STATUTES AMENDMENT (COMMUNITY AND STRATA TITLES) BILL

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 28 February 2012.)

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (21:03): I rise to indicate that the Greens will support the Statutes Amendment (Community and Strata Titles) Bill. The intent of the bill is to improve protections for consumers who buy into or own units in strata and community titled developments. Currently when a community corporation comes into existence the lots are owned by the developer, who has control over the corporation and can appoint the body corporate manager.

Some examples, in particular interstate examples, have shown that developers have auctioned body corporate management rights for terms as long as 25 years. In some cases, this has meant that incoming owners have to pay management fees that are well above the market rate.

The Greens support provisions that a community corporation may revoke a delegation of its function to a body corporate manager at any time, even if there is an agreement to the contrary. This bill provides the same for strata corporations. For future contracts the bill provides that a body corporate can end the contract with a manager at any time. The bill also limits the term of a body corporate management contract to two years to prompt corporations to periodically review the manager's performance.

Overall the Greens welcome the aim to increase the accountability of body corporate managers and note that there will be a national occupational licensing system scheduled to commence in mid-2012. The passage of this bill is therefore long awaited but still timely, and we look forward to bringing in a national licence for property agents. Those jurisdictions that currently regulate body corporate managers will be bound to adopt that licence with the intent being able to re-examine the issue of licensing body corporate managers under the national licensing system once that is operational.

The Greens note that the government has indeed consulted with the key stakeholder groups, and that the former attorney-general first released a discussion paper in late 2003 with relevance to this bill before us tonight. The consultation led to the drafting of a bill to amend the Community Titles Act and the Strata Titles Act, which was consulted on in December 2008. Many, many years later, of course, we are finally seeing this bill before us.

I do have concerns about the process of this bill, and the Greens certainly indicated previously that we were not happy to proceed without being absolutely confident that it had been appropriately consulted on, hence some delays in the debate of this bill last year before the parliament. I note that it was an extraordinary occasion that both the Greens and the opposition shadow attorney-general had to FOI the submissions made in the consultation process for this bill, and—

The Hon. S.G. Wade interjecting:

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: Yes. We had to divide it up between us and we were quite happy to share the information, but it is extraordinary that consultation on a piece of public legislation that affects the whole sector could not actually have the transparency to allow parliamentarians to see the submissions, which were in no way intended by those who had made the submissions to be private. In fact, many of them were contacting us, indicating that they really wanted us to read their submissions, and had we got them earlier we would have been able to vote on this bill last year.

I note that the sector was widely consulted, and the Greens were particularly pleased to see that the Property Council (SA Division), the Commissioner for Consumer Affairs, the Law Society, the Legal Services Commission, the Real Estate Institute of Australia, the Australian Institute of Conveyancers, several strata managers and a number of strata owners, as well as the National Community Titles Institute, have all participated in that process. With that, we are happy to commend this bill to the chamber.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. Carmel Zollo.