Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

This bill, the National Rental Affordability Scheme Amendment Bill 2019, makes amendments to the National Rental Affordability Scheme 2008 to streamline and simplify the administration of the National Rental Affordability Scheme, known as NRAS, until it ceases operation in 2026. The amendments introduced in this bill clarify ambiguous provisions in the NRAS Act relating to the powers to make regulations and lay the foundation to strengthen and simplify the future operations and administration of the NRAS.

The NRAS Act requires the NRAS Regulations to prescribe that the rent charged for an approved rental dwelling must be at least 20 per cent less than the market rent at all times during the year. The term 'at all times during the year' has been subject to conflicting interpretations over the years. The first amendment supports the correct interpretation of this provision, which is that each time rent is charged it has to be at least 20 per cent less than the market rent. The NRAS Act requires the NRAS Regulations to prescribe maximum vacancy periods for approved rental dwellings. The prescriptive nature of the current vacancy provisions has been amended to allow greater flexibility for the NRAS Regulations to prescribe permitted vacancy periods. This flexibility will assist the future administration of the NRAS, should changes be required to how the maximum vacancy periods are to operate. Two new provisions will be added to the NRAS Act to provide express legislative authority for the NRAS Regulations to vary conditions of allocation and to put it beyond doubt that conditions may be varied or imposed after an allocation has been made. These provisions will reduce the risk to the Commonwealth when varying—

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