The Tasmanian Greens are committed to fighting for the rights of renters, which is why we will move legislative amendments to provide tenants with the ability to make minor modifications to their homes.
The Rockliff government has tabled a bill in parliament that will allow tenants to make modifications to prevent furniture from toppling. That’s an important change, but it doesn’t go far enough.
There are many important reasons why renters might need to make modifications to their homes – whether that is for safety, security, accessibility, energy efficiency, or even just being able to connect to the NBN. At the moment people don’t have the right to make those changes, and that’s something we are pushing to change through legislative amendments.
For years, we have been talking to the community sector about these reforms, and we’re really pleased that 10 organisations have written to MPs in support of change. We have also circulated our amendments with our parliamentary colleagues and are continuing to work to secure their support.
We asked Minister Madeleine Ogilvie about this issue in parliament, and while she didn’t indicate immediate support for these reforms, it was somewhat encouraging she didn’t dismiss them out of hand. We will continue to work with members across the chamber to ensure we can pass these amendments.
For the sake of the tens of thousands of Tasmanians who rent, we hope the parliament will support this push to give them basic rights to make minor – but important – modifications to their homes.
