Tuesday, 20 February 2024

Rental accommodation

Gabrielle DE VIETRI (Richmond) (19:15): (530) My adjournment tonight is for the Minister for Consumer Affairs, and the action I seek is for the government to stop landlords from getting away with renting out unlivable properties. We have got this legislation, the Residential Tenancies Act 1997, and it is meant to protect renters, but right now it is just about as effective as a screen door on a submarine. Labor rolls out legislation or makes announcements, as they have done recently, claiming that they are going to save the day for renters. But what is the point when the laws that we have already got are not being enforced?

Renters are still living with soggy floors, with faulty electrics, with broken windows and with mushrooms growing inside. I mean, we love our ecosystems in the Greens but not inside our bedrooms. Some renters are flying blind when it comes to their rights, but most of them are too scared of losing their homes to make a fuss. They know that the landlord has the upper hand, and Labor has made sure that it stays that way. Even if renters have done their homework and know their rights inside out, they are still seeing landlords and property managers defying the rules without any consequences. Labor is letting landlords make a mockery of the good work that they have done. I give credit where credit is due. There have been some good announcements, and I am really looking forward to the rental reforms that are coming up this year, but right now renters feel as though there is just no point bothering. They will just keep breathing in fungus spores and heating their homes with their gas ovens rather than spending the time and the money and the stress of going through a losing battle at VCAT or, even worse, facing homelessness.

That is why today I am asking the minister to create an enforcement system that actually takes the burden off renters – they should not be taking their landlords to court – a system that forces landlords to comply with the law so that every renter has a healthy and safe home to live in.