Coronavirus

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (14:10): My question is to the Attorney-General. Can the Attorney update the house on the measures—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Sorry, member for Colton, I didn't hear the start of that question. I want to make sure that it is in order. Can I hear it again.

Mr COWDREY: My question is to the Attorney-General. Can the Attorney please update the house on measures put in place by the Marshall Liberal government to assist tenants, as well as landlords, during COVID-19?

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General) (14:11): I am very happy to provide to the house an update of the circumstances relating to how the government are acting in this regard. Members will remember that on 29 March the Prime Minister announced to Australia that a decision had been taken by members of his national council, including our own Premier, that action would be taken to protect the tenancy of people's homes during COVID-19. Obviously, comments were also made about commercial tenancies, and my colleague the Minister for Transport gave an update to the house on that.

Can I explain the very vulnerable circumstance of residential tenancies and the tenants' opportunity to stay in their home during this period. Indeed, they need to do so as a result of the directions of the State Coordinator to ensure that we minimise the spread of COVID-19. Following the Prime Minister's announcement, the government recognised that the impact of COVID-19 on private rentals would be unsettling for many during this time, which is why we decided that we would act quite swiftly in this area. There are new measures to help ease the financial strain for renters who are concerned about their ability to pay rent.

We had tenants who were in an often increased financially impecunious circumstance arising out of a reduction in their employment, loss of employment, the need to go to care for others during this period and assisting with elderly and children's care, particularly for those who need to be educated. So there is a major impact on people's income as tenants; correspondingly, if they were unable to pay all their rent, or even a portion of their rent, there is a very significant impact on landlords, who of course are largely represented in South Australia by persons, as distinct from corporate ownership.

In fact, there is quite a large corporate ownership, relatively, but most of those are headquartered interstate. The overwhelming majority of people who are landlords in South Australia are persons who are family members, husband and wife teams, individuals and the like. The things that must now be considered by the law that we changed a week or so ago are that:

the temporary emergency measures include that agreements can't be terminated solely on the ground of unpaid rent, but the tenant must of course establish that they are suffering financial hardship as a direct result of COVID-19;

SACAT must consider COVID-19-related factors in cases of undue hardship to tenants or landlords;

SACAT may suspend an order for possession, having given consideration to the need to avoid homelessness during the public health emergency;

SACAT may make an order that it considers appropriate in the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, including in relation to costs associated with the termination of an agreement; and

landlords cannot increase the rent and tenants cannot be listed on residential tenancy databases in certain circumstances as a result of COVID-19.

There's limited retrospective operation, obviously, from 30 March because that was the day after the Prime Minister had made the announcement of the national cabinet decision. With respect to a moratorium on rental evictions, similar to the existing section 89 of the Residential Tenancies Act, SACAT must be satisfied there is hardship, and in this case the financial hardship is related to COVID-19. There are a number of aspects in relation to this that I discussed with Justice Hughes of SACAT and I am pleased to have had her advice during the implementation of these measures.