Northern Territory Second Reading Speeches

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RESIDENTIAL TENANCIES AMENDMENT (TERMINATION OF UNACCEPTABLE CONDUCT) BILL 2005

Continued from 18 August 2005.

Dr TOYNE (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I will say at the outset that we will not be supporting this bill, for reasons the member for Braitling is probably already aware. It is not because of the idea being without merit. In fact, we have taken the intent of this bill very seriously, and you will find that the intent has been included in the antisocial behaviour legislation which will be introduced into the House tomorrow. I certainly commend the member for Braitling for bringing this issue and idea to the House. It was a valid response to a valid problem.

The Residential Tenancies Amendment (Termination For Unacceptable Conduct) Bill (No 2) addresses the problem of antisocial behaviour based in rented premises that we certainly saw at one stage in recent time in Alice Springs. It is an ongoing context in which antisocial behaviour can occur. The member's proposition was that third parties other than the landlord and the tenant could be involved when this type of behaviour occurs, to apply for a termination of the tenancy on the basis that their own lives have been blighted by the behaviour occurring. We believe that strong action is needed against antisocial behaviour, and that will be evidenced by the fairly extensive legislation that we are introducing. We further believe that much of this antisocial behaviour is related to alcohol abuse and that by attacking alcohol abuse in the various contexts in which it occurs, we can make greater inroads than simply dealing with one context of the behaviour.

The bills tomorrow present a broad front of action against alcohol abuse in our Territory communities, through the implementation of alcohol courts to try to target and bring chronic alcohol abusers into treatment regimes. It also deals with giving the capacity to urban Territorians to introduce dry areas within our urban communities on prescribed public areas such as shopping centres, churches, schools and residences, or blocks of flats for that matter, as long as the procedures that are set out in the legislation are followed. It also includes a provision for householders adjacent to or in the vicinity of a residence in which antisocial behaviour is occurring to put in application for that tenancy to be terminated.

You can see from that very short synopsis of the antisocial behaviour bills to be presented tomorrow, that we have listened to the member for Braitling. We have recognised that that is a valid part of an overall package against antisocial behaviour but, quite rightly, we have chosen to incorporate that issue into a broader front of action against antisocial behaviour.

Most people in the community would recognise that antisocial behaviour has complex roots, and it requires far more than just a single initiative to feel that you can make some inroads into its prevalence in our communities. We believe we have come up with a package that does offer a broader front of action against antisocial behaviour and, in particular, its relationship to alcohol abuse.

Madam Speaker, we will proceed to introduce the bill tomorrow. I thank the member for Braitling for raising this issue and, while we will oppose the bill, we are certainly not saying that it was without merit; we believe that it was better to tackle it in the context of the package.

Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I was tossing up whether I need to make a contribution. The minister, in his response to the amendment, suggested that he will take the intent of the member for Braitling's amendment bill on board tomorrow when he introduces his own legislation.

I am reluctant to just leave it at that because I am not certain whether he will modify it to such a degree that, come tomorrow, we will not be able to recognise any of the intent that the member for Braitling has in this legislation. That will be a real pity.

Dr Toyne: Oh, come on! Trust us. Just this once, trust us.

Dr LIM: We have not seen it! We have not seen the legislation the minister wants to introduce. Knowing his form, I am a little concerned that the intent that has been expressed in the member for Braitling's amendment bill might be overlooked altogether. Promises that he might have made today might not be carried through tomorrow.

It is important to understand that there are many people in our suburbs who are thoroughly sick and tired and fed up with neighbours from hell, particularly those who live in Territory Housing properties. They have made complaint after complaint after complaint and, often, they fall on deaf ears.

Only last week, I made a house call at 9 pm to one of my constituents who was concerned when four carloads of people descended onto the house next door to him. He was really concerned that there were cars on the road, people sitting on the nature strip outside the house; there were two cars in the yard, one on the street and one on the footpath. When he came out to his car to drive out to pick his son up from sports, he rang me and said: 'I am really concerned. He was following up on a call he made that afternoon and it was 9 pm and he continued to be concerned. I went to his house to have a chat. When I got there, his wife was there on her own; he was still out. She had three dogs with her and so she felt more secure. I sat and talked to her and he returned home with his son. We continued our discussion about the neighbours that he had. I have to admit that I thought the neighbours were reasonably well behaved. Yes, there were large numbers of them. Apart from that, there was nothing more untoward than that. In fact, I approached the gathering, had a chat to them and we had a very friendly exchange. I found out where they came from; they knew who I was and we had a good discussion and we parted quite happily.

I did another house call only last Friday morning when I visited John Stokes complex in your electorate, Madam Speaker. I received several complaints about a particular resident in John Stokes who has caused a lot of trauma - serious trauma - to his neighbours and, in particular, three neighbours. These three neighbours also complained to Territory Housing. Security, the police and the tenancy manager would turn up and, at the time they did, they would say there was nothing serious, nothing they could do, then leave and the nuisance continued, to such a degree that some people were kept awake at night. One of the tenants I saw, who is distressed by this neighbour from hell, was nearly in tears. Every so often, she would get tears in her eyes as she related her story. I will give you more details later on, Madam Speaker, so that you can help sort this matter out. They were severely distressed by this neighbour from hell, and no amount of complaints made to Territory Housing seemed to get any action.

This amendment bill, in fact, would allow the neighbours to actually do that. When I saw the neighbours, they said to me: 'We are sorry we have to go down this path to get you, as the opposition spokesman on housing. We have tried our best'. Yes, they did say to me that they had been to see you, and you did your best and you got some results but, unfortunately, it is all recurring. They were very reluctant, but they provided all the details. The details they provided to me had been provided previously to Territory Housing, yet Territory Housing has not followed through.

