Page 1208 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 2 April 2019
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the consultation process on this bill, and I thank Neil in my office for the work that he has put into it. Despite some perhaps minor comments in this area, we support the passing of this bill today.
MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong—Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability, Minister for Corrections and Justice Health, Minister for Justice, Consumer Affairs and Road Safety and Minister for Mental Health) (4.58), in reply: I thank Ms Lawder for her observations on the bill. The ACT has over 30 retirement villages, so it is vital that our law provides sufficient protection for residents and clear guidance for operators.
As I said when I presented this bill, this legislation is a true collaborative effort. I again thank all the members of the retirement villages review advisory group, who have generously volunteered their time and expertise in developing the bill. The review advisory group is a body of key stakeholders, including the Retirement Village Residents Association, the ACT Property Council retirement living committee, the Council on the Ageing and the ACT Law Society’s elder law committee. I also thank the residents and operators of ACT retirement villages, who have provided invaluable feedback on the proposed amendments, including those from the ACT’s two unit title retirement villages, Araluen lifestyle village and Ridgecrest retirement village.
I will take this opportunity to provide a brief history of the Retirement Villages Act 2012. The act began regulating the territory’s retirement villages in 2013. Before the act, retirement villages were governed by the former retirement villages industry code of practice, which was made under the Fair Trading Act 1992.
The Retirement Villages Act required that I review the act as soon as possible after its first two years of operation. Consultation on this review began in 2015, with a report on the review tabled in the Assembly in 2016. The review found that the act was generally working well but made a number of recommendations for improvement. The review report included first and second tranche recommendations.
The Assembly passed amendments in 2016 to give effect to the first tranche of recommendations. These included a new internal dispute resolution process for retirement villages, and requirements for operators to be more transparent about villages’ fees and services and to seek the consent of residents for all proposed budget spending.
This bill amends The Retirement Villages Act and related legislation to give effect to the second tranche of recommendations. This bill also responds to the concerning reports of misconduct in retirement villages that were the subject of Four Corners and Fairfax media coverage in 2017. It does this by introducing a new enforceable conciliation process for resident complaints against operators.
The new enforceable conciliation process provides another avenue for residents who are seeking to resolve disputes with operators of retirement villages. The bill amends the Human Rights Commission Act 2005 to allow complaints to be progressed through the Human Rights Commission. The commission will try to resolve the complaint through conciliation. If the complaint is resolved, the parties will make a
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