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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-06-04 Daily Xml
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HOUSING TRUST, DISRUPTIVE TENANTS

The Hon. G.M. GUNN (Stuart) (14:21): My question is directed to the Minister for Housing. What action is the government taking to tackle the problems caused by disruptive tenants in housing under the control of the state government?

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. G.M. GUNN: Well, that's probably right. My office at Port Augusta is inundated with complaints about these disruptive tenants who have no appreciation of the rights of other people in the street, their privacy or their property. These tenants have engaged in noise or they have vandalised the houses. There have been intoxicated people abusing other residents and threatening them, and elderly people are very concerned about their safety. I ask the minister to change the law so that managers can get rid of these villains as soon as possible.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. G.M. GUNN: Well, they are villains.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Families and Communities, Minister for Northern Suburbs, Minister for Housing, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Disability) (14:22): I thank the member for Stuart for his question. I think it was only this week that I received a letter from the member for Stuart and I have responded to him. He wrote to me expressing concern that there seems to be an increase in the number of disruptive tenants in Port Augusta.

This house would be well aware that there are a number of procedures that the Housing Trust undertakes in relation to dealing with disruptive tenants. It is a condition of people's tenancy that they do not disturb the peace, livelihood and amenity of people living next door to them, and we take these issues very seriously. In the first instance, obviously, those reports should go to housing managers, but there are processes in place if people continue with that behaviour. We have a specific team set up to deal with those issues. There are certain cases where we take them directly to the Residential Tenancies Tribunal and apply for eviction and, in fact, that has been the case.

Ms Chapman: How many?

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: Well, actually, I can give the member the numbers, if she likes. It has been quite considerable. But, certainly the—

Ms Chapman: How many, two?

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: No, not about two; in fact, a considerable number. I am not going to just throw a number out there so that you can spin it right back.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the deputy leader!

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: Well, no.

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader!

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: About 50 tenancies in about a year were terminated between February and April.

An honourable member: Terminated.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: Fifty terminated; 12 were evicted through the Residential Tenancies Tribunal; 20 voluntarily terminated; 18 transferred to an alternative property; and 45 modified their behaviour and kept their tenancy. The trust is about actually keeping people in housing. We will work with them—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader is warned!

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: We accept that there are people in Housing Trust homes who have problems. We are the largest landlord in the state. We have 45,000 properties. It is not unexpected that there would be the odd tenancy where there is a problem. We will work with those people. If we can help them to modify their behaviour and maintain their tenancy, we will do that; if they continue to misbehave and disrupt the people around them, we will take appropriate steps to have them evicted.

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