Everyone is interested in the reprieve achieved by tenant advice services in Queensland. Click here to read.
Media coverage of today’s announcement by Federal govt
There’s been lots of media coverage of today’s announcement by the Federal Housing Minister that $3.3M dollars of emergency funding will be provided to Tenant Advice and Advocacy Services in Queensland.
This money will take services through until June 2013, all 23 which included the Tenants’ Union of Queensland, It is hoped that by then the Queensland government will return tenant bond interest to services for tenants rather than redirect it to other uses. See some of the coverage below:
The Brisbane Times: read here
ninemsn: read here
The Courier Mail onine: read here
The Gladstone Observer: read here
The Westender: read here
Emergency funding for tenant advice – doorstop with Minister O’Connor
This doorstop interview makes for great reading. Federal Minister for Housing, Brendan O’Connor, gave the interview today after making the announcement that $3.3M will be provided to tenant advice and advocacy services which have had funding pulled by the Queensland Housing Minister.
The question still remains whether the Queensland government will return tenant bond interest to them in the coming months via the funding of the tenant advice services. Read the interview here.
Gillard government rescues tenant advice services with emergency funding
As many of you will have now heard, the Gillard government, through Federal Housing Minister Brendan O’Connor, has announced $3.3M in interim, emergency funding for the 23 de-funded Tenant Advice and Advocacy Services. Read Minister O’Connor’s.announcement here.
These monies will proportionally fund each service between October and June 2013.
This decision by the Federal government is a life line to Queensland tenants who would otherwise be left without access to any free specialised tenant advice services from the end of this month. The Save Tenant Services group wishes to thank the Federal Minister and government for their support.
This does not mean, however, that our campaign is over. We still need to pressure the state government to stop using tenant bond interest for other purposes over advice and advocacy for all Queensland tenants.
Last year $5M was provided by the Residential Tenancies Authority to the Department of Housing for the TAAS program. This year, the Queensland Housing Minister, after deciding not to fund TAAS services, then required $7M to be provided for social housing. All from tenant bond interest.
Queensland tenants are the big winner today, but now the Queensland government needs to step up to the mark, stop taxing tenants of their bond interest and divert those $7M back into services designed and specifically for all Queensland tenants.
For helping get us to this point, we want to thank you all – Queensland tenants and the TAAS services themselves, support services in local communities who have so passionately supported the TAASs, state, national agencies, the Australian Services Union, the Opposition parties. At risk of missing significant supporters, we want to thank QAILS and NACLC and Community Law Australia. There are so many organisations and individuals that have helped. Please stay tuned, we still need your help.
Federal emergency funding forthcoming for tenant advice services!
Breaking and very big news for tenant advice services in Queensland – Federal Housing Minister Brendan O’Connor to provide emergency funds to Queensland tenant advice services through until the end of June. More to come. Good work all you supporters!!
Send your notice to remedy breach to the Housing Minister today!
In celebration of International Tenants’ Day, we need your help again today, Tuesday October 2. Send a Notice to Remedy Breach to Housing Minister Bruce Flegg, asking him to remedy his breach and reinstate funding for free, universally accessible tenant advice services. At the Save Tenant Services headquarters, we’re about to send ours off!
For those of you who don’t know how these tenancy forms work, you have to tell the other person what their breach is and ask them to rectify it by a specified date. On October 2, you can describe the breach in your own words or use one of our suggestions, then ask the Minister to rectify the problem by October 31, the date on which the Tenant Advice and Advocacy Service funding will be discontinued.
How to help step by step:
- Fill in a Form 11 Notice to Remedy Breach – (you can make up your own or use samples). Use the NTRB filled in or fill in the empty NTRB here.
- Today, October 2, email or fax this notice to the HOUSING MINISTER to [email protected] or (Fax) 07 3012 9017 or send it by Australia Post to GPO Box 2457 BRISBANE QLD 4001
- Tell your friends, family and colleagues to join the action.
If you would like to learn more about International Tenants’ Day 2012 please read this link. Or visit the IUT’s website at http://www.iut.nu/
On August 28, the Day of Action, we sent messages and made phone calls to the Minister. We delivered postcards to the Premier. The government needs another reminder, send a Notice to Remedy Breach today, October 2.
PS International Tenants’ Day is actually on the first Monday of October, which is the 1st this year, but because it’s a holiday, we’re sending the notice to remedy to reach the Minister on Tuesday October the second.
Happy International Tenants’ Day 2012!!
International Union of Tenants
For all you tenants and tenant supporters, Happy International Tenants’ Day (ITD)!! Celebrated annually on the first Monday in October and coinciding with the UN World Habitat Day, this year’s theme is rental housing, why we like it!
