I rise to speak on the Consumer Legislation Amendment Bill 2020. This bill is about making sure that some of our most vulnerable Victorians have adequate access to appropriate living arrangements. We have talked a lot this week in this place about our government’s ongoing commitment to protecting vulnerable Victorians, whether it is people with a disability or whether it is people living in an aged-care facility during a pandemic. Now, with this bill, it is about people living in Victoria’s retirement villages and in social housing. We are a Labor government that will always stand up for those that struggle to have their voice heard. It is in our DNA. We are a Labor government that will always fight to protect the most vulnerable citizens in our society. That means making legislative changes. It means removing regulations and loopholes to better protect the great people that call Victoria home.

One of the main areas that this bill looks at is our retirement villages. In particular we are removing certain regulations and loopholes that serve as a barrier to former residents recouping unpaid contributions in situations where the retirement village unfortunately is no longer solvent. Under the current arrangements these costs can only be recouped where a resident passes away or leaves the retirement village, and these ingoings can be up to hundreds of thousands of dollars—a lot of money, I am sure we can all agree. These costs are secured by a statutory charge that residents have over the land, and in many ways this arrangement is similar to the relationship between a business and its creditors or a bank and a mortgage-holder. But what is more concerning is that under the current rules it is way too difficult for the residents of retirement villages and their families or their estates to recoup these costs owed as a result of a retirement village going bankrupt. That is the lesson our government has learned from Berkeley village in Patterson Lakes, which is now unfortunately in liquidation.

When I hear about the situation there, I think about the retirement villages in Tarneit. They are homes, much-loved homes, to hundreds of wonderful senior citizens across my local community. Over the past couple years I have spent a lot of time with residents in retirement villages, and whenever I have gone to visit them I have always been hosted by the most welcoming and warm-hearted folks in Tarneit. I always leave those places and reflect upon my own family and my Nana Jean and my Grandma Beris and what would have happened to these wonderful women in my life had they moved into one of these communities. Because that is what retirement villages are: they are a community. They are a community of people around about a similar age enjoying friendships, social outings and most importantly enjoying social connection with people in their community. I know that Nana and Grandma would have benefited immensely, particularly later in their lives and especially after their husbands passed away, from this type of social connection and interaction. And like anyone in this chamber I would hate to see any of the good people right across Victoria and most certainly in Tarneit put in the same position that the residents of Berkeley village found themselves in.

I just want to take a moment to talk about a constituent and a good friend of mine. Her name is Ann, and for many years she lived in a retirement village, a lifestyle village, in the heart of Tarneit. Recently she made the decision to up and move a little bit closer to her family as she is getting a bit older. Now, fortunately Ann would have been able to collect her ingoings, but if she had not, I would hate to think about her waiting for thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars because the corporation that owned her previous home went bankrupt. That is what the changes in this bill are designed to stop, because when you have invested so much into making your home in a retirement village, you do not want that investment to be for nothing when you move out. To prevent this from happening, residents will be able to apply to enforce a judgement debt to the Supreme Court in person or by the director of Consumer Affairs Victoria on behalf of the residents. In cases where it is in the majority interests of the residents, such as insolvency, those judgement debts will be enforced.

Now, another really important and key change that this bill is going to introduce relates to social housing, and we heard a little bit about that earlier today. I was particularly happy to hear the federal Labor opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, and federal colleagues commit to improving social housing access for more Australians in last week’s budget reply. The need for social housing has been a topic that I have been discussing at length over the past 12 months with several of my colleagues in Melbourne’s west, and the member for Niddrie talked about Labor for Housing and the great work they are doing. It is not surprising to anyone that Labor takes social housing and homelessness incredibly seriously. It is why at the last election we promised to build at least 1000 new public housing units. It is why more recently our government has funded an additional $500 million to go towards upgrading and improving social housing so it is fit for purpose. I am proud to support a government that invests in making housing more accessible for more Victorians.

Under the current arrangements social housing rent is value based on the tenant’s income. This way the system does not disadvantage those who rely on it. We know, however, that incomes change, and especially at times like this incomes can change dramatically and rapidly. This is especially so when you consider commonwealth payments like JobKeeper and JobSeeker. When these payments change, it is reasonable to expect that the amount of rent will need to change too, and that is why this bill allows for public housing rent to be changed more than once a month. That way public housing residents can continue to pay rent at a value that reflects their own circumstances. In doing so, we are making it easier for some of our most vulnerable Victorians who are currently doing it tough, and we know there are a lot of them. This change is going to make a world of difference to them. Not only that, we are stopping them from accruing large debts when they leave public housing by issuing notices to vacate for rent arrears based on the actual amount of rent paid instead of the market value of the property. In these cases the last thing that anyone wants to be doing is issuing an eviction notice to someone in dire straits. That is why these changes are designed to help tenants work out the issues with their arrears and in doing so prevent debts from growing too large where it takes years and years for them to pay them back. That is not what anyone here in this place wants to see happen.

This bill is also going to continue our public housing sector’s approach to prioritising those most in need. We know that there are many different strands of disadvantage that can cause someone to rely on social housing, and we know that Indigenous Australians and women fleeing domestic violence are particularly vulnerable and that many rely on our social housing program to put a roof over their head and those of their family. That is why the bill will allow the public housing sector to continue to operate with an understanding of these intersecting disadvantages, making sure that public housing goes to those who need it most. That is why I was particularly delighted to hear that this bill will make social housing more accessible for people with disabilities.

I recall about a year ago I met with a wonderful couple. They both had a disability; in fact both of them were deaf. One of them had become a paraplegic later in life due to an accident. They were both living in a private rental at the time and they were particularly desperate for access to public housing. The house they were living in was not equipped to accommodate a wheelchair-bound resident, and the landlord most certainly was not happy about the impacts that the wheelchair was having on the bathroom skirting boards or the carpet in the hallway. Nor was he actually willing to make the house more accessible. It is couples like this that are exactly why we have specialist disability accommodation. A number of changes that were made to the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 were specifically designed for specialist disability accommodation. However, the amendments in that act were delayed until 2021 as part of our emergency measures designed to fight this pandemic. But we are not going to leave Victorians with disabilities waiting for these changes, which is why the bill brings forward those changes to commence alongside the changes in the Disability (NDIS Transition) Amendment Act 2019.

This bill makes a number of small and technical changes to our laws governing retirement villages and social housing. Both are home to a number of vulnerable Victorians. The changes in this bill will make life easier for them. I commend the bill to the house.