Editor’s view: Premier’s rental cap announcement a deflection from critical housing crisis

Perhaps the Premier has no plans to mandate a rent cap. Maybe this was all just a deflection from a very un-Labor-like failure, writes the Editor.

Households are doing it tough at the moment, of that there is no doubt. And those who rent are doing it even tougher, with end-of-lease increases of well over 20 per cent just what you have to cop at the moment. But for the Premier to fly a mandated rent-cap kite – as she did yesterday – is a step too far.

As every single economist that our reporters asked warned, such a massive intervention in the market would have a range of consequences that could see renters worse off – the most obvious being that landlords would simply stop offering a new lease to existing tenants so they could instead re-list it at a price outside and above the rental cap.

And so, as we said here last week, direct intervention in the market via a mandated rent cap – even one with a clear expiry date – is probably not wise. But that does not mean those doing it tough should be ignored. Queenslanders are hurting, and as we have also said previously – not everyone is on a ministerial salary.

It was good, then, to hear Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk declare that nothing is off the table at next week’s second state housing summit – the direct result of The Courier-Mail’s campaign last year. We agree that so much more needs to be done.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

But when you read the transcript of what the Premier actually said yesterday, you are left in little doubt that her position at least appears unequivocal when it comes to her consideration of a rental cap.

The Premier said: “Next week we’ll also be discussing rental caps as well. I understand that this is a big issue for families, they are constantly being faced with huge increases in rent. And this is putting a lot of pressure on families. So as I said, it’s all on the table for next week.”

Asked what a rental cap scheme would be modelled on, she said: “We’re not looking at other states in relation to that. We’re looking very seriously at how a rental cap can be put in place. We know that there has also been around eight or nine, you know, interest rate increases that is really adding to people’s stress, we understand that.”

The Premier was then asked about the inevitable pushback that such a scheme would elicit from the property sector, prompting Ms Palaszczuk to reply: “We will work with them, they are part of the housing roundtable, so we will be discussing this next Tuesday.”

It all sounds very unequivocal. The only conclusion you can draw – on face value – is that a government-mandated cap on rents is seriously being considered; an extraordinary development that The Courier-Mail joins the chorus of experts in having very serious doubts about.

But perhaps the Premier has no plans to do such a thing. Maybe this was all just a deflection after the damning study on yesterday’s front page that revealed the number of Queenslanders in critical housing stress is equivalent to twice the population of Cairns.

That study concluded the state government would need to increase its supply of public housing tenfold just to meet demand – in turn, a reminder of the very un-Labor-like chronic underinvestment in social housing over the Palaszczuk government’s eight years in office.

But by flying her rent cap kite, the Premier ensured the television news coverage last night led with that – and not the devastating impact that her government’s wholesale neglect of a public housing safety net has had, a service that should have come naturally to a Labor government.

Originally published as Editor’s view: Premier’s rental cap announcement a deflection from critical housing crisis