Brisbane’s most colourful councillor has taken to living in a houseboat, well beneath his means.

“It’s not an easy life,” Jonathan Sri said. “Kayaking on and off every day, being attacked by sandflies…”

Cr Sri has been living on the boat with his girlfriend since March this year, after buying the houseboat on the Gold Coast and driving it up closer to home.

The living space inside is just five metres by three, which makes for cramped dinner parties.

As one of Brisbane’s 26 councillors, Cr Sri is entitled to an annual salary of $157,782 but he doesn’t make use of it all himself.

Theoretically Cr Sri could likely get a home loan for well in excess of $1 million — more than enough to purchase a renovated family home in the inner city.

Instead, the Greens councillor donates half of his wage to charity and chooses to live on a vessel that cost just $30,000.

There’s a few reasons for this decision. First and foremost, Cr Sri said, a lawmaker’s wage growth is well out of step with ordinary Australians.

“I get about $150,000 a year. If I was keeping that I could afford to live in a much nicer place,” he said. “Until ordinary workers are paid better and Centrelink is much more reasonable I don’t think it’s fair for politicians to be afforded much higher pay.”

Next is housing affordability. The 29-year-old was once famously based in a sharehouse in West End.

“Most people in my generation have already given up on the possibility of home ownership,” he said. “A whole generation of young people have been locked out of the housing market and it’s naive for government to think the private sector will increase home affordability.”

Cr Sri said the Greens were often attacked for not practising what they preach.

“It’s about practising what I preach,” he said. “Our housing policy for the state election was really reasonable. It’s solid policy but because it’s a challenge to the property industry and the political establishment you’re attacked.

“It reduces the opportunity for more meaningful and evidence-based debate.”

Cr Sri was careful to point out that he did not want low income earners to live like he does, nor did he want legislators to use it as a model for low cost housing in future.

“It’s a lot more cramped than I think is comfortable and it’s not sustainable for most people,” he said. “The way I live is not a model I’d recommend for housing affordability.”

Living on a houseboat was not a stunt to call for a reduction in politicians’ wages either, Cr Sri said.

“It’s all relative. It’s fine for politicians to be well paid as long as everyone else is,” he said. “I’m not saying that politicians are paid too much, I’m saying ordinary workers are paid too little.

“It’s about practising what I preach.”