Mayor hits back at Airbnb dob-ins

HOBART Lord Mayor Ron Christie has labelled his deputy’s idea to dob in suspected unlicensed Airbnb operators in their community as “un-Australian”.

As reported by the Mercury, Hobart Deputy Lord Mayor Peter Sexton wants residents to dob in suspected unlicensed Airbnb properties in their area to try to curb the spike in unregulated short-term accommodation in the city.

Ald Sexton, who lives in Battery Point, has asked the Battery Point Community Association to scout the neighbourhood and report properties it believes are Airbnbs to the council.

He has also asked council officers to provide a list of licensed Airbnb properties in Battery Point so the association can compare the lists.

Ald Sexton said the council would then be able to determine whether the property met the criteria for being ex- empt from licensing and accordingly.

But yesterday Ald Christie took to Facebook to condemn the idea.

“The views expressed by the Deputy Lord Mayor Peter Sexton in today’s Mercury are his own personal comments and not the opinion of Hobart Council,” he wrote.

“We [council] are not about ‘dobbing’ in a neighbour. Personally, I find the suggestion very un-Australian.”

Ald Christie said he wanted to make it clear Ald Sexton’s comments were not supported by the council. act

“We don’t want them to be misconstrued by the citizens of Hobart that they are council comments because they are not,” he said.

Battery Point Community Association president Charles Morgan said he had yet to take the proposal to the association but was not opposed to it.

He said Battery Point residents had witnessed a change in the community.

“We have seen long-term residents have to move out of their rental accommodation because it was being turned into visitor accommodation,” he said.

Tasmania’s peak tourism body likened the Government’s short-stay accommodation regulations to a “slowmoving train smash”.

Tourism Industry Council chief executive Luke Martin said it had become apparent nearly all Tasmanian stakeholders agreed the Government’s reforms to facilitate home sharing and deregulate short-term visitor accommo- dation had “gone too far in terms of removing any reasonable planning and regulatory control over where and how property owners engage in visitor accommodation”.

Mr Martin said the tourism industry was not opposed to Airbnb or home sharing, but opposed to “bad policy” in the tourism industry’s name.

But Katinka Challen, who owns Lily & Dot in the city, said she was concerned the positive impacts of Airbnb on small retail and hospitality businesses were being forgotten in the debate.

“We have direct business benefit from the Airbnb boom,” Ms Challen said.

“I think it’s important that in a visitor economy like Tasmania’s, where visitors want to come here for an authentic local experience, they want to go behind the scenery … that small traders have a voice.

“These people are helping us pay our rent and pay our staff and helping our businesses grow.”