Airbnb is not responsible for our housing crisis

The report points to many positive factors about short stay. It builds the local tourism industry, provides support for many local businesses, and also may provide an income stream to support existing homeowners, perhaps allowing them to service a mortgage instead of having to sell up.

It also provides competition to local hotels and motels, forcing them to keep their tariffs down-another boon to the tourism industry.

While some short stay is probably withdrawn from the long-term rental pool, a lot of it represents housing that was always devoted to holiday rentals, so there has been no change of use at all.

Australia expects somewhere around 700,000 net migrants in the next two years. That will require somewhere around 280,000 dwellings, which represents around 2.8 percent of our dwelling stock, and will have to be built new.

How much does a static 1 percent of housing stock add to demand, compared to a dynamic 2.8 percent?

Short stay actually increases the productivity of our residential housing stock, and that's a good thing for everyone.

If it raises prices, that should be a signal to developers to build more, and that will fix any housing crisis.

Of course, they won't be able to build that stock so easily unless councils and state governments simplify their planning regulations and provide the infrastructure necessary to get work going.

While that sort of work might be seen as unglamorous, if it is seen at all, in the long run, they will have happier citizens who will be more likely to re-elect them. Picking on short stay plays into our grievance culture and not much more.

In the end, a good housing policy means there is housing available for everyone and every need. It does not mean you restrict who can come in to make the existing housing stock adequate.

The system most likely to produce that outcome is one where individual property owners are free to make the decisions that suit them best with their property, and there is a development industry unconstrained by regulations to help them make those decisions most effectively.