Wednesday, 18 February 2026

 Chris CREWTHER (Mornington) (19:08): (1533) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Consumer Affairs. The action I seek is for the minister to update Victorians on what the government is doing to enforce the proper carrying out of smoke alarm, gas and electrical safety checks at the standard prescribed by the Victorian Residential Tenancies Act 1997. While Victoria has legislated strict rental safety standards, the laws are being rorted by unscrupulous operators. Noncompliance has unfortunately led to fatal consequences. Over the last decade Victorians have tragically lost their lives from preventable incidents, including a father killed in a fire caused by non-operational smoke alarms, and a woman and children in separate incidents who died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Today Victorian renters remain at risk of preventable injury and death because critical safety checks are failing or simply not being properly done at all.

The McKell Institute brought together key stakeholders from Victoria’s rental ecosystem and produced an evidence-based analysis that confirmed this systemic breakdown in oversight, auditing and accountability for safety checks by Consumer Affairs Victoria. Mystery shopping data reviewed by the McKell Institute shows inspections that should take at least an hour are completed in as little as 15 minutes. Safety checks have been reduced to a box-ticking exercise, such as providers simply taking a photo of the electrical box. A third of providers did not check the proper functioning of a single smoke alarm at the property. For electrical safety, 60 per cent of required checks were incomplete and almost a quarter lacked the required licence. Gas safety is even more alarming. Eighty per cent of the required steps defined in the Residential Tenancies Act were missed. With hundreds of thousands of Victorian rental properties requiring safety checks every year, costing property investors millions, the absence of an effective enforcement process wastes resources and leaves renters vulnerable. Stronger oversight, accreditation and enforcement with respect to providers could stop unsafe shortcuts and guarantee that reforms genuinely protect Victorian renters. It would also protect landlords whose properties and tenants may be at risk and ensure they are getting the proper safety checks they are paying for. Lastly, it would ensure a fair market for providers, stopping providers doing the wrong thing and undercutting those obeying the law on price and the amount of jobs done per day.

The McKell Institute report recommends the introduction of an accreditation scheme for safety check providers that would include an online registry and auditing function. According to a proposal put forward by an industry provider to the minister’s office, the scheme would be self-funded by industry participants, requiring no new costs for renters, landlords or the government. You can read this report on the McKell Institute’s website under the research tab under the heading ‘Unchecked: strengthening safety measures for Victorian rental properties’. Unfortunately this government is failing to ensure our renter protection systems are properly enforced despite existing laws being in place to enable oversight of providers. I call on the minister to take action.