Wednesday, 28 August 2024

Bills

Residential Tenancies and Funerals Amendment Bill 2024

Second reading

Debate resumed.

Daniela DE MARTINO (Monbulk) (14:59): When I was previously speaking, just before the break, I was talking about the process for arranging a funeral during what is often a very, very emotional and sorrowful time for people. I had a bit of a look at the website of one of the funeral houses to see if there was any kind of transparency on their coffin range. I jumped online and I downloaded the brochure. I will not mention the name. As I scroll through this PDF document – there are about 81 pages in this document – I can see there is ‘majestic gold’, there are great descriptions on these caskets and there is a lot of information about the wood and the finishings. There is not a single price to be found, and that, in and of itself, is a disgrace, so I am absolutely beyond pleased that this bill is addressing this to ensure that there is transparency and that there is no opacity in all of this, because when people are incredibly sad and when they are emotional sometimes they make decisions that are not in their best interests.

It has been for a while that the funeral industry has been looked at. I know that it has been under some scrutiny nationwide. CHOICE themselves have previously reported on issues within the industry. It is not even just the uncertain pricing, where you have got no idea what it is until someone verbally tells you, but also there have been issues unearthed with misinformation and fees for no service. It is a highly concentrated market, and the ownership of the actual funeral provider businesses is also really unclear. The ACCC also released a report on funeral services, back in 2021, and it highlighted common issues. Once again, these were pricing structures lacking clarity and transparency, which may mislead consumers, and the bundling of goods and services that can limit consumers’ choice and access. This bill is going to go a long way to addressing that, and it is about time that the industry actually did the right thing. It is a shame that legislation must be introduced in order to get this industry to do what is the right thing by consumers and by people in their time of grief. But anyhow, we are doing it. As I said before, I am delighted that this has got complete support obviously from government but also from the opposition, from the coalition and from the Greens. It has been wonderful to hear that they will be supporting this bill.

I did listen to others’ contributions on the residential parks and the reforms there. Again, as I was saying right at the beginning of my contribution on this, finding a home is also an incredibly emotional time for people. It can be overwhelming. It can be exhausting. Sometimes one may not make the best decisions as well, depending on the need for the move. Not everyone moves because they have the choice and they want to move; sometimes people move because they have to. When they are in a situation where they have to make a decision, again, if they have not got all the information to hand, they sometimes can make a decision which works against their best interests, and that is problematic. This legislation will address the lack of transparency in residential parks. Even just requiring a site agreement to be in a standard form is going to make a big difference. It will allow the consumer to compare apples with apples. If you go to a few residential parks and everyone is presenting the information like all the others, you can actually sit there and make a really informed decision.

With pieces of legislation like this there are not great bells and whistles out there. Fireworks will not be lit because we have passed it, but it will have a tangible impact on the lives of many, many people. In terms of funeral arrangements and in terms of residential parks it is going to be a game changer. For anyone who has to go and make a decision, as I say, sometimes in circumstances which are highly emotional or very stressful, there is nothing more important than being absolutely clear on what they are getting for the money they are parting with and also how much money they are parting with over time. Hidden fees and all of that will be brought to light. I am delighted that we have introduced this legislation. I again say that I am delighted too that it has got the support of the other parties in the room. I commend this bill to the house.

Chris COUZENS (Geelong) (15:04): I am pleased to rise to contribute to the Residential Tenancies and Funerals Amendment Bill 2024. I think this is a really important bill because it focuses on enhancing the transparency of information provided to Victorians so that they can make more-informed consumer decisions and choices. Having worked in the area of consumer law in a previous life, I saw firsthand the impact of the lack of information that is being given to consumers in a whole range of different areas, and those impacts can be quite severe. So it is really, really important that as legislators in this place we provide better informed decision-making wherever we can.

