for councillors to consider the implications, but Cr Bruem was allowed to proceed.
Not grounded in evidence?
During the subsequent debate, Cr Dicker said anecdotes from people who made money from short term letting were not grounded in evidence. ‘Obviously, they don’t want any regulation, it’s not in their financial interests,’ she said. ‘The essence of the submission as it stands is to get more data.
‘I put it to the people in this room that people that make money from short term holiday letting don’t want better data because they don’t want the truth to be known. They want it to be concealed,’ she said.
After much argument, and multiple votes, Ballina Council resolved to add the following points to their STRA submission:
- to recognise that short term accommodation has always been a part of Ballina Shire and other coastal economies.
- to wait (preferably) to see the results of short term letting restrictions imposed in Byron Shire before advocating similar changes in Ballina.
- to outline the risks to Ballina Council’s limited resources if additional regulations are introduced.
Other changes recommended by various councillors were not added to the submission. Ballina Council then broke for lunch.
More stories about Ballina Shire Council:
The agenda for Thursday's meeting includes six notices of motion from four councillors, with issues including missing persons, volunteer recognition, and arts funding. Construction on a $4.35 million flood-resilience upgrade of Ross Lane at Lennox Head is due to begin today, ahead of a nine-week closure of the busy road later this month. With Ballina Shire Council General Manager Paul Hickey deciding to retire after almost twenty years in the role, and even longer as a staff member, the task of finding a replacement has begun. Cr Damien Loone was also returned as Deputy Mayor after Cr Simon Chate withdrew his nomination. September's meeting opened with a minute's silence for much-loved community member and Lennox Head restaurant owner Blake Rogers, who lost his life last week. Fresh from winning pre-selection as the Nationals candidate for the state seat of Ballina, the 'independent' first-term Ballina councillor Michelle Bailey has put forward a notice of motion asking Council to scrap its fixed 2030 net-zero target in favour of what she describes as a 'flexible sustainability strategy'.
Big meeting for Ballina Council this week
Ross Lane flood-resilience works begin ahead of nine-week closure
Ballina Council will be getting a new general manager
Ballina debates dog parks and net zero
Michelle Bailey targets net zero in Ballina
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