Mr BAYLEY (Clark) – Deputy Speaker, I thank the member for bringing this on. It is an important issue to the Greens. We have been championing some of these reforms for many years. The motion opens with the fact that it is National Homelessness Week. It is clear from the theme of National Homelessness Week, and as we heard from St Vincent de Paul yesterday at the Breakfast on the Domain, that it is time for advocacy to end – we need action now to help deal with the housing crisis. From our perspective, that looks broader than the bill before us. We will continue to prosecute the need for rent control measures, an end to no-cause evictions, minimum standards in rentals and reining in short-stay accommodation.
Premier Rockliff went to National Cabinet and signed on to A Better Deal For Renters, which included a repeal of no-cause evictions. We are going to keep pushing for that. We fundamentally believe we need action now. We also believe that these issues have been debated to death. We do have disagreement in the community, but that is normal with bills. It is our job as members to determine. It is their job as advocates and our job as members to listen to that advocacy, consider it and, ultimately, decide.
This bill has already been out for significant consultation. A whole range of different stakeholders were engaged in consultation and now it has been tabled. From the Greens’ perspective, it is time to get this done and to finally afford renters the rights to have pets in their home and to finally allow for minor modifications. We have flagged and have already distributed a range of amendments to the bill when we get to it.
I note the correspondence from a range of different community stakeholders: the Community Legal Centres Tasmania, Council of the Ageing Tasmania, Shelter Tasmania, Disability Voices Tasmania, TasCOSS, Anglicare Tasmania, YNOT, the Tasmanian University Student Association, the Tenants Union of Tasmania, and the Migrant Resource Centre, who have collectively written to us on 5 August regarding the proposed amendments to the Residential Tenancy Act and they say:
We welcome the tabling of the Residential Tenancy Amendment Bill and its recognition that renters should not have to choose between a place to live and the pet they love. We also support renters being able to make minor modifications to fix furniture to the walls. This reform will reduce the risk of harm, particularly to young children.
I acknowledge we have been getting a whole raft of different emails from the Real Estate Institute of Tasmania on behalf of, presumably, property owners. There is no way to verify whether every email we get is from a property owner, but I acknowledge that there have been a number of them. I acknowledge there is contention on this issue, but that is our job as legislators. Our job is to sift through the advocacy, understand the arguments, try to get them clear in our heads and ultimately decide.
As far as the Greens are concerned, we have a bill that has been consulted on. It is contentious but we will debate it and ultimately the parliament will decide. From our perspective, we do not support the amendment because it is ill‑defined, as the member for Braddon said. We do not know what that looks like. We do not know how long that will last and so we do not support the amendment, but I do note that we also do not support the original motion.
We do not feel like there is need for additional inquiry and scrutiny into these issues. We do have our amendments. We do not need a committee process to inform us as to what amendments to move. We will distribute them, we will debate them, and they will live or die upon the numbers. Certainly, as is the theme of National Homelessness Week, it is time for action now. We have a bill before us. We think it is well drafted. We think it can be improved. We will seek to do that and we should get on with it. We could do it as soon as tomorrow.
I acknowledge the Jacqui Lambie Network’s advocacy in this space and their concerns in this space, but I do recognise your commitment in the election campaign context to stand up for renters and be a really strong voice for renters in this place. When this bill is here in this House, I do urge you to support it. I do not believe we need any more inquiry, whether that be through consultation or formal committee process.
It is time to get the job done to increase the rights of renters, to increase safety for renters, and to start to crack the seal, crack into the reforms that are needed in the residential tenancy space because they are certainly not limited to what is in this bill. We need to go further, but this is a very good start. We are ready to get on and support it.
