Mr BAYLEY question to MINISTER for HOUSING and PLANNING, Mr VINCENT
[10.22 a.m.]
Tasmania has some of the weakest protections for renters in the country. That’s why the Greens were pleased when your government announced a review of our tenancy laws, but that review still has many months to run and any reform will take even longer. That timeline may be fair for permanent changes to the law, however we have a critical situation right now that requires an urgent response. High costs mean many more people are struggling to pay the rent. There is simply no way they can afford further increases and they certainly shouldn’t be pushed out of their home for no good reason. Regardless of your government’s view on a permanent policy change, surely you recognise the need to respond to this crisis. Will you advocate for freezing rents and protecting tenants from no-cause evictions for the duration of this energy and cost-of-living crisis?
ANSWER
Honourable Speaker, I thank the honourable member for the question, it is very relevant and I see it every day and my staff experience it every day with the heartfelt letters that have been received. We work through as many of those situations as we possibly can, with our hand on our hearts to try and make [inaudible]. It is a very awkward situation and we are constantly looking at different ways we can help. We’re talking to as many of the different agents as we can. There is no set plan for anything at the moment other than everybody is conscious of the pressures of cost of living that everybody is under, more so homeless and crisis and social care. We will continue to work through that in any way that we can. I do not have a set process of procedure for that now because we’re addressing issues as we can, but you have my full commitment that we will continue to work with all the bodies to do what we can.
Supplementary Question
Mr BAYLEY – That was a very good answer from the minister in relation to public housing and agencies and the like, but my question was very specifically in relation to the private rental market and rent increases. It’s about the need to freeze rents to protect people from the cost of living crisis, and indeed, end no cause evictions and the situation where people can be forced out of their homes. The question was: will you advocate for these measures? Do you accept that they are important critical measures and will you advocate for them within the government?
ANSWER
Honourable Speaker, yes, we advocate for those sort of measures all the time, within the realms of common sense, and we’ll continue to do so and examine them all as they come through. There are many different parts to that, but we do not want to see people evicted in these difficult circumstances, and we do constantly review those situations.
