I too rise to speak on the COVID-19 Commercial and Residential Tenancies Legislation Amendment (Extension) Bill 2020. I would like to start by saying to my local community, thank you. Thank you for taking the time to write to me, expressing your concern for our community’s wellbeing and your personal experiences and feelings during stage 4 restrictions and this health crisis. I have received so many emails and taken so many phone calls over the last six months from families absolutely desperate for rental assistance. So it gives me great pleasure to stand here today and speak in favour of this bill and our government’s continued support for renters and landlords during this pandemic. I know that the extension of the ban on evictions and rental increases will give peace of mind to families right across my local electorate.

This has been an extremely challenging time for everyone right across Wyndham and right across our state. Hoppers Crossing, Tarneit and Truganina have continued to experience the highest active case numbers of coronavirus in this country, and it has not been without sacrifice, getting our numbers down, let me tell you that. Our community knows better than anyone how quickly this virus spreads, from our workplaces to our schoolyards, in our aged-care facilities and at home with our loved ones. We have had to fight every step of the way to drive the virus numbers down in my community. I would like to put on record in this place that the standard and the attitude of folks in Melbourne’s western suburbs to just get on with the job of beating this virus has not only made me proud as the member for Tarneit and a fellow westie but, I think, also sets a bar for what it takes to beat this thing. So I say to my local community: thank you. Thank you for doing the right thing and thank you for just getting on with it.

At the beginning of this pandemic we knew that those living and working under rental agreements would be hard hit by the economic impacts of this virus. Small and medium businesses would struggle to maintain their leases, and renters who had lost their jobs would struggle to pay their rent. That is why our government made these very important changes to tenancy agreements for residential and commercial leases. Under these rules landlords have been banned from increasing rent or evicting their tenants for failing to pay rent. It is why, more than ever, Consumer Affairs Victoria is facilitating dispute resolutions between landlords and tenants and mediating tenancy negotiations. We have made it easier for tenants to end their lease with no break fees payable in situations of financial hardship. So for renters doing it tough, and there are a lot in my local community, these changes have made a world of difference. Whether you are a small or medium business renting a commercial space, or renting your home, we are absolutely 100 per cent in your corner. We will back you in as we continue to navigate this pandemic.

Now, when these laws were initially introduced none of us knew for certain how long this virus would persist. We knew—and we still know—we would need a vaccine to get ourselves out of it. So we realised that we would need a little more time. We knew that the support we had introduced for renters and landlords would have to continue. That is exactly what we have introduced and what this bill does. Not only that, it gives our renters absolute certainty from us that whilst we continue to tackle this pandemic, no-one will be forced out of their home.

The main purpose of the bill is to extend the duration of these arrangements to the end of December 2020 as opposed to finishing at the end of this month, and in case we need to the bill is also going to give our government the option of a further extension until the end of April 2021. This way our government will be prepared to keep these measures in place so that we can continue to provide quick and flexible responses to this pandemic.

During the last six months I have had many phone calls and Zoom meetings with my constituents, just like colleagues in this house, and many of them had either lost their job or their hours at work or they were on a wage subsidy support. They would tell me how their changed circumstances in regard to work affected by coronavirus had made it harder for them to pay bills and put food on their table. It is not unusual for my office to receive daily phone calls from people that may have a roof over their head but cannot put food on their table. It is a story that I am sure is happening right across Victoria and, unfortunately, in thousands of family households.

But for renters in this situation these changes have meant that there is one less thing for them to worry about at the end of the day in these very challenging circumstances. It has meant that they have been able to do the right thing and stay at home and stay safe from this virus, because as we have said throughout this pandemic, you cannot stay home if you do not have one. I think everyone in this state would agree that the people in Wyndham have needed to do the right thing and stay home and keep all of us safe from this virus. So I am thinking of all the residents in Tarneit who are renting their home, and they may be doing it tough—a lot of you are. The changes in this bill are going to mean that you will continue to be safe without the fear of eviction looming over your head.

It means that this support is going to be there for you if you have lost your job and you need to keep a roof over your head and your kids’. That is why this bill is so important for my local community. But this is not a bill that is just good for renters; it also makes a huge difference for small and medium businesses right across Victoria that have been impacted by this virus. Over the past couple of months I have made it a priority to reach out and talk to local businesses in the Tarneit electorate to keep them up to date on the many support packages that this government has made available to them.

I spent a bit of time this week listening to those opposite talk about their electorates and the small number, if not zero, of transmissions of coronavirus that have existed in their local community. I have to say it is very pleasing to hear that there are zero cases of transmission in some local communities in Victoria. I hope those opposite understand how lucky they really are, because let me tell you, out in our western suburbs there have been a lot of active transmission cases, and I think it will be an eye-opening revelation for those MPs—those blokes that sit in blue-chip electorates, peddling dictatorship and conspiracy theories—to sit here and listen to some of the things that have been happening in Melbourne’s western suburbs.

Wyndham and my electorate of Tarneit, like the rest of the western suburbs, are home to very proud, hardworking communities. Our people work in transport and they work in manufacturing. We are your teachers and your nurses. We are retail and hospo workers. We are early childhood workers. We are your carers in aged-care facilities and the disability sector. Many of you will not like to believe it: we are also your abattoir workers. The postcodes of Hoppers Crossing, Tarneit and Truganina continue to be hard hit by this virus, and even today we still have the highest active case numbers in this country.

Wyndham is home to the largest proportion of childcare workers in this state, with at least 4 per cent of the suburb of Tarneit alone working in child care. Think about what that means for a second, because maybe you have been reading recently about what the mates of those opposite up there in Canberra have failed to do in that space lately.

Our postcodes boast the highest number of JobKeeper recipients in Victoria, second only in Australia to Sydney CBD. We have a staggeringly high number of casual workers. We do not have the luxury of working from home, and many of us have lost our jobs, but believe me when I say our community wants to see an end to restrictions. We cannot wait to reopen, but we know we need to reopen safely, and we look forward to returning to our new normal.

Wyndham businesses are struggling to make ends meet because of this virus, so it leaves me pretty horrified to think what will happen to those people when the federal government starts cutting JobKeeper payments. What those opposite might also not know is that there are hundreds if not thousands of people in my community who are not even deemed eligible for JobKeeper. Let me tell you, these folks are not silent about it. I could talk here for hours based on the emails that I have been receiving. They have been forgotten by our nation’s Prime Minister and his government.

I know that this bill will provide some support to my community and let them know that they have a home and a roof over their heads, and businesses will not have to worry that when they get through this they will not even have office space in which to operate. We will stand by these people. We will stand by residents in my local community. We are giving them clarity and certainty that their lease arrangements will not change unexpectedly as we all continue to fight this virus. It is for these reasons I commend the bill to the house.