So what next?

Hi Everyone

Thanks for signing this petition and then sharing it.  Great effort. We're now up to 342 signatures. This Council rorting is wrong and deeply disquieting, but how do we stop it?

Well this afternoon I jotted down a draft concept of how to proceed with this petition, just one aspect of 'People Power'!

The likely next step will be public meetings and fund-raising to change perceptions and get our MPs into action on our behalf.

Let me know what you think

pipwillis@gmail.com

Councils v Hosts

a

Roadmap for Change.

By Pip Willis 9th August 2023

Abstract:

Some Queensland Councils that enjoy significant tourism are tripling private home Rates charges for short term rental accommodation. Not only is this unfair on these ‘hosts’, it is inequitable for these Councils to profit alone from tourism and that the benefits garnered from this industry should be spread more equitably. Further, such private hosting is a unique and established method of tourism that will not cease and is likely to expand. This mode of tourism empowers guests and hosts, not only bringing tourism business efficiently and directly to people in ‘Person-to-Person’ transactions, but also creates significant service employment. The Council gouging is stifling this mode of business, restricting tourism and reducing employment. This paper considers it established that this gouging is wrong and needs to be stopped, offering a potential methodology to achieve this.

Introduction:

Sunshine Coast Council is typical of the gouging Councils, its standard ‘General differential Rate’ for an ‘urban’ property as principal private residence with a Land Value of $1.1m is 0.2983 cents in the dollar (Rate Code 11). If you offer this property for short term rental the rate becomes 0.8600 (Rate Code 19UT) almost tripling the Rates to be paid. ($3,281.30 versus $9,460.00)

Recently since the re-urbanisation of metro areas after Covid-19 there has been a rental crisis. The reasons for this crisis are complex and compound. However, counter-intuitively, Councils gouging hosts used the Rental Crisis as justification. However this has been thoroughly debunked in two scholarly investigations at UQ and USC. Private Home Short Term Rental Accommodation (PHoSTRA) does not clash or exacerbate the Rental Crisis.

The rates gouge has angered many as it is clearly punitive and offers an opportunity for Councils to increase revenue with little or no political expense, thanks to the perennially bad public perception of PHoSTRA.  The questions this paper asks is Why and How?

Why?

Why do Councils feel they can make this tripling of Rates? The answer is because only a few people in the community can be bothered to garner PHoSTRA  income, as it is a lot of work and accepts significant risk. Thus the rest of the community are disparaging, not realising the work or risk, or the myriad benefits to society and the community, seeing PHoSTRA as selfish hosts being greedy at their expense (a disintegration of the social fabric). This ‘sour-grapes’ concept in the community has of course been aided and abetted by traditional tourist accommodation who see PHoSTRA as a direct threat to their businesses.  This double prong, therefore makes PHoSTRA an easy target for rorting by Councils as they (we) have no effective leadership, being disparate ‘grass-roots’ businesses. Councils can then ‘justifiably’ tax these 'avaricious' hosts 'to the greater benefit' of the community. And as such the many benefits PHoSTRA brings to the community are untold and not promulgated through society. PHoSTRA companies like Airbnb have not been effective in stepping up, in a greater and more visual way to oppose the standard view of PHoSTRA.

How?

The perception of hosts as greedy opportunists needs to be changed and the many benefits of PHoSTRA to the community and society need to be promulgated.  Once the community understands the hard work and risk that Hosts undertake and accept and the benefits to the community in employment and tourism revenue, then Councils will no longer be able to justify penalising PHoSTRA (and encourage and support them as they should be).   

This benefit to the community can be made stark by comparing an exclusive home empty for all but two weeks a year, compared with a home full all the time with vibrant tourists, spending money and the many jobs they in-directly create.

Unfortunately, such a campaign will take time to change people’s perceptions and that means that in the meantime, these Councils will continue to rip off their Rate-payers who offer PHoSTRA or close down those who were considering it. So, how to stop them.

Councils are over-seen by State Parliament. In NSW the State has ruled that Councils no longer have the power to penalise PHoSTRA and that there is a State-wide policy governing this sub-industry. This what we have to achieve here.  We should take solid aim at the State parliament, targeting all the MPs and in particular the Minister for Local Government (Dr Steven Miles).

All people who support change to the current situation should write to the Minister and their local State MP, for Councils will not voluntarily give up this revenue stream and will have to be legislatively forced to do so.

MPs respond to people. Thus we need public meetings with ever greater attendance. I think we also need to keep the community on brief with ads to them directly (and State Parliament in-directly) explaining why PHoSTRA is a good thing not a bad thing.  The joy of booking, of being a guest, and the employment and economical boost guests bring. Thus a funding model is required for on-line donations to fund such ads and some kind of attendance fee/donation for any meetings (real or electronic).

There is also a Federal issue to this, as the money Council’s take is 100% tax deducible, meaning lost revenue to the ATO and all Australians. There may also be a constitutional aspect to what property ownership means in the sharing economy. Many people, professionals etc work from home, will their rates be tripled too?

As a further goad to State Parliament, I think it will be necessary to institute a State PHoSTRA tax, on a rooms-nights basis (say $1 per room per night) such that the boon of tourism can be spread equitably.  I think this is important, as there are social disintegration issues to PHoSTRA, and there is the fact that we rely on State and Local infrastructure to run our businesses and our strongest platform against this Council tax is ‘Equity’.

Conclusion:

We know this Council tax is wrong, but while they think they can get away with it, they will. Thus we need to get people, all people not just hosts, to get on board and see this Council cash grab for what it is. PHoSTRA is here to stay but as with any new thing, people need to understand it fully before they will accept it - imagine there was no Airbnb?

Society has changed profoundly in the last 20 years. Sadly one of those changes is that politics has become almost synonymous with money.  If we want change, we’re going to have to pay for it. Thus first steps, form a structure, open a bank account and raise money.

Pip Willis