@c_mcph said:
Sorry to sound like I was telling you how to do your job but I see leaving out council obligations as dropping the ball if you write an article about options for handling Airbnb. It’s not just my opinion that this is a council responsibility.
I am going to say this once more and then I’m shutting this down – and it’s not because I want to end the discussion but because of your insulting choice of words and refusal to respond to what I am saying rather than what you want to hear.
Trust me, if I wanted to limit your “free speech”, all your posts would have already gone.
I explained previously that my article was about options that were being discussed. As far as I know, the idea of somehow persuading councils to do what, I agree, is their legal duty has not been discussed in any significant way.
Why? Probably because it’s already not working and the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
How do I know this? Because I am in regular contact with the three government ministers at the heart of the new legislation.
I am also certain of this because councils have made it clear to parliament that they are not interested in policing this out-of-control cash grab by apartment residents.
I don’t dispute that councils have a duty and I don’t dispute that they have failed to exercise it. I have already explained the probable reason why that is the case.
If you can’t accept the facts, that’s really not my problem, but I would be “dropping the ball” if I pretended increased council activity was a real option. Maybe it should be, but it’s not.
You can quote all the legislation you like, but look around you. Name one instance of someone being pinged for running illegal short-term lets in Sydney in the past year.
Also, only a couple of councils made submissions to the Coure inquiry. One was from the Byron Bay area that has its own problems, the other was from City of Sydney, washing their hands of the whole airbnb problem and handing it back to the government.
Now, THAT is dropping the ball and if you have a problem with that, take it up with Clover Moore and her hipster policy wonks.