Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-04-30 Daily Xml

Contents

Coronavirus

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (14:37): A supplementary question: apart from banning evictions, as the Treasurer has said, has any other part of the national mandatory code been implemented here in South Australia?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:37): I refer the honourable member to the legislation that was passed. There were a number of other related provisions that were included in that. I don't have the legislation with me at the moment but the member was here when we passed the legislation, so I am sure she is quite familiar with all the provisions of the COVID (1) bill. Essentially, the major elements were in relation to buying some time to try to resolve what is a difficult issue.

Inevitably, in relation to this, we have some tenants who have had an inability to pay all or some of their rent, we have the banks who have given some deferral of mortgage repayments, for example, or loan repayments, but nevertheless will collect at some stage all of the repayments from the landlord and, in some cases, the landlord is left in the middle with perhaps reduced or no rental income coming in for six months but, on the other hand, having at some stage to repay all of their loan repayments to the bank. The state government has stepped up by offering significant land tax relief. Nevertheless, we have bought time to try to resolve this issue: this six-month time to prevent anyone being evicted whilst we try to resolve what is a complicated circumstance.