Housing wait times hit new record high
The Liberal government continues to fail Tasmanians in need of secure housing, with the latest Housing Dashboard showing both the waitlist and wait time for housing have hit new record highs.
The waitlist for March topped 4,600 for the first time – at 4,603, up from 2771 when the Liberals first came to office.
And Tasmanians are waiting an average of 80.8 weeks for housing – up from 21 weeks when the Liberals won government.
Not only that but the time between people moving out and a property being re-tenanted now averages more than a month, and the maintenance backlog is growing with the number of work orders completed down by a third compared to last year.
This crisis has happened over almost ten years of Liberal government, but instead of taking the action needed to fix it, they have simply sat by and watched as it gets worse and worse.
It’s pretty clear that if they haven’t fixed it by now they never will.
A Labor Government will get more homes built by finalising the long-promised planning scheme, and will also ensure no more homes are lost to short-stay accommodation by placing an immediate pause on any new whole home permits.
Labor will also urgently repair the 215 social and government houses sitting empty because they are “untenantable” to give 215 families a safe place to call home.