As I said, having accurate, comprehensive and readily understandable information is a critical consumer protection mechanism. It reduces the gap between the information that businesses have and consumers have and allows consumers to exercise their rights and know the terms of any contract or purchasing agreement they are entering into. This bill strengthens the regulatory requirements for information in two key sectors: residential parks and funeral homes. This is to ensure that Victorians have appropriate information when making critical decisions about their housing arrangements or when making funeral arrangements following the passing of a loved one.

We have heard a lot in this chamber today about those impacts – including from the member for Monbulk, who was on her feet before me – and about some of the circumstances in which people are not provided with the right information or not provided with information at all when it comes to making a decision and the importance of that and the impacts of that. Residential parks will be regulated under part 4A of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 and are commonly marketed as a lower cost or alternative accommodation option for senior Victorians. Typically residents own a moveable dwelling or a small house and rent the land that sits underneath the dwelling.

With the existing pressure on Victoria’s housing market, more Victorians are living in residential parks and there has been substantial growth in the land lease industry. As this sector of the housing market grows, the Victorian government needs to ensure that there are the right protections in place for consumers. We have put a lot of effort into improving the Residential Tenancies Act for tenants across this state. There has been some fantastic work around protecting tenants under the Residential Tenancies Act. We need to ensure particularly that we are covering more vulnerable people in our community who rely on living in a caravan park or a leased area of land to ensure that they have the same protections as everyone else.

We are also talking about the funeral industry. Again I will use myself as an example of someone who experienced the sudden death of their husband – some years back now. I do understand the pressure that is put on people to make decisions by funeral companies or funeral parlours or funeral homes – whatever we want to call them – at a really difficult time. You are not necessarily thinking the way you normally would or capable of making decisions when you and your loved ones are in a state of grief. So, in my circumstance, it got left to my father to make all those hard decisions. But I think if we have got the right information for people to make those decisions, we are addressing the protections and we are ensuring that they do have that information to make decisions around the cost of the casket, for example. And as the member for Monbulk highlighted earlier, when you look at funeral homes’ websites, you do not necessarily get the cost of what that is going to be. I know in my electorate of Geelong we have some fantastic funeral homes who do amazing work, are very caring and take care of the community, but I am sure there are others that are not quite as caring and are not necessarily putting forward the options of the cheapest to the most expensive, for example.

Many people in my community have said, ‘At the time I was so full of grief that I wanted my loved one to have the best’ – the best casket, the best funeral service. But there have been consequences of that because then they have had this enormous cost that they did not really need to have. At least if the information around cost is presented to the family or the loved one who has to make that decision, they can then decide whether they want to go for the cheaper casket through to the most expensive. By having that there they are given that opportunity to make the choice, whereas at the moment I think there are some that are not presenting those options to families, particularly at a difficult time. We need to ensure that they do have that information and have the option to make that choice and that it is not just a fait accompli of ‘Here’s the information, here’s the caskets, here’s the costs for these particular caskets’ without that being expanded to enable them to have – I do not like to use the word ‘cheaper’ – a more affordable option when they are making those decisions.

As I said, I have come from working in the consumer law area and dealing on a daily basis with people who had made decisions that were obviously poor decisions, but the information was not put before them before they made their decision and signed on the dotted line. They had huge regrets and severe financial implications, because in some cases they were conned into going into an agreement. I know in my electorate some of the funeral homes are very, very good and they do present that information to people when they are having that first meeting to discuss funeral options. This sort of information is very important to all our communities across Victoria.

As I said, I stress how important it is to my community, knowing some of the issues that come up at different times, to have the information. We know that housing is tough at the moment. In my electorate there are many people living in caravan parks. That is not to say they are not choosing to do that – that is fine, in mobile homes and those things – but there are some that are more vulnerable and are living in those caravan parks because they do not have a choice, so putting into legislation the provision for more accurate information for them to know exactly what they are getting into is really, really important. We are talking about some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. We are talking about women escaping family violence. There are all sorts of reasons why people are living in these caravan parks, so having the information there so that they know when their rents can be increased or whether there are other issues within the park that will impact on them is really, really important.

