A Canberra Liberals bill to give landlords who rent their properties through community housing providers an exemption on land tax does not guarantee a Greens proposal for a 25 per cent discount on market rent.
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But Opposition housing spokesman Mark Parton, who tabled the bill in the ACT Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, said reduced rent remained the intention in the bill, even if not explicitly mentioned.
It comes as all parties look to potential options to solve what many have dubbed a rental affordability crisis in the capital and the community continues to await Housing Minister Yvette Berry's new housing affordability strategy.
Mr Parton's bill would allow landlords of Canberra properties to allow the property to be managed by a community housing provider to rent the property to tenants who are struggling in the private rental market.
But it does not include key provisions the Greens MLA Caroline Le Couteur has pushed for, including enshrining a 25 per cent reduction on market rent on such properties and ensuring providers complete due diligence so tenants of such properties are genuinely low-income households.
Mr Parton said the Opposition's bill was no silver bullet for the rental affordability crisis, but he believed it would help some Canberrans into more affordable homes, and that after months of debate on the issues, the time to act was now.
While he did say such properties would be offered to tenants at an affordable level, the actual legislation does not include a specific clause, nor does it specifically define what that affordable level would be, or what low-income households may be.
But Mr Parton said outside the Assembly he believed the bill did not need to officially mention the 25 per cent discount, as landlords would be required to rent the properties through a registered provider.
He said that given their core business was renting properties at 25 per cent below market rent, he would expect them to do so for any properties using the exemption.
He also reiterated his concerns about the way a proposed motion on the matter was dealt with earlier this year, when the Greens beat the Opposition to the punch in introducing a motion in Assembly, which was largely similar to the Opposition's.
Ms Le Couteur said while she believed the Opposition's intentions were the same as the Greens on the issue, she was still concerned some providers may not definitely provide properties at the discounted rate, as historically providers have rented some properties at market rates to help subsidise reduced rents in others.
She also raised concerns the bill may not be able to be effectively debated or passed in the Assembly, due to Standing Orders preventing private members' bills from introducing measures that affect government financial appropriations.
But Mr Parton said as the bill did not propose a specific additional spending measure, he believed it should not cross into the realms of an appropriations bill, and given the Land Tax Act already provided similar exemptions, the bill proposed only minor changes to the Act.
While it remains unclear whether the bill would engage such rules, it has not yet been tested on the bill through what would likely involve a point of order being raised on the floor before a Speaker's ruling on the matter.
The Greens motion passed by the Assembly earlier this year, after government amendments, also urged the government to report back on the proposal by October this year, among other issues.
Ms Le Couteur said while she backed the principle of the Opposition bill, she wanted to wait to hear back from government before deciding to support the bill or not.
She also said that if the bill was not able to be passed as a private members' bill, she hoped the government would then act to legislative to ensure appropriations were made for the proposal, given wide political and community support.
