Tuesday, 16 June 2026

 Matthew GUY (Bulleen) (19:00): (1699) My adjournment matter tonight is for the Minister for Consumer Affairs, and it concerns the issue of rental owners and some of their rights that they are wanting to place on record and talk to the minister about. I recently met, on the weekend, a group called the APOA, the Australian Property Owners Alliance. They are a group of mum-and-dad small investors from Box Hill, Bulleen, Balwyn, mainly from our Chinese community. As I said, they are small investors; they are mum-and-dad investors who usually have one or at best two properties to their names. They have rented those properties out, and they are seeking to have some issues clarified in relation to Victoria’s rental property laws, particularly in relation to gas and electricity being checked every two years when the property might be newly built, for instance. They want to understand why this cost is there for them when the property might be new.

In relation to the rental eviction laws, tenants cannot be evicted if they do not have money, for instance, to pay rent, and that then falls back on the small investor. Most landlords are, as I said, mum-and-dad investors. The costs are increasing on them, including land tax, the COVID debt levy. On VCAT, they raised a number of issues in relation to the speed of VCAT. Landlords feel powerless in dealing with tenants who in some instances may be bad. Participants feel that VCAT stands for the tenants, not the landlords. They want those issues around VCAT to be reviewed.

These are small, mum-and-dad investors. They are regular Australians who just want to have parity. They are not asking for anyone to lose any rights. They are not being unfair. They were not being offensive. They were not being in any way unreasonable. What they want is for their issues to be heard, and they want a forum in which to put those issues to the minister. My request tonight is for the Minister for Consumer Affairs to meet with the APOA so they can discuss their issues with him directly and put the issues of those small, mum-and-dad investors to him to get a fairer deal.