Greens councillor Jonathan Sri defends his illegal share house

Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk will not take action against the city's sole Greens councillor after Jonathan Sri admitted to living in an illegal share house.

But Cr Quirk said while his Liberal National Party administration would not instigate any action, Cr Sri, the councillor for The Gabba ward, could still face an officer-led council investigation.

Cr Sri has made no secret of the fact he lived in an eight-person share house, even mentioning it in his maiden speech in the council chamber.

"My election to Brisbane City Council represents a number of firsts," he said in that speech.

The Gabba's Greens councillor Jonathan Sri (pictured with Senator Larissa Waters) has defended living in an illegal share house.Credit: Bradley Kanaris

"… I'm Queensland's first Greens city councillor and, to the best of my knowledge, I'm the first elected representative to live in a five-bedroom rental share house with seven other adults."

Cr Quirk said while that flew in the face of council regulations, Cr Sri would not be pursued at a "political level".

However, Cr Quirk said council officers were empowered to investigate Cr Sri if they so chose.

"We've had a law in Brisbane now for some years where the maximum number of unrelated people living in a residence is five," he said.

"It was six at one time and we found there was overcrowding of students, in particular we were concerned about international students and our reputation of overcrowding so we reduced that number to five about six or seven years ago."

When asked whether or not it was a "good look" for a city councillor, Cr Quirk said councillors should observe the law and Cr Sri was walking a "fine line".

"As they say, we're here to make the laws and not encourage other people to break those laws," he said.

"That's the key to being a councillor on Brisbane City Council and so that challenge is out there for Cr Sri as well."

Cr Sri said while share houses used to be considered the "exclusive domain" of university students, full-time workers were increasingly forced down that route because wages had not kept up with rises in property prices.

"The fundamental problem here is housing affordability," he said.

"Whipping ourselves into a frenzy about share house overcrowding ignores the core issue, which is that young, hard-working people can't afford to buy their own homes, and the rents on many new apartments are ridiculous.

"Rather than criticising me for living in a household that makes efficient use of inner-city land, I'd like to see the Lord Mayor propose some practical solutions to improve housing affordability that don't leave us at the mercy of the private market.

"If the Brisbane City Council and state government are so concerned about increasing the supply of private housing in the inner-city, why are they penalising people for making good use of empty bedrooms?"

Cr Sri said the council's policy discouraged the efficient use of inner-city housing stock.

"I'd rather live with friends who can cook for each other and look after each other when someone gets sick than live alone," he said.

"…The fundamental problem is that housing is treated primarily as a commodity rather than somewhere for people to live.

"As long as this continues, landlords will have strong financial incentives to exploit tenants, and tenants will have few choices but to live in crowded homes.

"The system is designed to maximise profit rather than to minimise homelessness."

For independent news coverage, be sure to follow our Facebook feed.