It appears to me though, that some of the people who were sent by Territory Housing - whether they were security officers or tenancy managers – do not appreciate that prolonged exposure to a particular noise can become very distressing to the extent that it can cause ill health. That same noise, if exposure is for a minute to 10 minutes, is a non-event. However, if it goes on all day, all night - even an aria sung by the best voice in the world, if played over and over again for 24 hours, will drive you up the wall. What happens then is your sensitivities are heightened; you become super-sensitive to that noise. As soon as you hear that noise, it sets you on a very negative path of feelings and emotions. Hence, you cannot sleep. You wake up next day to go to work and you cannot go to work or, if you go to work you make mistakes, and the vicious cycle then continues. The stress levels increase. Some of these people are already living on the edge of poor health. Some are on medication, some are depressed, some have dual diagnosis, and are able to live on their own with some support. However, with a neighbour from hell, it just tends to tip them over onto the other side.

For these people to provide me with the information that they have, they could, using this legislation that has been introduced by the member for Braitling, use that same information and get some positive result. I hope that, through my intercession and with your assistance also, Madam Speaker, we can get something resolved for these people. I believe I have some ideas we can use to try to help the residents of the John Stokes complex. If the minister is going to take this legislation up tomorrow, well and good. If he can support the member for Braitling cautiously, then he should do this also.

I have a question that, perhaps, the member for Braitling can answer for me. To raise a complaint to court is going to cost, and a person who wants to make a complaint must be prepared to bear that cost. It is highly unlikely – it may be possible - that Legal Aid could assist them. How is the cost going to be shared, if any? If the complainant is successful, would there be any court cost awarded in their favour so that they at least recover some of their legal cost? Otherwise, it is going to be an expensive exercise for anybody to do that to try to evict a neighbour from hell, especially when the authority or the landlords are not prepared to help out at all. That is something I would like you to explain.

Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Madam Speaker, I was not surprised to hear the Minister for Central Australia give his point of view. He has to realise - and I appreciate that he acknowledged it - that this particular amendment has been prompted by a series of incidents over a long period of time. Not just the people in my electorate; you have problems in Darwin as well. We have had e-mails from the member for Karama's constituents …

Mrs Miller: I have some neighbours near me, too.

Mrs BRAHAM: You have some neighbours too? It is a common problem. We should be able to find a common solution that will help everyone.

There was a little fear on the part of some of the people when I spoke to them about this. They asked about retribution, and that is always a concern, even when you go to the Department of Housing, because they will not take anyone to court unless they have evidence and witnesses. However, there are people who have reached the stage now where they will probably do anything. The incident we had in my electorate recently was a case in point. For 10 months, they had been seeking assistance from Territory Housing to resolve their problems and it just did not happen.

This is the crazy part. This is a copy of the tenancy agreement which all tenants sign, and it has some very strong points and even states a code of conduct. If you, as a private landlord, put someone into your unit, you would expect them to obey the terms and conditions of the tenancy. In fact, you usually have a tenancy manager who goes around every three months and checks that all is well and the place has been kept in decent condition. Territory Housing, perhaps, do not have enough staff to do that, because I certainly know their policy was to get around every six months. I believe the minister was trying to shorten that so they would get around more often. However, many of these problems could be resolved with early intervention; it is as simple as that. Many of these problems could be solved with the introduction of the life skills which we have talked about many times, and I am hoping the minister will be able to do this for us very quickly.

This particular amendment was a mirror of the South Australian Residential Tenancies Act. I wrote to the Registrar of the Residency Tenancy Tribunal. In their letter, the Registrar says:
It does not matter where you live, it seems to be the same old problem:
It sounds familiar doesn't it, it is something that we hear:
South Australia has very similar problems to what we are talking about here. I was very much prompted by the Chief Minister when she came out before the election and said that she would get tough on Housing Commission tenants and antisocial behaviour. I look forward to seeing what this bill is tomorrow, as I have not seen it. I really hope it does address the problems that we have had for a long time, and that we get solutions. What people want is their privacy respected. They want to be able to live in a neighbourhood, enjoy their lifestyle, and feel free to go out into their streets.

Remember, tenants suffer as well as neighbours. I had a rather sad case the other day where people had to ring for help because one of the renal patients in one of our complexes had had visitors who were drinking and then, of course, she started to drink with them and that was not a good thing for a renal patient to do. If we could get quicker action to many of our problems within our Housing units and houses, we would not have to go to the extent that we have by putting forward with this amendment. Unfortunately, until we can get to that situation, we need this amendment. We need it so people at least have some means of trying to rectify their problem. I find people are very tolerant of their neighbours. It is amazing what they will put up with before they get to the stage of being frustrated and feeling so helpless that they will actually ring the office. Quite often, you will ask them how long it has been going on for, and they will say for months. 'Well, why did you not come earlier?' 'We thought we would give them a fair go'. People are not vicious; they are seeking a solution. They are usually just very worried for their families.

The minister has said that this particular act they are introducing will cover many of the aspects that are of concern for us with antisocial behaviour and I hope he is right. He said: 'Trust me'. I hope he realises that in saying 'trust me', he has a responsibility that goes with it. Tomorrow is D-day for you, minister. We will see if you will really do intend to do what we want to do.

It is a little unfortunate that we cannot get this amendment up. At least we would have something to fall back on. Just be aware, though, that out there in the suburbs there are many people who give this amendment support. They are the people who will also make government accountable for their actions if they do not give us what we want.

Madam Speaker, at this stage, I can only say that I had hoped to get this amendment up. I believe there are many government members who realise it is a good amendment but we are going to have to trust and see tomorrow …

Dr Toyne: One more sleep.

Mrs BRAHAM: One more sleep.

Motion negatived.

 

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