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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Thursday, 24 June 2004) . . Page.. 2745 ..

interference with the enjoyment of the premises. More recently, courts have found that quiet enjoyment is breached by any acts that significantly interfere with a tenant’s freedom in exercising their rights as a tenant. In line with modern authority, the bill inserts the more current and commonly accepted meaning of the term for use in the Act.

The Bill also contains amendments designed to improve the way the Residential Tenancies Tribunal records its reasons and decisions. The tribunal is a relatively high transaction body - dealing with many matters in the course of a year. The bill makes provision for the tribunal to keep details of its orders, which will be available to parties within a short period of the proceedings.

The bill contains a number of improvements to the organisation of the Act together with a number of minor and technical amendments to the Act (such as updating the reference to the relevant Australian Bureau of Statistics “index number”. In particular, in response to a change requested by some stakeholders, the bill replaces time periods expressed in terms of days with weeks to ensure consistency with the rest of the Act. Member’s attention is also drawn to the delayed commencement of amendments in relation to changes to the standard residential tenancy terms. The delay will permit time to develop new contracts that comply with the changes.

In summary, a significant measure in this bill is the recognition of “occupancy agreements” and “occupancy principles”. Jurisdiction for resolving disputes involving occupancy agreements is conferred on the Residential Tenancies Tribunal. The bill further permits the development of prescribed terms for occupancy arrangements by regulation. The bill makes a number of other changes designed to otherwise improve the operation of the law for the benefit of the ACT community.

Mr Speaker, I commend this bill to the Assembly.

Attachment 5

Document incorporated by the Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Business and Tourism, and Minister for Sport, Racing and Gaming

Mr Speaker, the Payroll Tax Amendment Bill 2004 (the Bill) amends the Payroll Tax Act 1987 (Payroll Tax Act) to implement an initiative from the Government’s 2004-05 Budget. The Bill extends a payroll tax exemption to employers in respect to wages paid to ACT employees utilising paid maternity, adoption and/or primary carer leave. This leave is for a maximum of 14 weeks and is for both full time and part time employees.

This exemption is designed to provide employers with an incentive to provide paid maternity, adoption and/or primary carer leave for their ACT employees, similar to the ACT public sector’s current leave arrangements.

This Bill does not commence until 1 July 2005 to avoid disruption, complication and unnecessary costs for both employers and the Government, as payroll tax is assessed annually. Mr Speaker, this delay provides employers with sufficient time to consider altering their existing leave conditions to utilise this exemption and make any amendments to their payroll systems and training programs.

Mr Speaker, the provisions in this Bill are designed to encourage and assist employers to better match the maternity, adoption and primary carer leave

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