Greens demand better rights for renters and access for pet owners
The Greens fear a bill giving renters access to pets is gathering dust but the government says it wants the reforms to be spot on. Read the latest.
Tasmania
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The government is under fire from the Greens for stalling legislation to give renters’ better rights and improve access for pet owners.
However, government minister Eric Abetz says more consultation is needed to get the legislation “absolutely right”.
Greens housing spokesman Vica Bayley says the state is lagging behind and Tasmanian renters can be “kicked out of their home for no good reason when their lease ends”, a practice banned in most other states.
“The government brought in a bill in June. It was a good bill. It was a bill that I think has the support of the parliament, but they have pulled it now to do additional consultation,” he said.
“We are deeply concerned that the government is kicking that into the never-never.
“We need additional protections for families and renters so that when their fixed term lease ends, a landlord needs to have a very good reason and justification for terminating a lease and
evicting those tenants.”
Mr Bayley said during the March election campaign the government promised legislative reform to give pet owners better access to rental properties and he was worried the government had “cold feet” on reforms and no longer intended to debate the bill.
He said NSW had last week passed legislation to ban no-cause evictions and improve access for pet owners and Tasmania needed to “catch up”.
“We’re worried by the delays we’re seeing to pets-in-rentals reforms, and we’re also seeing the government continue its reluctance to improve renter’s rights in other key areas,” Mr Bayley said.
“It looks like renters only mattered to the Liberals when they wanted their votes at the election.
“This is a balance-of-power parliament, and there is a real possibility of getting outcomes for renters even without the government’s support.”
Mr Abetz encouraged MPs to look at the government’s bill but said “parliament is a vehicle where you can introduce your own bill”.
“There is now further consultation taking place with stakeholders, as you would expect with a major reform of this nature that you want to get it absolutely right,” he said.
“Given the experience for the Greens in the past, there will be an overreach, no doubt, and having a balanced approach like we want is what we’ve seeking to do, hence the extra consultation.”
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Originally published as Greens demand better rights for renters and access for pet owners
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