Page 470 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 20 February 1991
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Bond refunds would be provided in a timely manner, where there was agreement between the tenant and the landlord or agent. Further, an appropriate dispute settling procedure would be established to decide on questions of bond refunds when agreements could not be reached between the parties. This would be an advantage to both parties involved. As I say, landlords, when I have spoken to them, and real estate agents consider this to be a very good idea.
Mr Speaker, as we all know, Liberal Party policy in these instances favours the powerful and the landlord, and provides no protection for the tenant. No wonder the Minister for Housing could not support the purer and more substantial Bill being put up by the Labor Party. As a major player in the Alliance Government, he is naturally bound by the outdated principles and thinking of the Liberal Party.
In addition to helping meet the housing needs of ACT residents, the surplus income which could be earned by the rental bond trust could be used, firstly, to improve landlord and tenant relations and to provide information on the rights and obligations of both landlord and tenant; secondly, to provide education and assistance to industry on residential real estate; and, thirdly, to meet the costs of dispute settling and administration. Our bona fides as a government were shown by the fact that in our first budget we allocated $250,000 for the establishment of a rental bond trust. In comparison, this Government has done practically nothing on housing in general. The rental bond trust currently being proposed by the Government is a mockery, and an unacceptable alternative to that being proposed by us.
Mr Speaker, I have previously mentioned the reason for the current Government's failure to act. It is because the principles which the Residents Rally claimed to have before entering this Government have been completely subverted by the free market, open slather policies of the Liberal Party. Let us turn for a moment to media comments regarding the compromised alternatives being proposed by the Housing Minister. I cannot help but think of the Canberra Times editorial headlines of 18 February this year. In clear, to the point language it announced, "ACT rental-bond board is silly". I repeat that it announced, "ACT rental-bond board is silly".
Mr Speaker, it appears that we have fellow travellers in the Canberra Times on this point, and they appear to have gotten to the heart of the matter, when in the opening paragraph of this editorial I read - and I hope that members will all take note of this, if they have not read it:
The ACT Government's proposed rental-bond board will be a complete waste of time. It will do nothing to settle disputes between landlord and tenants.
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