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Category Archives: Announcements
Bond money grows $5.5M in one month!
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!
Day of Action Tuesday August 28 – what you can do (your reminder!)
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:
- CALL the Premier and the Housing Minister to seek complete reinstatement of the TAAS program. Keep it short so others can get through!
- If you can’t get through, fax or email but keep trying to CALL the Premier and the Housing Minister.
- 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.
- 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.
Action day tomorrow Tuesday August 28
Contact details:
HOUSING MINISTER PREMIER
Hon Bruce Flegg MP Hon Campbell Newman MP
Ph – 3237 1832 Ph – 3224 4500
Fax – 3012 9017 Fax – 3221 1809 [email protected]
[email protected]
More information:
https://savetenantservices.net.au/498/day-of-action-call-to-reinstate-on-august-28/
Save Tenant Services Campaign gains momentum!
Here’s a video review of just a few of the activities so far. Remember a focused DAY of ACTION is on Tuesday August 28! Show your support by taking action!
Call to reinstate on August 28
Hon Bruce Flegg MP
Ph – 3237 1832 Fax – 3012 9017
[email protected]
Hon Campbell Newman MP
Ph – 3224 4500 Fax – 3221 1809
[email protected]
Parliamentary e-petition launched to reinstate funding
A petition has been launched on the Queensland parliament website. Click here to go to it. The principal petitioner is the member for South Brisbane, Jackie Trad.
The petiion states:
Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House the appalling decision by the LNP Queensland Government to axe funding to the Tenant Advice and Advocacy Service, Queensland Tenants Union, Caravan and Manufactured Home Residents Association of Queensland Inc. and many other services that provide frontline advocacy for housing tenants.
These services are a vital resource to many Queenslanders, and their loss will result in many losing their voice when it comes to disputes in the private and social housing market. Further, services funded under TAASQ intervene to prevent homelessness amongst Queensland families and their absence will have a negative affect on homeless rates in Queensland.
Your petitioners therefore request the House to compel the LNP Queensland Government to revoke its decision and reinstate full funding to the above mentioned services.
Day of Action – Call to Reinstate on August 28
Don’t forget the day of action on Tuesday August 28. See the full details at https://savetenantservices.net.au/498/day-of-action-call-to-reinstate-on-august-28/
Scrimping and saving or taxing tenants?
Minister Flegg has just announced he’s on the lookout for parcel of land in Logan where his department can develop 200 units of housing at a multimillion dollar pricetag. As a public private partnership and with a view to achieving mixed communities, only a proportion of the units will end up as social housing.
According to the Minister, it’s the ‘scrimping and saving’ that’s made the project possible, including the ‘contraversial axing of a tenants advisory service’, and freed up money for the government to contribute.
Scrimping and saving?? Given that tenant advice funding is derived mainly from tenant bond interest, isn’t it more like an additional tax on tenants, an appropriation of their bond interest at the expense of the only direct benefit they get from it – tenant advice services?
These monies are simply not the government’s to save or scrimp. Continue reading
Day of Action – Call to Reinstate on August 28
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:
- CALL the Premier and the Housing Minister to seek complete reinstatement of the TAAS program. Keep it short so others can get through!
- If you can’t get through, fax or email but keep trying to CALL the Premier and the Housing Minister.
- 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.
- 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 PREMIER
Hon Bruce Flegg MP Hon Campbell Newman MP
Ph – 3237 1832 Ph – 3224 4500
Fax – 3012 9017 Fax – 3221 1809
[email protected] [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.
Tenants forego interest on their bonds to pay for the RTA and TAAS services
Queensland Law Society urges government to reconsider funding cuts
The Queensland Law Society (the Society) today expressed concerns regarding funding cuts to the Tenants’ Union of Queensland (TUQ).
In a press release (see here) the Society said the government’s decision to reduce the funding of the TUQ will likely put more pressure on struggling community legal centres (CLCs).
Society president Dr John de Groot said The Tenants’ Union, itself a CLC, looks after a complex and niche area of law, providing advice on tenancy issues to people in need, particularly those on the brink of homelessness. Continue reading
International concerns expressed over funding cuts
The International community has now chimed in with their concerns over funding cuts to every free tenant advice service, including the Tenants’ Union of Queensland, across the state. Tenant advice services are funded under the Tenant Advice and Advocacy (TAAS) program and were given 3 months’ notice of discontinuation of funding, ending on October 31.
Last week the International Union of Tenants’ (IUT), based in Sweden, wrote to Premier Newman expressing a strong view that funding to tenant advice services should not be cut. Continue reading
DV service supports continuation of tenant advice program
A regional domestic violence organisation says funding cuts to their local tenant advice service will leave women and children in the lurch. Whilst the DV service provides short term accommodation and support, they rely on tenant advisors to assist women with previous tenancy situations as well as with their re-entry into the private rental or social housing market.
Tenant advice services assist women and their children with their journey back into stable long term accommodation. But more than that, these services assist many people, women and men, before they lose their rental home and aim to prevent homelessness. Continue reading
People in the real estate industry think services to tenants are important…….
See what Real Estate Excellence Academy had to say http://bit.ly/NAIoHo