South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:01): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the minister, representing the Attorney-General, questions relating to the review of the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, otherwise known as SACAT.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: Family First has been contacted by a substantial number of concerned constituents, predominantly landlords and property managers, who are dissatisfied with the current operation of SACAT. A number of constituents have experienced significant delays in being granted a hearing at SACAT which, as a result, has caused them financial difficulty or their clients financial difficulty.

This is especially the case for landlords and property managers who can remain out of pocket and unable to recover unpaid rent and costs associated with repairing damage until the matter is heard. There are growing concerns that SACAT has undertaken a workload that it cannot manage effectively or there are some other problems in the system which means that decisions are not made often in the way that one might expect they would be made and sometimes there seems to be a frequency of decisions which run against the landlords more commonly than not. My questions are:

1. Is the Attorney-General aware of these criticisms of SACAT?

2. Is the Attorney-General open to moving forward to an earlier date the review of SACAT, scheduled under legislation, in order to address these issues?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:02): Thank you to the honourable member for his questions. Obviously I will refer the question to the responsible member in the other place, apart from adding the fact that I know that the SACAT has been an innovative reform on behalf of this government and the Attorney-General, and all are committed to making sure that it works efficiently and effectively and serves the purpose for which it was designed. I am more than happy to pass on that question to the responsible minister in the other place for a response as soon as possible.