Page 2492 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 18 August 1993
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Mr Kaine: No, they all get a day's free rent.
MR CORNWELL: Perhaps they do get a day's free rent; I am not sure, Mr Kaine. Perhaps it is a celebration of tenants around the world, of rented Bushmen's huts in the South African veldt, a yurt on the Mongolian steppe or even a Dyak long house in Sarawak. What I do know, however, is that it is a waste of money.
Mr Lamont: Is Mrs Carnell writing your speeches too?
MR CORNWELL: It will add nothing, or very little information, Mr Lamont, to landlords or tenants. I would suggest that, apart from tenant groupies, it will simply be of no interest to the overwhelming number of ACT tenants who have better things to do with their time than celebrating International Tenants Day.
Mr Kaine: And their money.
MR CORNWELL: The point is that it will not be their money, Mr Kaine.
Mr Kaine: It is money that the Government has tucked away in their piggy bank.
MR CORNWELL: That is correct. They certainly will have better things to do with their time, or most tenants will, than celebrating International Tenants Day, with which they have absolutely no rapport. The expenditure of such funds on International Tenants Day by the Office of Rental Bonds, upon what I would regard as esoteric and irrelevant activities such as this, is wrong and simply confirms the worst fears of those who oppose the use of funds for information programs in this way by the Office of Rental Bonds.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (4.56), in reply: I thank the Opposition for their support for these technical amendments. These come out of a very sensible process. The Rental Bond Board legislation had been in place for about 12 months when the Government decided to call together the relevant parties - the landlords' representatives, the tenants union, ACTCOSS and various other community groups - to have a look at how the law had been operating and to finetune it. None of us, despite the best research we can do, can ever say that legislation that we steer through this house will be perfect. It is always sensible, after it has been in place for 12 months or so, to have a look and to bring back some finetuning. I am pleased that this package of changes was supported across the board. Whether it was landlords' interests or tenants' interests, everybody thought that these were sensible amendments, and I am pleased that the Opposition has supported them.
Mr Cornwell agreed that it was sensible to extend the period for lodging certain documentation. He asked why we said 14 days rather than eight working days. The reason, as I understand it, is that in the ACT particularly there can be some confusion about what is a working day because we have public service holidays which are not bank holidays; we have trade union holidays which are not bank or public service holidays; we have bank holidays which are not public service or trade union holidays; and so it goes on. There is not utter uniformity as to what is and what is not a working day, so we thought we would take the simple course.
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