Rental Affordability

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (15:27): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before addressing a question without notice to the minister representing the Minister for Consumer and Business Affairs on the topic of the Residential Tenancies Act review.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS: Last week, Anglicare released its annual rental affordability snapshot, which showed that of the 1,456 private rentals advertised for rent here in South Australia on one weekend last month, only 18 per cent were affordable and appropriate for households on a minimum wage and just 1 per cent were affordable and appropriate for households on income support payments.

In March, SACOSS released their latest cost-of-living update, which found that renters constitute 28 per cent of Adelaide's total housing market, and approximately one-third of those are experiencing rental stress. Earlier today, the Reserve Bank increased interest rates yet again, which will place more pressure on home owners and, in turn, renters.

The government has been reviewing the Residential Tenancies Act, and in the media release about the review Minister Andrea Michaels stated:

I am looking to use the levers at my disposal to improve availability and affordability for South Australian renters.

Since then, the government has announced some initial reforms relating to the Residential Tenancies Act and rent bidding but are yet to make the full report of their review public. My questions to the minister therefore are:

1. How many submissions were received as part of this review?

2. Will the government commit to publicly releasing the submissions received and the report?

3. Will the minister advise when we will see the full suite of reforms that the government has in mind?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:29): I thank the honourable member for his question. I will have to relay some of those to the minister responsible, the Hon. Andrea Michaels. As I understand it—and if this is wildly wrong I am happy to bring back clarification—there was something in excess of 5,000 responses to surveys, and also many dozens of formal written submissions in addition to the responses to surveys.

Sometimes the number of that—well over 10,000, I believe, individual hits on the YourSAy website page that looked at the Residential Tenancies Act. But in relation to the very specifics of reports, I am happy to refer those to the minister in another place and bring back a reply. However, I think the level of interaction in response to this indicates, as the honourable member knows as an advocate in this area in this chamber, that it is often an important issue to many South Australians.