So sit back and read here hereabout why the European based International Union of Tenants thinks that rental housing is so good. .There’s more information on the International Union of Tenants website as www.iut.nu
For those of you helping us celebrate ITD by sending a Notice to Remedy Breach to the Queensland Housing Minister, remember we’re not doing this until tomorrow, Tuesday October 2 due to the public holiday (read our previous post).
The loss of tenant advice services runs deep
Following on from the release of the Coroner’s report about the tragic death of a baby at a rental property in Yeppoon (read here for coverage of the issue), two letters to the Courier Mail editor highlighted outstanding concerns.
Closures could set the scene for more tenant tragedies
WHEN will Queensland renters be protected from poorly maintained and unsafe rental properties? The lack of enforceable standards in rental properties has led to the tragic death of a baby girl (C-M, Sep 20).
Her parents paid the ultimate price for Queensland’s inadequate tenancy laws. As the coroner hands down her decision, who will act as a watchdog to improve rental standards and ensure the Government implements the coroner’s recommendations?
The Tenants Union and 22 other tenancy advice services have been cut by the Government. Without these services, tenants will struggle to deal with repair issues and a tragedy like this could happen again.
Wendy Herman, Fortitude Valley
* * * * * * Continue reading
Who pays for tenant advice?
Since we posted this picture the first time, the amount of tenant bond money held by the Residential Tenancies Authority (RTA) has increased. At the end of August, $655.9M of was held.
Last financial year, the RTA expected to make $41M in interest on tenants’ bonds, most of which was used to run the RTA itself. Only $5M was given to the Department of Housing for the Tenant Advice and Advocacy Service program (TAAS), a program aimed specifically at addressing tenants’ needs. Additional to the bond interest, another $1.4M was added from consolidated revenue, bringing the TAAS program funding to $6.4 in its entirety.
This year, the Housing Minister did not let the RTA fund the TAAS program, even though they wanted to. Instead, the RTA has now provided $7M in tenants’ bond interest to the Department of Housing for, according to the Minister, the delivery of social housing. That’s more than the entire TAAS program funding for last year.
Tenants. Hung out to dry.
The irony of leases forced to be broken
Community Law Australia is a campaign by a coalition of community legal centre bodies led by the National Association of Community Legal Centres. 
Today they issued a press release outlining their concerns with the lose of access to justice for tenants through the decision by the Queensland government to cut funding to the tenant advice services.
Click here to read the media release.
Goodbye advocates for caravan & mobile home parks residents
So the reality of the Minister’s decision to cut funding to tenant advice and advocacy services is coming to fruition. WIth most funding being cut at the end of October, two services, the Caravan and Mobile Home Residents Association (CAMRA) and the Sunshine Coast TAAS only have funding until the end of September.
Whilst the Sunshine Coast service is scouting for options to continue in some form, CAMRA held a farewell after deciding at a recent meeting to disband. We hope to get a piece on this site from CAMRA soon outlining their trials and triumphs. But for now, here’s some pictures of the front of their office.
After 20 years of working with residents in caravan and mobile home parks, there will be no specialist advocacy service for those renters. CAMRA was instrumental in the then government’s decision to buy Monte Carlo, a caravan park in Cannon Hill, Brisbane, to save it from redevelopment. That’s the same park the government has now said they will sell. See the pictures below. Continue reading
Getting rid of anti-social or introducing discrimination?
The Minister for Housing today discussed introducing a ‘three strikes and your out’ policy for public housing tenants. Read the media article here. Is this a good idea?
The Minister’s comments, suggesting greater support for public housing tenants, are welcomed. However, it’s hard not to be cynical about what the change might really mean in the face of cutting funds to every tenant advocate in the state, including those engaged in housing policy and law reform. Who will be at the table to ensure the changes really are targeted at the ‘worst of the worst’ as the Minister says? And who will help tenants to defend claims they think are unreasonable? Continue reading
International Tenants’ Day – 1st Monday in October
The first Monday in October is International Tenants’ Day. The theme this year is Rental Housing – why we like it! Whilst will be a bit of a sad ITD this year in Queensland, with the withdrawal of funding to important services which assist tenants remain appropriately and safely housed, we’re going to do something special to let the Minister for Housing know how important these services are. And we’re going to be asking for your help! Watch this space!
Tenant advice worker addresses the Uncut Rally
Ipswich tenant advice worker, Arlene Lewis, addressed the Uncut Rally on September 22. Arlene’s talk outlined what the loss of tenant advice services means for Queensland renters and the effect of the cuts on her and her colleagues. These photos were taken by Rick Ng.
Complaints aren’t easy to make
We wonder if this tenant got advice from their local tenant advice service or the TUQ about either the practise of holding deposits or how a complaint can be made to the Residential Tenancies Authority.
Click here to read the article in the Gladstone Observer.