Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Preventing Family Violence) Share this | Hansard source

I will address the issues around NRAS and then talk about the Automatic Rent Deduction Scheme and the amendments that have been moved. In relation to the amendments to the section of the bill that deals with the National Rental Affordability Scheme, Labor has been advocating on behalf of NRAS investors for more than 12 months, when issues about the conduct of a small number of approved participants in the scheme were first raised. Labor has written to Minister Tehan and Minister Fletcher on numerous occasions and has consistently raised concerns in Senate estimates about the need for additional protections and about the government's frustratingly slow response. Labor welcomes the fact that the government is finally acting on Labor's concerns and will support the proposed changes to NRAS.

The amendments moved by the government in relation to the Automatic Rent Deduction Scheme address some of the concerns raised by Labor, but they do not address our fundamental concerns. The amendments before the House in general improve the bill. This includes ensuring that deductions are taken out of a quarantined portion of a payment for people on income management or cashless debit card programs. This is important, as it will make sure that people are not left in a situation where they have no access to cash.

The amendment to remove property damage from automatic deductions is critically important. Too often, women who are victims of domestic violence are left with a damaged house—damage that they did not create. It would be completely unacceptable for housing providers to be permitted to dock a person's pay in this situation. That would put women in incredibly difficult situations. The government has also agreed to an amendment that will stop arrears from being deducted from a single payment. While this is an improvement, it does not go far enough. A cap on the portion of a payment that can be deducted is needed.

Labor is concerned about an amendment that would allow the agreement of a tenant for inclusion in an automatic rent deduction to be in a non-written form. We have sought clarification from the minister's office on how this will work. This will be further considered in the Senate, but it must be recognised that public and social housing tenants are not in a powerful position. They are likely to agree to almost anything that will keep a roof over their heads. That is why it's incumbent on the parliament to make sure that a provision like this will operate fairly with due process.

In the Senate, Labor will be moving amendments to address the fundamental deficiencies in this bill. Our amendments will ensure that only people who are in arrears and at risk of homelessness can be included in the scheme. The rental payment rate for social and public housing is well over 99 per cent. There's no need to include pensioners and other social security and family tax benefit recipients who have always paid their rent on time for many years. We want to cap the portion of a payment that can be automatically be deducted to 30 per cent, to avoid people being put into housing stress. We want to make participation in the scheme temporary. It should be temporary, as a last resort measure to prevent homelessness, not the standard method of rent collection. We also want to make sure that tenants are properly informed about changes.

Labor will support the minister's amendments, but we do not support the automatic rental deduction system in its proposed form. We are calling on the government to accept Labor's additional proposed amendments and not hold this bill up, or to at least split the bill so that the NRAS component can be dealt with quickly. Labor cannot support an Automatic Rent Deduction Scheme in the Senate without the safeguards we have called for. Such a scheme needs to be about preventing homelessness; it should not be a standard way of collecting rent, not when the rental payment rate for public and community housing is over 99 per cent, and 86 per cent of tenants are already committed to a voluntary rental deduction scheme.

But to reiterate, Labor will be supporting the amendments as proposed by Minister Fletcher in the House and will obviously move some amendments in the Senate to address the issues that are still outstanding. I do want to put on record that we have had good discussion with the minister's office and it's been a very collaborative and helpful process.

Question agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

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