Author Archives: Lead Organiser

Send 5 to keep us alive! And win a campaign t-shirt!

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We’re launching our new postcard campaign and here’s what we’re hoping you’ll do to help us.

We want you to recruit 5 friends or family members to send off postcards to the Premier and the Housing Minister to seek funding reinstatement.  To get the postcards, you only need to email us at [email protected] and tell us how many postcards you want and if you’d like them posted or emailed to you. And of course you’ll have to get your friends to put stamps on them.  We’re going to give a free Save Tenant Services t-shirt to the first two supporters who tell us they’ve got 5 people to send the postcards in!  You might have noticed the shirts in photos on our site.

We still want you to write letters to your local MP, the Housing Minister and the Premier, these are very effective, but our postcard campaign is about getting more people involved in our campagin to seek funding reinstatement for the Tenant Advice and Advocacy Program.  To see the postcards in full size continue reading.

Continue reading →

Minister continues to misunderstand tenant advice program

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At the Tenant Advice and Advocacy Services’ day of action protesting funding cuts are (front from left) Brett and Cheryl Kettlewell of Blackstone, and (rear from left) Arlene Lewis, co-ordinator of Tenant Services Ipswich, and Helen Parcell of Eastern Heights.

The Minister’s comments show he misunderstands that more people will end up homeless and in need of social housing if he withdraws the tenant advice and advocacy program which keeps people adequately and safely housed in the private rental market Continue reading →

Action Day a resounding success!

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WOW everyone, great job!! Thanks so much for supporting the 22 local and regional tenant advice services statewide and the Tenants’ Union of Queensland with your calls to reinstate the Program.

It sounds like there were plenty of calls, both the Premier and the Housing Minister.  A few people reported not being able to get through at times so had to call back later.

In Brisbane about 80 people turned up to hand in postcards to the Premier’s electorate office.  The crowd was loud, proud and polite!  We’ll get some video of it up soon. Continue reading →

Tenant advice services call for funding reinstatement

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Protesters to rally against funding cut for Tenant Advice and Advocacy Services   (reprinted from the Courier Mail 28-8-12. Reporter Koren Helbig)

PROTESTERS will today rally outside Premier Campbell Newman’s northwest Brisbane electorate office, demanding funding for a key tenancy advice service used by 80,000 Queenslanders each year be reinstated.

The Government has argued the Tenant Advice and Advocacy Services funding, which topped $20 million over four years, is better directed to new public housing properties.

Campaign organiser Peter Mott said the change could force more people on to the public housing waiting list. Continue reading →

Bond money grows $5.5M in one month!

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Remember this graph? In one month the amount of tenant bond monies held by the Residential Tenancies Authority has grown by $5.5M.  Such a small part of the interest generated on it is spent on tenant specific advice services. The vast majority gets spent providing impartial RTA services across the industry. Come on Minister Flegg, be fair. Reinstate our tenant advice funding!
Funding diagram

Day of Action Tuesday August 28 – what you can do (your reminder!)

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We need your help on Tuesday August 28th, a day of action calling for the complete reinstatement of the Tenant Advice and Advocacy (TAAS) Program. YOUR CALL!!

What you can do:

  1. CALL the Premier and the Housing Minister to seek complete reinstatement of the TAAS program. Keep it short so others can get through!
  2. If you can’t get through, fax or email but keep trying to CALL the Premier and the Housing Minister.
  3. In Brisbane, help us to deliver postcards to the Premier’s electorate office in Ashgrove. Meet at 12.15pm Corner of Stewarts Rd and Waterworks Rd, Ashgrove (Stewart Place – War Memorial). Please, bring all your family and friends.
  4. If you are in a regional area you can print out postcards and deliver them to your local MP.

If you want you can add some or all of the following pieces of information to your call:

  • TAAS funding is mainly from tenant bond interest and it isn’t fair tenants are denied free access to tenancy advice
  • The RTA doesn’t provide advice or advocacy services to tenants.
  • 80,000 renting households every year will be denied access to tenancy advice which for some of them will result in homelessness.

We want to show the extent of concern for the funding cuts to tenant advice services on August 28 and need as many people as possible to join in! Come on, make the call!

For the Brisbane event we will be bright and organised. Please come along if you can.

Contact details:
HOUSING MINISTER  Hon Bruce Flegg MP  Ph – 3237 1832  Fax – 3012 9017
 [email protected]
PREMIER Hon Campbell  Ph – 3224 4500  Fax – 3221 1809  [email protected]

Ask for the Premier and Housing Minister. If they’re not available, their Chief of Staff or senior/policy advisor. If no one is available ask the person who answers to leave your message to reinstate the Tenant Advice and Advocacy Program and if you want, ask them to call you back.