Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

In March alone 79,000 people accessed homelessness services because of financial stress and the housing crisis. That means people copping unfair rent increases are being evicted for absolutely no reason at all. What we know is there are millions of renters one rent increase away from joining that number, and that's people like Anna, a renter who sent me this message:

I'm a single working mum of one. A girl with special needs. After I pay my rent and spinal therapy sessions for my daughter, I barely have $100 left after all my bills to live off for a fortnight till next pay. I just found out my rent will go up in September and it's the most stressful and exhausting feeling a mother can have. I'm not a glass half empty person, but to live in the so-called lucky country where I will be homeless very soon is very scary.

Property investors will get half a trillion dollars worth of tax breaks from this federal Labor government in the next decade, and what do renters get? Basically nothing except the fastest rent increases we've seen in 35 years. There are now 80 housing, legal and welfare organisations who have joined the Greens in calling on the federal government to coordinate national caps on rent increases and proper renters rights: 75 per cent of this country now support national rent caps, including 68 per cent of Liberal voters and 80 per cent of Labor voters. How many more people like Anna are going to be evicted onto the streets before this government pull their finger out, do their job and represent the one-third of this country who rents?

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