2026-01-15
Opposing short-stay rentals, supporting the Assisted Reproductive Technology and Surrogacy Bill and fighting the State Development Bill
By Hon Tim Clifford, MLC
Wow – what a bloody huge final couple of months of 2025!
I’d hoped for a slow wind-down before my office took a break over the festive season, but instead we got an extra week of Parliament tacked on to the December sitting week. As always, housing was the main focus of my work and I’m proud of the small wins my team and I achieved.
Housing motion
Unhosted short-stays are absolutely decimating the long-term rental market in WA, and yet the Cook Labor Government isn’t just failing to meaningfully address it – they’ve washed their hands of the issue by shifting the responsibility onto local councils.
It’s absolutely unacceptable, and they need to be called out on it. So in November, I moved a motion in Parliament calling on the government to take responsibility for the impact of unhosted short-stay rentals – like AirBNBs – on the long-term rental market.
The fact of the matter is that WA Labor’s refusal to properly regulate short-stays is robbing thousands of Western Australians of a place to call home. In the middle of a housing crisis, it’s downright criminal.
For instance, Freo has 12 short-stay rentals for every home in the long-term rental market – a figure that’s more than doubled in just two years. In Margaret River, the ratio is a staggering 58 to 1.
The measures the Cook Labor Government have implemented to help address this have been failures. In my motion, I urged them to do more: introduce a levy on short-stay rentals, and to consider other real solutions like a cap on the number of days an entire home can be leased as a short-stay each year.
A win for equality
December 3rd was a historic day for Western Australia: the upper house passed the Assisted Reproductive Technology and Surrogacy Bill!
As the last state in the country to update our discriminatory surrogacy laws, these changes are long overdue. People of all genders, sexual orientations and relationship statuses deserve the right to access the reproductive technologies they need to complete their families, and I’m overjoyed that this bill makes that a reality.
With the Greens holding the balance of power in the upper house, our support was crucial in ensuring this reform passed. I’m so proud to have been part of this historic moment, and am incredibly grateful to the many people and organisations that worked tirelessly over the years to lead us here.
State Development Bill
In December, the Cook Labor Government’s State Development Bill passed the upper house after a marathon debate in Parliament. Myself and my Greens colleagues did everything we could to fight this dangerous and undemocratic bill, which grants the Premier extraordinary powers to fasttrack any project he deems to be a priority.
Once it became clear the bill would pass, we worked hard to improve and scrutinise it as best we could. Unfortunately, WA Labor and the Liberals worked together to shoot down some really critical Greens amendments, like excluding uranium and nuclear projects. The two major parties should hang their heads in shame for putting corporate interests ahead of nature, community and climate – yet again.
Looking back, looking ahead
Reflecting on the past year since I re-entered Parliament at the end of May, it’s hard to believe we’ve achieved so much in such a short span of time. I feel so much gratitude for every single person in our movement who made 2025 the memorable year it has been. Thank you so much for being a part of it all.
2026 is going to be just as huge, particularly as my team and I ramp up our housing campaign. The fight for everyone’s right to a home is only as strong as the movement behind it, so make sure you keep an eye out and get involved. Happy new year!
Header photo: Tim and the Greens MLCs giving a press conference outside Parliament after he moved his housing motion in November