Tackling local cost-of-living pressures

The high cost-of-living continues to have a profound impact on people in our community. From skyrocketing rent, house prices, bills and supermarket prices, people are really struggling. 

That’s why tackling the cost-of-living has been my number one priority as our local MP.

When it comes to housing affordability, thousands of much-needed homes are being taken off the market due to the high number of AirBnbs, driving up rent as well creating amenity issues for residents. 

The Greens are pushing the state government to take action by placing a 90-day annual cap on short-stay accommodation, just like other governments around the world have done.

This would mean you can still rent out a room or rent out your home when you go on holiday, but investors would be prevented from buying up multiple whole apartment buildings just to make mega profits and never renting them out long-term.

In addition to short stays, the high number of properties being left vacant is making housing affordability worse. There are thousands of homes being left vacant by investors who would rather leave them empty than rent them out or put them up for sale.

The Greens successfully negotiated with the state government to make more vacant homes available to renters and first home buyers by increasing the vacant home levy for investors who keep homes vacant over multiple years, and ensuring there is stronger enforcement of the levy.

Rent is continuing to skyrocket. During the pandemic the Greens were able to secure rent freezes to prevent people being evicted into homelessness, and I’ve been pushing hard for the government to put an end to unlimited rent rises by again freezing rents and putting in place long-term rent controls.    

On top of housing costs, unfair price hikes by supermarkets are making it next to impossible to do a cheap shop anymore, meaning many are going without. 

The state government has the power to stop supermarkets from ripping you off but right now, they’re choosing not to. This means there’s nothing to stop supermarkets from jacking up the prices as high as they want. 

That’s why the Greens and I are introducing laws to regulate supermarkets to stop them from price gouging to make food affordable for everyone. 

Sam Hibbins is the MP for the Victorian seat of Prahran, which includes Southbank Village. •