I know for my community, as small a change as this is, it is really important to them to have this information there, to have the funeral parlours covered in that and to have the Residential Tenancies Act taken into account. For those people who are living in caravan parks and on leased land, it provides those important protections. I commend the bill to the house.

Nathan LAMBERT (Preston) (15:14): I also rise to support the Residential Tenancies and Funerals Amendment Bill 2024. The last bill that I had the opportunity to speak on in this place was the Youth Justice Bill 2024, which I think came in at just over 900 pages, and I thank the Minister for Police, who is here at the table, who contributed to many of those 900. Today’s bill, as we know, is at the other end of the spectrum, coming in at just nine pages long. Nonetheless it does contain some very important reforms. Of course the bill amends in a number of places the Residential Tenancies Act 1997, which is a long, complex and important act.

I thought the member for Footscray earlier in the debate spoke very well about the funeral provisions within the bill in front of us. I think also the member for Hastings, who is still with us, spoke movingly about his experience with funerals and with the difficult circumstances people find themselves in when they are making those arrangements. I will not repeat those remarks, but I just endorse them.

Perhaps in my comments I will concentrate on the residential park provisions, which as I said amend the Residential Tenancies Act. We certainly deal with a lot of issues locally in our electorate around that particular act, and we also have quite a large residential park in Reservoir, Summerhill Residential Park, which has certainly over 200 residents in it. It is actually next door to a similarly sized retirement village, so we do very much understand the interesting state of affairs we have at the moment. If you are in Reservoir and you drive up Gremel Road, if you turn to your left you go to the retirement village and if you turn to your right you go to the residential park. They have a very, very similar feel to them, those two places, but of course they are covered by very, very different regulatory arrangements. We will perhaps come back later to some of the detail on that. There is a whole, interesting history to that part of Reservoir as a former quarry and a former drive-in, back when drive-ins were a little more popular in Melbourne than they are today.

Anthony Cianflone interjected.

Nathan LAMBERT: I know sometimes the member for Pascoe Vale entertains us all with the history of his electorate. I might just leave it there. Suffice to say the area is now well and truly residential.

We in our office have worked very closely with Summerhill residents on a range of issues. I am sure other MPs work closely with their residential park residents. I will shout out to Jenny Low, Sue Hilton, Charmaine Brillanti and Kevin Wight. Kevin often gets in touch with me about a wide range of issues, and I am always happy to have his feedback and input. I know that when we were helping people with the power saving bonus, a great initiative of this government, a number of people who came into our office for help with the power saving bonus were from the residential park, and we had the opportunity to learn a little bit more about the circumstances that they face, while they were chatting to us. I should in that respect recognise the work of Darebin council, who also worked quite closely with them on issues related to embedded electricity networks in those facilities. They are not directly addressed by the bill today, but I think they go to the general challenges that are faced by residents, who often feel they are in a very significant power imbalance with the people running these residential parks.

Just before I come to the real specifics of the bill, I just want to acknowledge that the member for Mordialloc has worked hard on this particular issue for a long period of time, and more recently there has been the member for Laverton’s leadership and advocacy. I know I have spoken to her at length about it. I also give great credit to the Minister for Consumer Affairs. She is a minister who really listens to people on these issues. She has been listening to caucus. I know she has been listening directly to residents of residential parks, and I think this bill reflects that wonderful approach that she brings to listen carefully to people.

The main point of bill is to make complex contracts simpler and easier to understand, and that is very important. Most of us understand buying a house – the basics of it. It is governed by the Sale of Land Act 1962 and other acts, but the general idea is you pay one large amount of money. We all have a sense of what those prices should be. No-one rings you up six months after you have bought your house and says you have to pay an extra 25 per cent. It is a relatively simple transaction for people to understand. If it is an apartment, there is a bit more with your owners corporation fees, but it is straightforward enough for people to understand.

