Letter to the Editor: Sudden Airbnb taxing is lazy

That Premier Roger Cooke intends to break Airbnb options in WA, restricting Airbnb to 60 days per year (The West Australian, 29/09), is populist wrecking politics.

It will remove much tourist accommodation from the mix in regional areas.

Short-stay accommodation businesses provide needed rooms, as well as considerable employment in the towns they operate in.

Tourism provides a plethora of jobs for a local economy.

Accommodation is just the start of the trail of economic effect left by tourists.

Tourist activity will be reduced if short-stay accommodation is taken out of the mix and tourist events would have to be reduced, affecting all accommodation suppliers in the region, as well as any business that caters to the tourist market.

Growing an economy consists of much more considered economic interventions than pandering to the radical populist non-thinking side of the room.

Short-stay accommodation providers are required to be registered with local government.

If the considered opinion of the Government is that there is sufficient supply in an area, then stop providing licences for new ones.

Certainty of operation is a reasonable premise in this modern economic structure we inhabit. Breaking the system for all that have entered the market in a considered and (they thought) sustainable way is an unacceptable option.

Scuttling out from under the decision by placing the final decision on local government is unacceptable.

Successive State governments for years have been reducing the power of local governments.

Placing any power back in local government is bad leadership.

This is lazy economic thinking by modern governments which seem to think waging a war on capital is going to relieve the housing shortage.

The housing crisis has been engineered by successive governments holding wages down relative to inflation. It has not just leapt upon us fully formed.

The current general vilification of landlords — people with capital, who provide rental accommodation — will only see more and more housing provided by government. Rental housing is more cost-effectively provided by the private market.

Activate funds sitting around in super funds. Taxing high-wealth super fund holders is a backward step. The super system has done wonderful things for Australia.

It needs to be tweaked.

Sudden taxing is lazy thinking; an option that just gives money to government bureaucrats in the forlorn hope they might spend it wisely.

Better would be to change leadership options to use this pool of funds to provide housing.

Edwin Mclean, Albany.

Letters to the editor must contain the author’s full name, address and daytime contact number. Letters may be edited for space, clarity or legal reasons. Email news@albanyadvertiser.com or post to PO Box 5168 Albany, WA, 6332.