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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (6 November) . . Page.. 3767 ..

MS REILLY (continuing):

This will ensure that you should be able to get a broader scope of people, not just magistrates. You may be able to get some people with community and broad residential tenancy experience, and I think this would be advantageous for all concerned. This will particularly help when the tribunal is sitting as more than one member at a time.

The other important aspect of this is to ensure that any tribunal set up is properly resourced. This is something which I have much concern about. The suggestion that this will be budget neutral and will be funded out of budget savings is a concern. When the tribunal is being set up under new legislation there will be some backlog. People will want to put some matters before the tribunal and there could be undue delay in matters being considered. In some cases this could be dangerous, and I am sure that the tribunal will organise some sort of priority. In the day-to-day running of the tribunal, if there are undue delays, if matters take longer and longer to be considered, there will be a number of people affected. Both the tenant and the lessor are disadvantaged if there is undue delay in the consideration of issues. I think it is important that there be considerable examination and review of how the tribunal is going in terms of matters being considered, and I am sure we will all be watching that quite closely.

I have some concern about clause 6 - Ms Tucker mentioned some parts of this - which deals with areas which have been excluded from this legislation at this time. In the case of community housing, there is a broad range of issues that will need to be considered and that could not be considered under this legislation. I hope those issues are going to be looked at quickly. There are some issues in relation to what happens when people are evicted from community housing. People who are resident in community housing, no matter what form it takes, should not be disadvantaged because of the type of tenure they have chosen. People living in the disability houses run by the ACT Government are forced to live in this accommodation. They should have the same tenancy rights as any other tenant in the ACT. It is important that we look at those issues as soon as possible to sort them out.

The other obvious area is boarders and lodgers. Obviously, this is a quite complicated and complex area; but we cannot neglect it, because those people also need to have their tenancy rights spelt out in legislation in the same way as other people do. We must make sure that the exemptions that are in clause 6 are not forgotten in the excitement of passing this legislation. Obviously, these are matters to be considered by the next Assembly; but they must be given some priority early next year, or there will be disadvantage to people living in long-term accommodation, particularly long-term supported accommodation. They need to be included and to be under some sort of tenancy auspices.

The last matter that I wish to raise is in relation to community education and advocacy in this area. Obviously, because there are such major changes coming about through the introduction and passage of this Bill - there is some lead time allowed in the legislation - there will need to be a very strong and very thorough community education program. It is not only tenants, both public and private, who will be affected by this legislation; it is people working in real estate, and lessors and landlords. Everyone in those different groupings will need educating on terms and conditions, and various aspects of this legislation. At this stage there has been no mention of what form this community education will take, or who is going to do it. It is important that the Assembly be informed about what is going to happen. We cannot be silent on this matter, because too

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