While Labor intends to keep its commitment to ending no-grounds terminations,the breadth of the pushback from the industry has complicated the reforms.
The government previously said that a bill would be introduced by the end of last year,but Minns could not give a timeframe on the new laws on Friday.
A particular sticking point is what model of no-grounds reform will be adopted.
In 2022,Victoria introduced laws banning the use of no-fault evictions for both periodic and fixed-term leases after the first lease cycle. In Queensland,no-fault terminations can occur only at the end of a fixed-term lease.
Minns conceded there had been “mixed views” on the proposals,and said the government had not decided on which model it would adopt.
“We’ve got to make a decision,in all candour,about that,” he said.
“One of the good things about looking at the other states and how their programs have rolled out is you can assess their impact on the market and what it’s done for rental prices. So there’s more to do there,I’m not going to lie.”
Loading
In 2021,the Queensland government walked away from an earlier plan to end no-grounds evictions on all types of leases because,as Housing Minister Leeanne Enoch argued,it would breach the state’s Human Rights Act.
Leo Patterson-Ross,the head of the NSW Tenants Union,a renters’ advocacy group,said the argument was spurious,pointing out that,at the time,the Queensland Human Rights Commissioner disagreed with the government.
“Asking you to give a reason for ending a contract is not an arbitrary deprivation;it’s just saying you need to tell the person what the reason is,” Patterson-Ross said.
“Reforming no-grounds evictions is not about arbitrary. It’s removing arbitrariness by asking you to give reasonable grounds.”
Across the property industry,stakeholders have been lobbying the government against introducing a new tenancy framework that,they say,will exacerbate housing supply shortages by discouraging investment.
Property Owners’ Association of NSW president John Gilmovich said the reforms would “take more control over owners’ property” and encourage “investors to leave the market,which is making the situation worse not better”.
“The latest reforms serve to cloud the issue about how to solve this critical problem and paint property investors as the villains,when investors are actually a very big part of the solution,” Gilmovich said.
But Patterson-Ross pointed out that other jurisdictions had stricter rules around a landlord’s ability to end tenancies and had “much greater density” than NSW.
“I think if you use common sense you can understand that basically since the 1970s there has been progressively a more consumer-protection focus on the rental system,and there are more landlords than ever,” he said.
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories,analysis and insights.Sign up here.