Has Airbnb lost its soul? Credit:Bloomberg It recommends all governments legalise ride ­sharing, saying recent such moves by the NSW and the ACT "provide good models for other governments to follow". Powers to fine Airbnb hosts In relation to short-term rental accommodation such as Airbnb, it says "any rent increases caused by the rise of short-­stay rentals are likely to be localised or small", and governments should "freely permit all occasional short-­stay whole-­premise letting". To limit noise and loss of amenity when people rent out their spaces, ​the report suggests state governments give owners' corporations (also known as body corporates) more powers to control short-­stay rentals, "possibly even the power to ban continuous, whole-­premise short-­stay rentals if agreed to by members".

The report points out that for all the complaints from body corporates that typically deal with physical property issues and other problems when people live close together, disruptive behaviour is relatively low. The Grattan Institute's Jim Minifie says fines need to be "big enough to make an impact". Credit:Louise Kennerley Airbnb, which began operating in Australia in 2009, is the biggest global accommodation platform with more than 66,000 listings, mostly in inner Sydney and Melbourne. Stayz has more than 40,000 ­property listings. The report says some taxi drivers should be able to get compensation from state governments. Credit:iStock

Aggregate data for apartment buildings with short-stay accommodation sites shows that out of a total of 1.2 million stays, just over 1000 complaints were made. These included problems of users of short-term accommodation damaging property, littering in common areas, loud noise and music, and offensive language. It also included behaviour such as drinking alcohol and/or smoking in common areas, vomiting, urinating or defecating in common areas, visible nudity, dropping items from balconies, and overcrowding. There were also a few occasions where building security, police or other emergency services been called to attend to complaints. Regulators will need to ensure platforms do not abuse the power they acquire as their user bases grow Grattan Institute report Grattan Institute productivity growth program director Jim Minifie, a co-author of the report, said body corporates could be given powers under existing laws to hit owners renting out homes with fines if there were such disruption. "You would want the fine to be big enough to make an impact," he said. "Per incident it could be a speeding-ticket-fine amount."

Uber v taxi owners In the case of ride-sharing service Uber, the report suggests having regulations with "minimum safety requirements", lower taxi and hire-­car licence prices, deregulation of pre-­booked fares, and maximum fares for rank-­and-­hail trips. It says compensation should be limited to people who bought taxi licences recently, and/or who suffer severe financial hardship. Dr Minifie said the value of taxi owner licencesnationwide was about $4 billion, because values had been falling since Uber moved in. He said the pre-Uber average value was $350,000 a licence. But even if liberalisation reduces licence values and rents to zero, many licence owners will still have earned positive returns, he said. "Licence owners are never going to get compensation for all that," Dr Minifie said, but added there were grounds for compensation in some cases.

The NSW government recently set up a compensation fund of $250 million ($108 million is to pay perpetual taxi licence holders $20,000 for each of up to two licences, and $142 million is for those in financial hardship). Don't leave workers worse off The report suggests less than half a per cent of adult Australians (80,000 people) work on peer-­to-­peer platforms more than once a month. About 20,000 people drove with Uber at least once in the four weeks to December 2015. About 70,000 tradespeople are registered on hipages, an Australian platform for home ­improvement.

And Airtasker, an Australian odd-­jobs platform, says "many thousands" regularly work through the site, although the total value of jobs posted each month is just $3.5 million, enough to support fewer than 1500 workers full ­time at the minimum wage. The Grattan Institute report says that while peer-to-peer services can create flexibility by allowing people to undertake short-term or contracting work, these platforms may also "circumvent labour regulations" and "undercut firms whose employees, who benefit today from regulation or collective bargaining". It recommends the federal government tighten "sham contracting" provisions in the Fair Work Act, and require platforms to supply peer-­to-­peer workers with more information about the risks and responsibilities of being a contractor. The states, meanwhile, should ensure peer-­to-­peer workers in riskier occupations have workers' compensation coverage. Beef up competition and tax laws

The report says competition and consumer laws are mostly fit to deal with the peer-­to-­peer economy. But it recommends the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission adapt existing competition law principles for this new economy. "Regulators will need to ensure platforms do not abuse the power they acquire as their user bases grow," the report says. It suggests creating a voluntary industry code of conduct for peer-­to-­peer platforms that provides guidelines for dealing with disputes, privacy issues and handling data. Uber's Brad Kitschke and Airbnb's Sam McDonagh at the Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer It also urges the federal government to give proper resourcing to the ACCC to enable it to investigate and prosecute anti-­competitive behaviour.