David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Social Services Legislation Amendment (Housing Affordability) Bill 2017 introduces a framework that builds on the voluntary rent deduction scheme and makes it automatic. It allows for rent and utilities to be deducted from income support payments and family tax benefits for occupants who are living in social housing. It also makes amendments to the National Rental Affordability Scheme Act 2008 so that it streamlines and simplifies the administration of the NRAS until it ceases operations in 2026-27.

As other members in this House have mentioned, it is part of the broader policy to help people who are at risk of becoming homeless. I just want to say a few words about the scale of that. There are actually about 10,000 people at any one time in social housing who aren't up to date on their rental payments and about 2,500 people are actually evicted because of their failure to pay. There are many who are in rental arrears. This system allows their rental payment responsibilities to be automatically deducted from their income support payments. It is a good initiative. I have quite a lot of people in this situation in my electorate. We have many people who are in receipt of income support payments and family tax benefits. The community housing sector and the private rental market has this phenomenon happening only too often, but this only applies to people in community housing. So it is specific, but it does address a real problem. It was defined in the 2016-17 budget after a request from the states and territories, and they are the ones that do operate a lot of these social housing initiatives; housing commission and/or community housing is in their space.

As a precondition in the scheme, the minister responsible for housing in one of those relevant states or territories must write to the Commonwealth Minister for Social Services, setting out the social housing policies of that state or territory and how these policies protect tenants from financial hardship. The automatic rent deduction scheme deductions are limited. It's not just automatic deductions willy-nilly; it's limited to the amounts that are due for rent and the utilities that are bundled up in that rent in the social housing space. Any arrears that are incurred due to the suspension of an income support payment cannot be deducted from a single payment under the ARDS when the payment recommences.

The member for Barton said that they were going to move an amendment about people in the cashless debit card trial or under income management to limit the deductions from that quarantined period. Under these amendments, that is already there. If you are part of an income management scheme or a cashless debit card trial, deductions will only be taken from the restricted portion of the income support payment.

The other amendments are to the National Rental Affordability Scheme. Schedule 3 of the bill refers to changes in the NRAS operations. It is a scheme that is designed to deliver a vast amount of cheaper-than-market rent into areas where there is rental stress. You only have to look at some of the rents in the capital cities of Sydney, Melbourne and, to a lesser extent, Brisbane to realise how expensive some of these metropolitan rents are. The NRAS was set up to assist people such as essential service workers and low-income workers who couldn't afford to work in the cities where their services were needed. But there are always things that don't turn out the way you think they are going to. There are people further up the chain in the scheme who aren't passing on the payments that they receive under the NRAS to the investors in the scheme who are providing these houses. Some of these amendments will correct this problem. They give the government general regulation-making power to enable it to make changes to the NRAS regulations to protect those investors up until 2026, when the NRAS ceases operating. There are other amendments that allow specific regulation-making powers to support the operation of the NRAS and to further protect investors through changes which include requiring the participants to pass on the state and territory payments to those people who have provided the building and made the investment.

In this scheme, 99.5 per cent of the middlemen are honest and they pass on the funds that they receive from the states and territories. But, no matter what scheme governments develop, there's always someone that will abuse the system, unfortunately. It came to my attention when I was in the ministry in this section that there were some people who were rogue operators, and they weren't passing on the payments. But this will allow the regulations to make that mandatory. It will also give special dispensation where a tenant is inadvertently charged more than the 80 per cent limit, provided the tenant is compensated.

As I mentioned, a small number of approved participants do not do the right thing, and that's where these regulations are aimed at. It's not to make the scheme harder to operate; it's to make it fair and just. It will also allow regulatory actions if there are other episodes of undesirable conduct. The amendments will also permit the Secretary of the Department of Social Services to accept an enforceable undertaking from an approved participant if the approved participant is told, 'You have to behave.'

The government is committed to putting in place measures to reduce the risk of homelessness for social housing tenants and to reduce rental costs for low- and moderate-income households. This bill will do that. It is a scheme that is delivering benefits in many parts. There are NRAS schemes out in regional Australia which are making modern houses available to people on low and middle incomes who really deserve somewhere decent to stay. In some of these regional areas there is actually a shortage of housing. So it's been of benefit to both metropolitan and regional. But, as I said, when participants in the scheme don't pass on the funds that they've received at the top end of the scheme to the people who are actually providing the housing, we have to change the regulations to enforce a change of behaviour.

In summary, the Automatic Rent Deduction Scheme is a growth on the existing voluntary scheme. It is limited to rent that is due for the community and social housing sector landlords and whatever utility payments are due within that. Nothing more can be done, but it will prevent a lot of people abandoning houses, which does happen under the voluntary Rent Deduction Scheme. People can sign up and get into community housing and then, a month later, or two months later, go along and sign out of the scheme at Centrelink but the landlord is the last person to hear about it. Some tenancies are abandoned with damage to the properties as well. Again, most people respect the benefit and the support that they receive from the Australian taxpayer but there's always one portion, no matter what scheme you have—but, in this case, it's rental support—that abuses the system. These changes will mean that is removed as a possibility, because the funds will be deducted automatically. I do stand in support of this because it is practical and it's a real issue for many people that they aren't able to manage their rental obligations. This will be a way of protecting them from some of their not necessarily consciously delinquent behaviour but the behaviour that ends up with them being in arrears and being forced out of their accommodation or just abandoning it. I commend these bills and the amendment to the House.

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