Page 1053 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 May 2020
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simply says that if you are a renter on a fixed-term lease, you have some reasonable way of terminating your lease, possibly giving the same sort of mechanism as if you were on a periodic tenancy. Lots of people are moving in with their partners or moving back home because they cannot afford two rentals. We should let people make these obvious adjustments instead of forcing them to pay rent and so stopping adjustments. We also have a recommendation about long-term assisting community housing providers. It is a long-term recommendation, but this emergency shows how much we need it to be better for the future.
Then there are a whole bunch of recommendations. Recommendations 10 to 14 are all about better supporting the community sector. We certainly need supporters in these hard times. There are two recommendations about the pop-up emergency department on the Garran Oval. As one of the members for Murrumbidgee, I am particularly interested in that, and I know my constituents are very interested in that. There are a bunch of recommendations about how we best prepare and facilitate the reopening of hospitality—cafes, restaurants and cultural institutions et cetera—and, I must say, that the evidence that was presented to us was that a one-size-fits-all solution was not a reasonable approach. That seemed to me to be quite sensible. The idea was that the National Museum or—as was talked about in the Canberra Times today—the Hellenic Club, could take only 10 people. I have been to the Hellenic Club. It is effectively broken up into a variety of sub-venues. If they were in a mall, they would look the same and they would be treated as three establishments.
The same goes for many of the bigger clubs. It would be good if the ACT government could look at this more pragmatically and flexibly. We do not want an outbreak of COVID-19 but, clearly, when there is a very large space, it might be possible to put more than 10 people in, particularly given that, as many witnesses told us, they keep the contact details of all the people who are entering their premises. They know how long they have been there. So, if there are any problems, the people can be contacted. I commend the report to the Assembly and thank the committee secretaries and committee members for their hard work, and look forward to keeping on with it.
MADAM SPEAKER: Before I put the question, I remind members of the email that I sent earlier in the week about being civic leaders and showing, by example, social distancing. I ask that either Ms Lawder or Mr Coe take another space within the chamber, as the suspension of standing orders has allowed.
Mrs Kikkert: Have you got a measure?
Ms Lawder: Have you got a tape measure?
Ms Cheyne: The Clerk has measured.
MADAM SPEAKER: Please, Ms Lawder; it is not a debate. I have made a request; very soon it is going to be a direction. Thank you, members. The question is that the report be noted.
MS CHEYNE (Ginninderra) (10.50): I want to echo, largely, the comments—not all of them—put forward by the other members of this committee from the opposition
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