Similarly, most of us in this place have rented a property at some stage. I spent about 20 years renting them. Again, rental arrangements, while there is still some more work we would love to do with them, are relatively simple for people to understand. There is the bond – of course it can now be a portable bond under the reforms of this government – but outside of that there are just the rental payments that you have to make each week or fortnight or month, and again that is relatively easy for people to understand. Both of those markets are very deep. You can get online and see different prices, so people can understand if what is being put in front of them is a reasonable offer or is not.

If we come then to residential parks, and I would say probably retirement villages as well, those financial arrangements are much more complex. Typically, people coming into these parks or retirement villages have some form of up-front payment to start with – a bit like you have when you buy a house. Depending exactly on the arrangement, you may or may not end up owning something out of your up-front payment. Then there is also almost always an ongoing fee in these arrangements. So to be clear, you have both a big up-front payment and you have an ongoing fee, and then often in these contracts you have an exit fee. I would put it to you that these contracts are an order of magnitude more complex than those we face when buying a house or in a standard rental agreement. Frankly speaking, even members of this chamber, highly educated and articulate people, would probably find it difficult to back out of these contracts – what exactly they mean financially and how they would compare to a straight rental arrangement – because of the way that the costs are split up across those three different components. I noticed when I looked at this that the way that operators shift costs between those three components is very important, but it is very difficult for prospective residents to understand. That is not helped in any way by the fact that the contracts are also very inconsistent and difficult for people to read and understand.

I think previous speakers, and the member for Monbulk and the member for Geelong I think just then, spoke about the fact that many of the people entering into these contracts are not people who are in a position to have highly paid legal advisers and financial advisers help them understand those contracts. They are often people in very vulnerable circumstances. If I could wave a magic wand, I would probably get rid of the exit fees and the up-front payments altogether and just make it a straight lease, because then people could understand it more easily. I say that here. No doubt there may be other consequences of those changes – the minister’s office will probably be horrified. They are fortunately conducting a review where they will go and look at those sorts of suggestions and see what the best way to approach them is. I make that point just to say that it is the complexity of the finances that is a problem, and then that complex financing is bound up in very inconsistent contracts.

That brings us to the rationale and the importance of the bill today. It will at least address the bit where those contracts are inconsistent and difficult to read by making sure that they are more transparent and that they are available to people in a prescribed form. I do acknowledge that there are probably good reasons for some of the arrangements, and, again, I am sure the minister in her review will touch on this. In a way the arrangements let people do what is effectively a reverse mortgage situation, where they can sell their house and move into these places. They will have the proceeds of that, because they will get more from selling their house than they will be required to pay up-front. The member for Berwick I think in his contribution touched on that. I agree that there is an understandable reason, but I worry that operators, at least in some places, are using the complexity of these arrangements to convince vulnerable people to sign up for agreements that, if they fully understood them, they would understand are not financially beneficial and actually compare very poorly to the much simpler act of selling their house and getting a straightforward rental agreement in a block of units. That is my real worry: if and when you could unpack these contracts and properly understand the finances, you would actually realise that these people are paying rental amounts that no-one in their right mind would go and pay if they could fully understand what they were doing. That is why the minister’s reform is so welcome.

In closing my remarks I just recognise and thank Judy Duff, who many people in this chamber will know. Judy is a strong and wonderful advocate for everyone in residential parks. I know that exactly what we have in front of us today, standardised agreements, is something that Judy has been seeking for a long time. I know that she will be absolutely thrilled that the minister is delivering them, and she will also be thrilled that we have the review coming up, which will deal with some of the other things Judy would like to see. I understand she would like an entirely separate act, as you have with retirement villages. I am not sure. I think the right answer is to make things simpler and clearer for people and to give them more protections. Whether that has to be done in a separate act or whether it can be done within the Residential Tenancies Act will be a matter for the minister to decide, but certainly I appreciate the minister’s work in that direction. I commend this bill to the house.

