Thursday, 5 March 2020

Ministers statements: family violence

Ms KAIROUZ (Kororoit—Minister for Consumer Affairs, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, Minister for Suburban Development) (11:27): I rise to update the house on my portfolio’s work to combat the scourge of family violence. In 2018 we passed a package of more than 130 reforms to improve the rights of the one in four Victorians who rent. The reform package delivered on recommendations of the Andrews Labor government’s landmark Royal Commission into Family Violence, which addressed the lack of support for victims of family violence living in rental properties.

From 1 July 2020 VCAT will be able to make orders to terminate an existing rental agreement and enable the landlord to enter into a new agreement with the survivor. In these circumstances VCAT will be able to make further orders to exempt the survivor from paying outstanding rent, repairing damage caused to the property and paying for any utility charges that have arisen as a result of family violence. Survivors will also be able to make changes to the property to improve its safety and security, with the landlord unable to unreasonably refuse.

We will also ban the blacklisting of survivors of family violence on residential tenancy databases if they breach their rental agreement due to family violence. And any survivors making an application to VCAT cannot be cross-examined by their perpetrators. Importantly, we brought forward a key reform suppressing rooming house addresses from the public register to protect residents threatened by family violence. This came into effect in April last year.

I am proud of our government’s commitment to improving renters’ rights. For many of us pets make a house a home, and from Monday this week we have opened the door to pets in rental properties, with landlords unable to unreasonably refuse a renter’s request to keep a pet.

There is more to come. We will implement minimum standards in rental properties. We will crack down on rental bidding, and renters will get their bond back quicker than ever before. We said that we would make renting fairer, and that is exactly what we are doing, and I look forward to continuing to update the house as we roll out these very important reforms.