Private Rental Assistance

Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (15:18): Supplementary: I think the minister might be misunderstanding. I am not talking about people having multiple houses and you look after the house, you get your bond back and then you re-apply for another bond, that would be limitless because there's no cost to the taxpayer.

The SPEAKER: It's not debate. Just ask a question.

Ms SANDERSON: How many times after losing their bond due the damage they've done to the house, how many times can they have another bond and another bond and another bond? Is there a cap?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay—Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, Minister for Social Housing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Youth, Minister for Volunteers) (15:19): At this point there is no cap. What we look at are individual situations. Let me be clear, people with debt, and we have tenants and non-tenants, 84 per cent of people have an arrangement to pay us back. One of the key things I am looking at with the department is increasing that range to pay back. There are different techniques that we can use, of course. We have private facilities where people—there are debt collectors that they go to. But let us be clear, people are seeking multiple bonds because they have often had to flee violence in the home. I want to look at this very closely and understand how we can support those people better, including enabling them to be able to save, to have enough money to cover that bond, which will give them some more choices in the future.

The SPEAKER: Members may be curious about filming from my upper left in the mezzanine, which I understand is done on the authorisation of the member for Morialta. The member did canvass it with me and it is within the current rules. However, if it were, let us say, cut and pasted Today Tonight style or used for electioneering, that would lead to a cycle of retaliation that would be most unseemly.