Page 1563 - Week 06 - Thursday, 2 July 2020
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Clauses 106 to 109 agreed to.
Bill, as amended, agreed to.
Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill 2020
Debate resumed from 13 February 2020, on motion by Mr Ramsay:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Parton, before giving you the call, you were directed this morning to remove some material from your social media. Has that been attended to?
Mr Parton: Yes, Madam Speaker, it has been.
MADAM SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Parton. You have the call on the question that the bill be agreed to in principle.
MR PARTON (Brindabella) (6.04): This bill presents a bit of a conundrum for us on this side of the chamber, just because there is so much in it. A lot of work has gone into it and it covers so many areas, and from our perspective there are some good and bad things in this bill. A lot of thought has been put into the bill to provide a framework for occupancy agreements in particular. It is very easy to forget that a large number of the community reside in caravan parks or student accommodation for which guiding legislative conditions are perhaps understated or currently absent from the Residential Tenancies Act.
I commend all those who have done the hard slog of the work on this bill. It is a lengthy document with extensive provisions impacting on a range of areas. I also express my appreciation to the minister’s office for their assistance in navigating the complexities of this document. Thank you to the minister and his staff.
At this stage of the COVID crisis, as a legislature we must be conscious of the impact our law-making actions have on market confidence in the residential sector. We need to appreciate that many property owners are experiencing the same stresses and anxiety as their tenants. I think that fact is sometimes lost in the public narrative. We also must not understate the struggle many tenants are facing.
On the supply side we need to remember that when property owners take the decision to borrow and invest in a residential property many of those investors are taking on a lot of debt. It is often the case that they are hoping their debts will be paid off before or just on their retirement. So these investment decisions provide a substantial benefit to the residential market because they create an accommodation supply stream that otherwise would not exist.
We need to be reminded that it is the investor that takes the risk on rate of return and capacity to meet loan repayments and worry about what the market might do to the property values. That is why I have been dismayed by some of the public discussion,
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