The Make Renting Fair Campaign, a community coalition representing over 70 tenancy, welfare and local government bodies plus around 10,000 individual supporters, is calling on Victorian parliamentarians to pass the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill 2018 before the state election.
Tenants Victoria CEO and Campaign Spokesperson, Mark O’Brien, said the bill was measured in nature, delivering the changes promised by the Premier last year and that it would help create a fairer balance in the fast-growing rental market.
"The most important thing these reforms will do is enable 1.5 million Victorian renters to build their lives on firm foundations. They will help people turn their rented houses into safe and stable homes for themselves and their families."
"Providing a little more certainty to households across our state will mean less disruption to school, work and community life. It will benefit Victoria socially and economically. That’s fair and reasonable in anyone’s book."
Mr O’Brien also welcomed the delivery of long-awaited family violence protections in the bill.
"Another important change is the introduction of strong protections for women and children who are experiencing family violence. This delivers on the promises made following the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence."
However, there is a real chance that MPs will run out of time to pass the legislation.
"The biggest risk here is that Parliament will run out of time to pass these reforms into law. That would create a huge amount of uncertainty for tenants and the property industry alike. We are asking all MPs to pass this legislation without delay."
"Common sense reforms like these are very popular in the community. Any attempt to sink or delay them due to pressure from vested commercial interests will create a backlash, particularly in the middle and outer suburbs where rental rates are rising fastest."
"Deceptive tactics might have worked in the past, but we have seen over the last two years that no-one is buying scaremongering from groups who are clearly more interested in profits than people's lives." ---
