Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Unlimited rent increases should be illegal. We are in a rental crisis. A third of the country rents, and, across the country, renters are facing soaring costs of renting. People on income support are particularly hard hit. They're routinely paying more than half of their meagre income on rent and are living in dread, knowing that they are only one rent increase away from being homeless.

Analysis of rental listings in 2023 found that zero per cent of rentals were affordable for a single person on JobSeeker. The tiny increases in the budget to JobSeeker and rent assistance meant that the number of homes that are affordable for a single person increased by exactly one across the country. Before the budget there were exactly four houses in the country that were affordable for a single person on JobSeeker and now there are five.

This crisis is a test for Labor. It is wall-to-wall Labor governments across the mainland, so rent rises are their responsibility. Just like the government acted to cap energy bills by bringing the states and the territories together, they can do the same on rent controls to make unlimited rent increases illegal. We know that rent caps, which would mean that unlimited rent increases would be illegal, won't just help renters; it will stop the public, social and community housing waiting list completely blowing out.

We welcome the $2 billion—that was due to the Greens' pressure—that will be spent from now on community and affordable housing, but, without tackling rental increases and without making unlimited rent increases illegal, the number of people on those waiting lists will completely balloon and it will be impossible to get on top of it. Come on, government. We can work together, but the ball is in your court. (Time expired)