COVID-19 Disease Emergency (Misc Provisions) Bill 2020
COVID-19 DISEASE EMERGENCY (MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS) BILL 2020 (No. 14)
25 March 2020
Ms WEBB (Nelson) – Mr President, I thank all members for their contributions; they have covered many key areas. I also echo the thanks and acknowledgement that has been given to the Premier, to the Cabinet team and to Darren Hine, the State Controller now, as well as OPC and particularly Robyn Webb for the work she has done in bringing this together so quickly and effectively.
I support this bill. It is incredibly important legislation because difficult and rapid decisions are being made and the power to implement those decisions is required to be supported through a complex array of legislative changes and arrangements.
In this state of emergency we have our immediate health needs which are the priority and the practical impacts to the functioning of our community that flow on from the decisions being made around those health needs and are being felt by all. One of the things I am very mindful of is the hardship that entails from these decisions and important measures that need to be taken to protect health in our community.
The hardships that flow from this are not felt equally; it is as simple as that. Some people will be bearing immense and life-changing impacts from the hardships flowing through here, while some will be left quite bereft and on quite a different trajectory than they were on before all this came to pass. Others will, of course, feel hardship and feel they have been impacted, but perhaps it will be more of the nature that they are being left less well-off or inconvenienced or having to take a few steps back from where they might have been. Of course, that is difficult and it feels difficult. I am quite focused on that first category who are most vulnerable to the impacts that are flowing through.
Other members here have spoken about many key features in the bill, and I thank them for that. I am not going to spend time repeating things that people have already covered well. I note that many who are more experienced than I am here have spoken about the powers conferred in this legislation and the accountabilities that are important to be in place around that. As a new member of the Subordinate Legislation Committee, I am sure I will learn a great deal as we undertake quite an important role in that committee in coming months. While we need to be acting very quickly to protect our community and our state, as a parliament we still have that function to fulfil as elected representatives around accountability and I certainly stand ready with other members of that committee to do that.
Others who are very experienced in this place have spoken about the gravity of the powers and that we need to ensure we are mindful of our responsibilities. While this is coming through rapidly we are all trying our best to give it the focus and attention it requires and act as best we can to make sure this is the best legislation possible given its rapid transition through both Chambers. Thank you to others who are accommodating that and thank you to the Government which is also accommodating our efforts, which, of course, are being done on the hop.
I would like to speak in a little bit more detail about the parts of the bill I am particularly focused on – those parts that relate to residential tenancies. Members will not be surprised it is an area I might be interested in, given my background and my focus on ensuring we best support vulnerable Tasmanians.
As I said earlier, those people who will be feeling the significant detrimental impacts of our current situation are those who began as most vulnerable, those who were on the lowest incomes, those who are also losing their jobs, but perhaps started from a very low base to begin with. They may have had no savings; they may have no supportive network of family or friends around them, and in many other ways may be finding themselves particularly at risk in this current situation. As far as I am concerned, when we balance the needs amongst our community, we must give compassionate priority to people in those categories who are most vulnerable.
I mentioned when speaking yesterday in this place that for a long time we have had two Tasmanias – people who have struggled to be forging ahead while others have been able to make the most of opportunities that recent years have provided. I am particularly mindful that we must be one Tasmania right now. In order to get through this, we must be a single community moving forward; we all have to come together. I am very interested and keen that as we come together in this moment of urgency and emergency, we also emerge from the other side of that crisis and rebuild our future as one Tasmania. We have the opportunity to make sure people are best supported going forward from this so that we do not re-emerge with a greater division in place than we had coming into this time.
To the detail in the rental tenancies, I am very pleased to see that there is a real focus here to try to best protect people. The hardship provisions encompassed in this legislation are very positive to see. The arrangements to ensure that things such as house inspections and those sorts of things do not take place during emergency times to best protect health are excellent, along with the acknowledgement that some of the usual requirements of a lease agreement, a tenancy, may not need to be enforced across this time – people being able to upkeep the garden or keep the house in the same state that they might otherwise be expected to keep it, that is very good to see. I am pleased to see that there remains a requirement that urgent and emergency repairs are still made so that minimum standards can be maintained in residential tenancies. I appreciate the discussion that took place in the other place and also in our briefings today about how best to protect people from eviction, and that the measures in the bill are efforts toward that. I will put some questions on the record so we can cover them with the Government in the reply and in the Committee stage.
