Page 2452 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 7 August 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Such matters -
in that fair trading Act -
include, the prohibition on landlords obtaining payments in connection with renewals and extension and assignment of leases, the restriction of advance rent payments, entitlements to lease renewals, entitlements to compensation in compulsory relocation and redevelopment of premises and lease negotiations, and a rent calculation mechanism.
Mr Acting Speaker, I draw attention to the Residents Rally policy on commercial tenancies, which is clearly a much more specific policy on business. The Residents Rally had a specific policy on business, devoted to business, but you cannot find a policy on business in the ALP's platform because it does not know what business is about; it does not understand it. It has doctrinaire statements.
The policy on commercial tenancies referred to the need to bring in legislation to include the right of a tenant to renew a lease, the right of a tenant to sign a lease, the method of fixing rent variations, et cetera, all of which I have read out and on which there is broad agreement in this Government. That is the way in which a drafting group is presently proceeding. This Alliance Government has fully met the promises that it has made to its electors. The Labor Party did not even have a policy on it and has only doctrinaire statements to make tonight on the subject. I am not surprised that not all of your members can stomach you tonight, either.
Mr Speaker, in response to this report, the Government has decided to invite principal industry groups to negotiate a code of practice to regulate commercial tenancies. The New South Wales code is being used as a starting point for discussion, and the code will be supported by fair trading legislation. The Government has thus accepted the committee's main recommendations.
In evaluating the select committee's recommendations, the Government considered two options which were available to address the problem - enactment of specific legislation or introduction of an industry developed code of practice backed up by fair trading legislation. The Government decided that a code agreed by industry and backed by legislation will achieve the same objectives as specific legislation but will have the advantage of providing a practical framework of cooperation. Cooperation is not in the ALP's lexicon. It wants to have large-scale consumer warfare in this Territory. That is what its policy says.
We should not lose sight of what would have happened if this clique had remained in power - or the whites, the reds, the Mensheviks, the Kalashnikovs or whatever clique
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .