No-fault or no-grounds evictions has become NSW Labor’s forever policy.Credit: Marija Ercegovac
The pitch was compelling, if not a little familiar. Standing surrounded by three small dogs, two ministers and a rental commissioner at the Domain in Sydney CBD on Monday, Premier Chris Minns trumpeted a raft of renter-friendly policies, signalling the next stage of his government’s housing reforms.
Pets would be allowed in rentals, tenants would have to be offered a fee-free means of paying rent, and no-grounds evictions – barring landlords from punting renters during their leases without reasonable cause – would proceed to parliament.
But after the election commitment was rolled out at Labor state conference in July, Monday’s announcement felt like Groundhog Day to some MPs, with one Labor backbencher musing: “I woke up, read the media release and thought: ‘What’s new here?’”
Moreover, Minns’ initial plans to pass the legislation in September would now be kicked back to October.
The government has landed some reforms but other aspects have remained elusive.Credit: Peter Rae
The case for reform
No-fault or no-grounds evictions has become NSW Labor’s forever policy, documented in an archive of media releases stretching back four successive leaders to Luke Foley.
Addressing the housing crisis is a central part of the Minns government’s narrative: renters’ rights will sit alongside changes to antiquated development policies to deal with the state’s anaemic housing supply.
The groundwork for change has been laid: the government’s End of Tenancy survey shows around 10 per cent of the 320,000 tenancies that end in NSW each year are no-grounds evictions. And despite having the nation’s largest rental market, NSW remains one of only three jurisdictions without some form of no-grounds policy.
Yet, for reasons insiders can’t explain, the state government’s appetite for reform appears to have ebbed and flowed in the 18 months since Labor took office, despite Minns consistently articulating the magnitude of the housing crisis.
While the Minns government has landed some of its promised reforms – transferring rental bonds from one property to another, and appointing Trina Jones as a rental commissioner – other aspects have remained elusive.
“They started the consultation [on no-grounds evictions] in late July or August 2023. Then came a report over summer. It is fair to say there’s been periods of time when it wasn’t clear work was happening to progress the reform,” Tenants’ Union of NSW chief executive Leo Patterson Ross says.
“I can only assume it’s because the government decided there were other priorities.”
What’s the hold up?
The wait, according to one senior Labor source speaking anonymously to discuss confidential party matters, is primarily a consequence of a “tortured effort to reach consensus” by Anoulack Chanthivong, the minister with carriage of rental reforms.
According to insiders, Chanthivong has been wringing his hands over whether all leases should be included, or just periodic leases, as is the position of the Coalition.
Periodic leases are where there’s no agreed amount of time covered by the rental agreement, usually where a fixed-term lease has lapsed, and the lease is running month to month. In NSW, you can be evicted for no reason from a fixed-term lease at the end of the lease, and at any time for no reason with 90 days notice during a month-to-month lease.
Another MP said the no-grounds legislation had been written “ages ago”, and the delays seemed to have faced some sort of “external pushback”. The legislation passed through cabinet shortly before Minns’ speech at Labor state conference.
With five portfolios – building, better regulation and fair trading, industry and trade, innovations, science and technology and corrections, two of which are legislatively demanding – MPs acknowledge Chanthivong has been lumped with a mountain of work.
Exacerbating the workload, one former Coalition staffer notes, is a lack of resources: the Macquarie Fields MP has to manage more portfolios with fewer staff than his predecessors – the manifestation of Minns’ ministerial staffing budgets cuts.
Premier Chris Minns was forced to drop a key plank of his rental reform bill after experts warned it would drive up prices.Credit: Rhett Wyman
Even so, Labor sources question why the substantive consultative work underpinning the policy had not already been done, particularly given the commitment ahead of the 2019 and 2023 state elections.
“It should have been done nine months before July’s state conference. It was starting to lose us a lot of credibility among renters and young people,” one source says.
But nailing no-grounds has not been Chanthivong’s only rental headache. The party was forced to abandon ending secret rent bidding in June last year after pushback from the Greens and Coalition over concerns it would inadvertently cause rental prices to increase.
Nor have the problems been confined to rental reform. On August 19, an alliance of furious peak bodies went over the minister’s head, writing directly to the premier about Chanthivong’s reform of building regulation, the Building Bill 2024.
“The extremely tight consultation timeframe will mean there is insufficient time to properly test the proposed reforms,” stated the August 19 letter, whose nine signatories included the Australian Institute of Architects, Engineers Australia, and Property Council of Australia.
“Therefore there is a significant risk that the reforms may severely hamper industry’s ability to deliver the government’s housing targets.”
In response to questions, a spokesman for Chanthivong said his approach to rental reforms had been informed by “extensive engagement” with industry and the community, and he wanted to “take the time to get this right”.
“Of course there will be a range of views on such significant reforms,” he said.
The key political players
The other issue at play, one Labor source suggests, is the premier’s “natural caution”. Already facing a scrap over rezonings around transport development sites, Minns and his office have been reluctant to open up another front with landlords without the Coalition backing him in.
“Wanting bipartisan support is probably fair dinkum,” the Labor insider suggests.
“He would genuinely be afraid of backlash. He’s trying to hold off long enough to force the Coalition to back them in, while Libs are trying to hold off long enough to force him to go it alone.”
The Liberals have had their own problems on this. In May, moderate north shore MP Felicity Wilson toyed with crossing the floor to support a Greens bill banning no-grounds evictions, expressing her frustration with the inability of either major party to progress reform.
What’s next?
As Minns again rolled out his no-grounds eviction policy on Monday he played down expectations about the legislation passing through parliament, foreshadowing that the Greens, like their federal counterparts, could seek to hijack the legislation with demands for a rent freeze.
But the Greens’ housing spokeswoman Jenny Leong has rubbished Minns’ claims, saying her party is ready to work with the government to deliver these “straightforward reforms”, accusing the premier of kicking the can down the road.
“Consultation on these reforms has dragged on for over a year – how many more times will the premier and NSW Labor announce their rental reforms on social media before actually delivering the reform? It’s time to stop posting and start legislating,” she says.
“The government has a draft bill floating around that it can’t seem to get past its own people to introduce. The numbers are there to pass these reforms in parliament, so clearly the roadblocks are internally within NSW Labor.”
Leong’s suggestion of internal disagreement is echoed by Patterson Ross, who says the party seems divided on whether reforms will include all tenancies, or just periodic leases.
“It appears that resolving that debate has been a major reason for the delays,” he says, noting surveys undertaken by his organisation in March showed majority support from landlords for the reform.
But multiple Labor MPs say they can’t recall any blues over the policy. That was evident when Minns brought no-grounds evictions to caucus on Tuesday, with one MP recalling there being “no pushback and no discussions” about the proposed legislation.
A draft version of the legislation was circulated among stakeholders two weeks ago, with submissions made last week. The next parliamentary sitting day is October 15, 570 days since the election, or 2547 days since the policy first became Labor’s own.
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