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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 2 Hansard (19 May) . . Page.. 356 ..

RESIDENTIAL TENANCIES (CONSEQUENTIAL PROVISIONS) BILL 1998

[COGNATE BILL:

RESIDENTIAL TENANCIES (AMENDMENT) BILL 1998]

Debate resumed from 30 April 1998, on motion by Mr Humphries:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

MR SPEAKER: Is it the wish of the Assembly to debate this order of the day concurrently with the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill 1998? There being no objection, that course will be followed. I remind members that in debating order of the day No. 2 they may also address their remarks to order of the day No. 3.

MR WOOD (4.23): Mr Speaker, the Residential Tenancies Act will come into force in, I think, a week's time. In this Assembly we will all look at it with interest to see how it works out in practice. No doubt the Government will monitor it closely to see whether some amendments are needed over time. We all have some trust in the new legislation working rather more effectively than the legislation it replaces. The Residential Tenancies (Consequential Provisions) Bill simply incorporates transitional arrangements as a consequence of the passage of that legislation. It is a Bill that needs to be supported, as is the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill, which, as Mr Humphries said, makes some technical amendments to the Act. They are small in nature, and the Opposition supports them as well.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General, Minister for Justice and Community Safety and Minister Assisting the Treasurer) (4.24), in reply: Mr Speaker, I thank the house, particularly the Opposition, for the support and hope that when this legislation operates it will significantly change for the better the climate in which residential tenancies operate. In the last few years, it is true to say, commercial tenancies have absorbed much of the attention of the media and, indeed, of this place; but there have still been some significant tenancy problems in the residential tenancies area. With the coming into effect of the new legislation in a week's time or so, I think we have the chance to offer the citizens of the ACT a much sounder financial framework for resolving problems in that area.

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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