I am particularly interested in the protections around eviction because we must keep people housed. We must keep people housed in the immediate time of crisis and emergency as a health measure for those people and for all of us. We must keep people housed as we emerge from the emergency situation – again, to maintain our health as a broader community and to best move forward from the hardship and build in the future. Evictions are quite sensitive in that people at risk of homelessness become at risk of all sorts of other things. The way it is dealt with in the legislation is in two parts. An amendment has been made to clause 22(2) in the other place. It now says –
The Minister may, by notice, declare that despite any provision of a lease a lease that is within a class of leases specified in the notice must not, within the emergency period, be terminated, and the rent payable under the lease may not be increased, in the circumstances set out in the notice.
I am pleased to see that the Residential Tenancy Act has been removed under that amendment. It relies on the minister making a notice that includes the Residential Tenancy Act within that. We want people to be covered so that they cannot have their lease terminated and that the rent payable under the lease may not be increased. Other sorts of tenancies are not covered by the Residential Tenancy Act but may come within that class of leases mentioned in that part – subtenancies, university accommodation, caravan parks, things like that – which I hope will be specified as being within the class of leases in that notice if such notice were to be made by the minister. I would like some reassurance from the Government that a notice made under this clause would include the Residential Tenancy Act, to be covered as a class of lease so that leases would not be terminated and the rent payable would not be increased during the emergency period.
The other part that deals with evictions is in Schedule 2, the Consequential Amendments section, under item 7. This provides protection for eviction for non-payment of rents. It means that people who are unable to pay their rent cannot be given a notice to vacate or that notice cannot be given effect during the emergency period. It also states that even if a notice to vacate has already been given prior to this emergency period but has not yet been given effect, it will not be given effect during this emergency time. That is good, but it could be better. A better protection could be provided to protect against other potential causes of eviction covered in the Residential Tenancy Act, beyond non-payment of rent.
We heard in our briefings from the Residential Tenancy Commissioner that the most frequent reason for a notice to vacate being given is non-payment of rent, so this covers that. With that option removed to evict a tenant on the basis of non-payment of rent – thinking of worst case scenarios, and others are concerned about this, such as the Tenants’ Union and others who work with vulnerable tenants – landlords may then seek to use other reasons listed in the Residential Tenancy Act to effect a notice to vacate.
I have prepared an amendment and it is informed by the Tenants’ Union and working, thank you, with OPC, which assisted in drafting an amendment that I believe could be made quite readily to item 7 in Schedule 2. It would extend that protection beyond non-payment of rent to some of the other reasons covered by the Residential Tenancy Act, which would give us confidence that there can be no going around the particular protection provided here and give more comprehensive protection to people. I would appreciate hearing from the Government, if it could not support such an amendment, what other confidence they could provide for us that more comprehensive protection is there and can be provided, given what is simply in there about non-payment of rent.
It is of primary importance that vulnerable people remain housed at this time. It is not only for their immediate health needs; it is for future wellbeing and even our future economic success. It is in all our interests to ensure that people remain housed now and remain housed as we emerge from this crisis. I make no apologies for prioritising those sorts of protections. I would rather we erred well and truly on the overdoing it side to protect vulnerable people rather than underdoing it. It is harder for people in those vulnerable situations to be their own advocates or to seek out protection that is not immediately available to them. If they have to go through the process of getting advice and taking numerous steps in order to protect their interests, that is a barrier and a challenge. In these times, any administrative barrier like that, to that person being able to readily be protected, is problematic.
Should people be unable to pay their rent across this emergency time, as the legislation is drafted now they would be protected from being evicted in the immediate sense. At the close of the emergency period, they would then become at risk. That is the way I read this. They would become at risk of homelessness because a notice to vacate could then be given effect on the basis of the non-payment of rent during the emergency period. That would see them potentially evicted and liable for the unpaid rent. This is going to be a period of time when those households or those individuals may still be in quite extreme financial hardship. I would like to hear more from the Government about how it is anticipated those circumstances will be dealt with. How will people, who may be in that situation – and who we have protected during the emergency period if they were not able to pay their rent, but then face quite a significant impact as soon as the emergency period ends – be dealt with?
I would like to hear from the Government how we might best ensure that the way information is provided about these arrangements and protections is effective in reaching the people who need that information. Administrative barriers, people having to seek out information about their best protections or how they can assert their rights, any of those sorts of things, are problematic for people in achieving their rights or being able to maintain their situation. A real focus and a highlight needs to be on how information about this is provided, so that we know people have that information available to them. The resources provided to the Tenants’ Union, Community Legal Centres and Legal Aid are a matter to be discussed in coming times, when we think about the flow-on impacts of all these matters, because people will need to seek support. They will need to have assistance to
best advocate for themselves and we will need to resource the groups that do that.
That wraps up what I wanted to say, in particular about the tenancy aspects of this. I look forward to the Government providing information about that. I am interested in putting my amendment if I believe the information we receive back does not provide the level of comprehensive protection people need. We can discuss that during the Committee stage. I support the bill.
