THE MINISTER'S SLEEPLESS NIGHTS

IF we are to believe the Minister here he is looking for a silver bullet that'll get him out of a political bind. ALL politicians who have invested heavily in the status quo that hangs its credibility on INVESTMENTdriven development aught to spending sleepless nights as well!!

Clearly, all together they got that wrong but somehow, and that's the political class who've thrown their hats into that ring, who've missed the point. That's so albeit that they together have up to now grown their wealth.

However, in many cases, a lot of their 'wealth' is invested in the houses and housing that the HOMEless cannot afford to live in despite being gainfully employed.

It may be a bitter pill to consider but IF the Minister were ti consider fr a moment that the 'experts' he relies upon, and his Dept, lack the wherewithal to hand him a 'silver bullet' or anything like it. However, there are experts out there in the constituency he is there to serve. They just do not work for him but they are there!

Representational democracy is failing in sync with the advance of the new technologies and IF the Minister was to give the Local Govt. Act he is trying to make work a moment's thought he will see that it was invoked before Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web while working at CERN in 1989 – just four years before the LGA was framed.

Tim Berners-Lee proposed a "universal linked information system" using several concepts and technologies, the most fundamental of which was the connections that existed between information. IF he were to think about all this in terms of the disruption of the status quo and how many WEBsites ever nano-second come online he'd quickly know that the status quo is not fit-for-purpose.

The "experts" identified here are the people the newDEMOCRACYFoundation pull together to form the CITIZEN'Sjuries who aim to deliver solutions to difficult/intractable problems – see https://www.newdemocracy.com.au/category/library/research-papers/.

So, if the Minister where to contemplate meaningful change there are three things he might consider doing:

• ... Firstly, make contact with the newDEMOCRACY Foundation, or like service provider, seeking advice on establishing a Citizen's Jury or a Standing Citizen's Assembly ; and

• ... Secondly, invite all Local Councils to follow in his footsteps; and

• ... Thirdly, work Local Councils towards fundamental change and specifically in such a way as to incrementally embrace more direct deliberation and engagement with Communities of Ownership and Interest that reflects the diversity cultural realities

within them.

The Minister's reports of sleepless nights thinking about Tasmania's housing dystopia would be nothing more than disingenuous, self-serving and hollow rhetoric IF he were keep on thinking that somehow someone from within the status will hand him a silver bullet. If you change nothing, nothing of substance changes albeit that change is inevitable. Nonetheless change is inevitable but it is growth that's always there as an option. And then there is always magic to rely upon

IN THE MERCURY MAY 6 2026: A trio of government bills intended to address the state’s housing crisis are expected to be considered by parliament during its latest sitting week.

This first bill – which will belatedly allow Tasmanian first home-buyers to access the federal Help-to-Buy Scheme – passed the House of Assembly on Tuesday.

Also on the notice paper is the government’s bill to place a levy on short-stay accommodation and a bill to allow tenants to more easily make safety upgrades to their rental accommodation.

The state’s housing crisis has been worsening for the last decade, marked in particular by high unmet demand for social, affordable and rental housing along with rapidly deceasing affordability.

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Minister Kerry Vincent. Question time in the Tasmanian house of assembly. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Minister for Housing and Planning Kerry Vincent told parliament he was losing sleep trying to find solutions.

“We need to concentrate and work as a parliament as a whole to make sure we tick as many of those boxes as we can, and I’m happy to take any suggestions from anybody on it,” he said.

“I’m lying awake for many hours at night reading, understanding, and listening to everything I possibly can to fine-tune everything that is in my ministry.”

Mr Vincent hailed the passage of the Help-to-Buy Bill.

“Help-to-Buy will complement our highly successful MyHome Shared Equity Program, which has already helped over 1,000 households,” he said.

“I want to again thank the constructive approach from my Federal colleagues for helping us get to this point.”

The government took on notice a question from independent Helen Burnet about why information required to be provided by operators under the 2019 Short Stay Accommodation Act appears to no longer be published.

Independent for Franklin David O’Byrne said the government needed to take more decisive action on short stay accommodation.

“According to the latest Anglicare Tasmania rental Affordability Snapshot, there are only 770 properties currently advertised for rent in the whole of Tasmania,” he said.

“In the past year, there has been a nine per cent decline in rental availability driven by an 18 per cent decline in Southern Tasmania.

“Over the past decade, the number of rentals has halved.

“In contrast, the number of short stays has skyrocketed, with over 8000 properties listed.

“Given the undeniable crisis in the private rental market, it is now incumbent on the government to come up with a coherent strategy to ameliorate the impact of short-term stays.”