Wednesday, 4 August 2021

Bills

Commercial Tenancy Relief Scheme Bill 2021

Second reading

Debate resumed.

Ms GREEN (Yan Yean) (14:44): Before I was interrupted by the lunch break and question time I was pleased to be participating in the debate on the commercial tenancy relief scheme. This acknowledges that while we have made much progress, there will continue to be challenges for businesses in coming months. While I am on my feet I would like to particularly pay tribute to all small businesses in my electorate and their landlords that have worked cooperatively with them. I particularly want to acknowledge the township business associations. In Diamond Creek Anna Henderson does a great job in working with Diamond Creek businesses and Eltham businesses. The Hurstbridge Traders Association is a fantastic collaborative group. Also, there is the Whittlesea township business association and a similar organisation in Wallan. Businesses in Mernda and Doreen do not have an organised network like that, but I know that they have really played an important part in keeping community spirit up, as have all businesses across my electorate.

I want to particularly single out cafes and restaurants in how they have pivoted successfully to online delivery but also to takeaway in particular, especially those that have cooperated with other businesses for delivery. I single out the Diamond Creek butchers and also the fruit and veg shop, Vito’s Local Fine Foods, in Diamond Creek, and Bakers Delight. They have cooperated and delivered door to door and really connected with a lot of people at their most vulnerable. Similarly, a number of the restaurants in Hurstbridge, because a lot of the delivery platforms actually do not go out that far. Not only has it been when families want a night off cooking; sometimes people have been in self-quarantine or they have been feeling quite vulnerable and do not want to go out to shop and they have been away from their families. It has been really important to have these local businesses delivering and supporting them. I commend this bill to the house.

Mr SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (14:47): I rise to speak on the Commercial Tenancy Relief Scheme Bill 2021. Can I say at the outset that this is very, very important in terms of supporting many of the small businesses that have been absolutely smashed during COVID—five lockdowns, a whole lot of uncertainty and a whole lot of businesses having to bear the brunt of those lockdowns with nothing more than padlocks on their front doors. Rent has been one of the biggest costs for any small business outside of the wages, and it is a really important impost on those small businesses. This particular piece of legislation before the Parliament today is something that many of my colleagues from this side and I have been advocating for for quite some time—since relief was first stopped after the earlier scheme. I think, as important as this is, it is a pity that it has taken so long to finally get a scheme up and running. We have had subsequent lockdowns, we have had the uncertainty and we have had the inability for many tenants to actually negotiate with their landlords to get some kind of subsidy during the lockdowns.

I particularly want to pay my respects to Genesis Health and Fitness, who raised this with me some weeks ago. Sean Whitaker, a franchise owner at the local Genesis Health and Fitness club in Caulfield, said that a lot of small businesses were having a lot of pain. He runs two Genesis Fitness franchise gyms. He has business rentals of just over $8000 a week and has had long lockdowns. The landlords were obligated to provide rental relief during some times, and he got some support, but unfortunately the rental code of conduct ended on my birthday, on 31 March. It was no present for many of those businesses that did not get the support that continued on from the rent relief code. Those businesses were left in the dark, and Genesis was one of those. The support that Genesis and other businesses were able to negotiate with their landlords was not able to be continued. These businesses have been impacted hugely. Businesses right across the board—restaurants, gift stores—if you just look across any electorate, you will see those businesses that have been absolutely smashed.

The reason why I refer to gymnasiums in particular is that during lockdowns they have not been able to open, but even beyond lockdowns they have not been able to operate as well. And in fact at one point in time one of the gyms said to me that for about a third of the year they have had some kind of non-ability to open their doors, and that is huge. That is absolutely huge. No revenue coming in, a padlock on the front door, no ability to ultimately be able to pay the rent—that is why this is so important. And I wanted to thank Sean Whitaker for actually raising that with me.

