Select Committee on a Review of the Retirement Villages Act 1987

Adjourned debate on motion of Dr McFetridge:

That the report of the committee, on a Review of the Retirement Villages Act 1987, be noted.

(Continued from 4 June 2014.)

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (11:56): I rise to continue my remarks with regard to the retirement villages select committee report. As I said, I am very pleased that we have got to the stage of the report being handed down. The Minister for Ageing (the member for Ramsay) has responded to the recommendations of that report. As I said in my earlier contribution, I am very pleased to support the comments that were made, particularly by the member for Morphett, in response to those recommendations.

For those of us who are campaigners in the retirement village area, we will continue to try to make sure those changes happen for the better. In the meantime, I have received information from a constituent, Mr Usher, who was the president of the Stuart Grove Retirement Estate, and he raises another matter that I previously raised with the former minister for health and ageing, and also raised with the current minister. It is in relation to the concerns that he has—and this is something that has been raised by other retirement village associations—with regard to lease fees associated with the community centre in the retirement village.

Mr Usher has put together quite a complicated document, but his concern is that the community centre is being considered as a commercial entity in terms of the valuations that are part of the costs of being in a retirement village. He also refers to the case that was brought before the Residential Tenancies Tribunal, prescribing that the administering authority should pay a refund for the period of 13 June to 30 June 2013. Mr Usher believes that this should apply for at least six months in 2013, given that the first request for a meeting with the owner was declined in September 2012. This is something that has been raised by other members in this house; that is, the difficulty in having discussions or negotiations.

I just raise the added issue that I think did not come out from my reading of the select committee inquiry. Those people that were on that inquiry might want to correct me, but there is an issue of other assets that are actually within the retirement village itself. Having had the opportunity to meet and participate in some of the activities in the community centres in those retirement villages, I just put this on notice to the minister. As I said, I have written to her, I think in May this year, raising Mr Usher's concerns on behalf of the Stuart Grove Retirement Estate but it is something that I think we might need to watch and I am sure other members will have received inquiries in this area, also. Congratulations to the select committee participants and also to both the former minister for health and ageing and the current minister for listening to what the select committee had to say.

Time expired.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Gardner.