Page 2493 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 18 August 1993
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Mr Cornwell then could not hold back from a diatribe against International Tenants Day. That is part of this Government's ongoing process of education on consumer rights. Tenants' rights are an important aspect of a consumer education program. Modesty forbids me from reminding Opposition members of the way the Australian Consumers Association rated the efforts of the consumer affairs portfolio in the ACT in relation to all other consumer affairs portfolios, other than saying that there was nobody who was rated in front of me. It is an important process.
The other point to make is that the Office of Rental Bonds is providing a very important service to tenants in the ACT at no cost to general ratepayers. The interest that is accrued on bonds is paying for the operation of the Rental Bonds Office. I would have thought that the Opposition would think that was a sensible thing to do, to provide a consumer affairs service that in effect is being paid for by the relevant parties. In the past the profit on rental bonds was going into the landlord's pocket; it was never going to the tenant. Now the profit on rental bonds is going to pay for the operation of the Rental Bond Board at no cost to the ratepayer. As the funds accrue further we will be running some tenant advisory services. We have indicated that, as a result of quite extensive consultation with the community, the favoured option was not to return the interest to tenants but to use the money, as it starts to accrue, for tenant education programs. I hope to be able to announce the successful tenant advisory and education program on International Tenants Day, which will be well received by tenants in the ACT.
In due course, as we said at the outset of the legislation, it may be possible for us to start to pay some interest to tenants, and that would be a good thing; but the pattern across Australia, whether it has been a Labor government or a Liberal government that has introduced Office of Rental Bonds legislation or similar legislation, has been to start off using the interest to pay for the operation of the agency, then to extend it for some education programs, and then perhaps to extend it to make some provision to pay back some level of interest to tenants. In most cases it was five or six years from the introduction of the legislation to the first payment of interest to tenants. In due course we may well be able to do that and to satisfy Mr Cornwell's strong urges on this issue.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.
Bill agreed to.
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