Dylan WIGHT (Tarneit) (15:24): It gives me great pleasure this afternoon to rise to speak on the Residential Tenancies and Funerals Amendment Bill 2024. I think it is fair to say that most Victorians, and indeed I think listening to today’s contributions on this bill most people in this place, are very familiar with the really particular challenges that come along with caring for ageing and elderly family members and also dealing with the death of loved ones and everything that comes with that. I do note some of the really heartfelt contributions by members around their personal circumstances and different times when they have had to deal with those.

Dealing with the death of a loved one is hard enough. Often it comes with grief. On the completely horrible end of that spectrum, it can come with some trauma and abject misery as well. That is why it is so incredibly important that we are making these amendments to this bill in a couple of areas, because when somebody is going through that grief and perhaps somebody is going through that trauma, the last thing that should happen is for them to be treated poorly through that process and to not have the consumer protections in place to be able to rectify that in order to be able to fight against some of that behaviour. There are many factors that come with that, and the government is committed to ensuring, through that process, that consumers – particularly those in vulnerable positions, grieving the loss of a loved one – are equipped with the information they need to make informed choices, because we do not want anybody in Victoria, particularly those Victorians going through what is perhaps the most challenging time of their life, to be treated poorly from a consumer protection point of view.

A recent CHOICE report highlights several concerning issues within the funeral home industry. I will do the funeral home industry first, and then I will get to residential parks after that. This includes uncertain pricing, misinformation and fees for services that are not rendered. Additionally, the ownership of funeral providers is often unclear in a highly concentrated market, making it even harder for consumers to try and protect their rights and rectify wrongs that have been done after the fact. It has created an environment where customers can be easily misled or overwhelmed, as I said, particularly during a time when they are least able to navigate complex decisions. In short, there have been some operators out there in this industry that have been engaging in what I would say is reprehensible behaviour and really preying on people that are going through the hardest time of their life.

In 2021 the ACCC, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, released a report on competition and consumer issues within the funeral services sector. This report underscores many of the problems that have plagued this industry for a very, very long time. It reveals that pricing structures often lack clarity and transparency, which can easily mislead consumers. Additionally, the bundling of goods and services, where essential items are packaged together often without a clear breakdown of costs, can severely limit customers’ choice and access to affordable options. A loved one of yours passes away and you have the responsibility to plan a funeral and to pay the bills in respect to that. What we are seeing in this industry is just an absolute lack of clarity as to what each part of that process, each part of that funeral, is costing. It is frankly misleading behaviour by some, not all, in this industry. As I said previously, it is reprehensible. That is why we are here today debating this bill to make these changes. If you can imagine that situation where you are grieving and your family is grieving. You are trying to put to rest a loved one and trying to arrange a funeral, and at the time of your grief you are confronted with a barrage of decisions, many of which have hidden costs and unclear pricing. I think that we can all accept that that is just incredibly unfair and a situation that is not just unsustainable here in Victoria but must change.

It is incredibly important that we make the difficult decisions that these vulnerable people have to make easier, clearer and certainly less exploitative. By amending the Funerals Act 2006 we are bringing Victoria into line with other jurisdictions, like New South Wales and Queensland, and increasing the transparency of funeral home pricing. Under the bill funeral homes will be required to display a price list of all goods and services prominently on their business websites and within their physical premises to give some absolute clarity as to what you are paying when you are organising and planning a funeral. Furthermore, a separate price list for coffins must be published and displayed in the same manner. Failure to comply with these display requirements will be considered an offence.

As I have said, the notion that some providers within this industry would take advantage of people during what is always an incredibly difficult time is reprehensible. I have been part of planning funerals myself. I have witnessed and been with my father when he was planning my mother’s funeral. It is one of the hardest things that you will go through. You are grieving, often you are experiencing trauma, and you are trying to plan an event, a celebration of a life, so you can get closure. To be taken advantage of in that situation is something that we need to put an absolute end to, and that is what this bill and what these amendments certainly seek to begin.