In fact, prior to this announcement that the government has made, the opposition—through the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Malvern, and me—actually announced a similar type of scheme in my electorate, just over a week back, certainly a number of days before the government announcement. So the government has certainly followed our request to do this. We were going to do it with Genesis and with Sean, but Sean, living a number of kilometres away from the actual gym in which he operates, was outside the 5-kilometre bubble so could not come down. We followed the rules, and we did not use Sean’s Genesis gym. But instead we used Kirsty Robbie’s studio, which is on Hawthorn Road, Caulfield North, StudioForty6. Kirsty Robbie, the managing director of that gym, is a fantastic operator—a great local facility again. She does mainly personal training. She shared the pain with us when we announced our policy to support those businesses with some kind of rent relief offset against land tax. We spoke to Kirsty about that, and she was really struggling—really, really struggling—with the uncertainty.

What is common to many of these businesses is not so much that they want any government handouts or support, they just want certainty and they just want to be able to open. As I have said on many occasions, particularly with the fitness industry, with dance schools and with a number in the events industry, they are used to running systems, they are used to things like QR codes and check-ins—managing people—because that is what they do. So it seemed a real slap in the face, particularly for the health and fitness industry, that they were not able to operate during these times, and that was something that again was shared.

We certainly are supportive of the intent of this commercial tenancy relief scheme being proposed. We think it is very important. Again, because of the last-minute rush by the government to kind of cobble something together, there have been a lot of gaps here, a lot of uncertainty. There has been money that has been put on a table, but how far will that money go in terms of offsetting the rent relief? We believe that certainly there are many landlords, mum-and-dad landlords, where effectively this is their super scheme—a little shop which they rely on the rent from, and that shop unfortunately will not be able to receive any rent at all because of the offset, and we believe that the government should be putting their hand in their pocket. The huge land tax grab that the government have got—the huge amount of land tax—should be plugged into this so it could be effectively not the mum-and-dad landowner that has to wear the pain, but the government should be supporting it. We have had the highest amount of land tax that we have seen by this government—a huge tax grab—and I think it is incumbent that the $120 million will not be enough. The government has got an additional $558 million—$558 million!—worth of land tax that they have grabbed. Well, the government should be putting that back into those mum-and-dad operators to offset those renters that are really struggling at this time. Quite simple: the money that they have clawed during COVID, let us put it back and give it to those that really need it the most.

I wanted to also thank David Mond, who is a CPA in my electorate. He represents a lot of landowners and he represents a lot of renters as well. They were kicking and screaming, coming to him and saying, ‘As a CPA, what advice can you give?’. What he said to me was many of these businesses are struggling to actually remain in the game. For a lot of the businesses the only reason why they had not locked the door and given their keys back to the landlord is in fact that they have a huge rental guarantee—they have put their homes up—so if they hand the keys back, they also lose the house. So that is a huge impost on a lot of small businesses that have given personal guarantees to effectively keep their businesses going. That is what David told me, and I know that is true of many, many businesses that have no other choice but to put a personal guarantee up, when they are taking and renting a premises, to kickstart in many instances their first business, their first property, the first shop they are going to rent, and they are only in it because they do not want to lose their home. So I think it is really important to be able to support them.

What David Mond said to me is that when this was introduced he called the Minister for Small Business, Jaala Pulford in the other place, and he asked her: ‘What’s happening with this? How soon can we get this going?’. No reply. ‘Not sure’, her office said. They were uncertain of the details—when this legislation was going to come through and when it was going to be delivered. That is not good enough. Those small businesses need certainty and they need answers, and it is not good enough just to be able to announce something here and bring a bill before the Parliament when each and every day those businesses are struggling. Each and every day is the difference between there being a business that is open or a business that has a ‘For lease’ sign on its front door, and that is what we have got to be standing up for.

We are the party that supports small business. We are very proud of it. We are the party that supports anyone that has a go, and we are also a party that supports jobs. Many of those small businesses employ those that actually work in those businesses, and without those small businesses there would be a lot of jobs that would be lost. So it is very, very important that we get this right. As I say, the government should be putting their hand in their pocket. This is a huge land tax grab that the government has had, a $558 million increase this year. Let us take some of that and give it back to those landowners so they can pass that on to the renters, so they do not have to struggle day by day with lockdowns and uncertainty.

Mr CARROLL (Niddrie—Minister for Public Transport, Minister for Roads and Road Safety) (14:56): I move:

That debate be adjourned.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.

Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.