The other amendment to this legislation is around residential parks. We do not have a lot of residential parks in Tarneit and Hoppers Crossing, although I note the member for Laverton’s contribution on this bill – I believe it was just before lunch – and I know the member for Laverton has worked tirelessly through our caucus to advocate with the Minister for Government Services on this issue. There is a residential park just outside my electorate, in Laverton North, which is in the member for Laverton’s electorate – a park where there really unfortunately was an incredibly horrible tragedy two or three weeks ago when a resident lost their life. Residential parks offer an alternative and often more affordable housing option, often for people who are retiring that have not been able to amass a large amount of capital to be able to retire through superannuation or other means. They can also provide affordable temporary accommodation for people experiencing something really difficult in their lives. That may be fleeing domestic violence, that may be the breakdown of a relationship or that may be having some real difficulty with finances through the loss of a job or something of that manner.

These amendments, once again, seek to and begin to provide clarity around some of those incredibly complex contracts that Victorians are entering into. As the member for Preston said, these are incredibly complex contracts that people are entering into, often at a pretty tricky time in their life. He rightly said there are not many in this chamber that would be able to work their way through those contracts competently themselves, even with a whole bunch of time. It is really difficult, and it is hard to imagine that people at those times in their life would be able to do that. These amendments are good, and I commend them to the house.

Lauren KATHAGE (Yan Yean) (15:34): I rise to speak in support of the Residential Tenancies and Funerals Amendment Bill 2024. I sat down with the fantastic Minister for Consumer Affairs to speak about this bill, and what she said to me really stuck with me. She said fundamentally this bill is about fairness. This bill is about supporting people at a time when they need support and putting those structures and safeguards in place so that when people are at their most vulnerable they get a fair outcome. That is just so emblematic of this government, where all we do is focused and based upon that principle of fairness and that extra support for people in vulnerable times. Something I am especially proud of the minister for doing is jumping into action on this. She could have waited for lengthy review processes, but she met with many consumers – many people impacted by the issues that are being addressed through this bill – and she heard loud and clear what the issues were and she acted swiftly and decisively.

We have heard quite a bit in the chamber so far about what this bill is doing, and I will come to that. We have heard about the changes to the Funerals Act 2006 requiring funeral service providers to display their goods and services price list and coffin price list on their website and in a prominent position at the business premises, making sure that there is a penalty for noncompliance and allowing regulations to prescribe the form and particulars for funeral price lists.

We heard earlier from the member for Monbulk, who had the experience of planning her father’s funeral with her mother following his sudden death and sitting with the funeral director with the glossy brochure and the first image of a rather grand casket and, when inquiring about the price, essentially being told ‘Don’t you worry about that’ or ‘We’ll come to that later’ and the way they work their way down the scale of grandeur as they flick through the book with no prices. People, as well as experiencing grief and being overcome with emotion, are doing something they probably have never done before – you do not regularly plan funerals. Especially if it is the first time you have had to experience that, there is no point of reference, and it can be socially awkward and uncomfortable to talk about cost as it relates to a loved one.

I think I will be dreaming tonight about the story relayed by the member for Morwell, who spoke about, in his plumbing days – I am not sure if members were here for that – being called to a funeral home to service the crematorium and having to crawl into the burning section and refit the gas valves and having the funeral home staff shut the door and being in there. How terrifying. I will be thinking about that for a long time.

These pricing reforms are really important, and it is something that has been consumer led. We saw this from Choice magazine, which I am a subscriber to, and I would encourage all people to subscribe to Choice. We had the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission report and we have heard strongly from community members on this.

Another industry that this reminds me of – this and residential parks contracts or leases – is the mattress industry, where the same manufacturer provides the same goods to different retailers but each retailer has a different name for the same product. You cannot compare across retailers to find the best deal or understand what is going into it because, as with skincare and lots of things, they come up with lots of fake names for the technology, trademarked names for the technology, with no clear description of what it actually is. So I welcome this reform of residential parks and the funeral industry.

Speaking of cemeteries, I would like to dwell on the Yan Yean Cemetery. Yan Yean Cemetery in Yan Yean is taken care of by a fantastic trust, the Yan Yean Cemetery Trust, with Nevill McNees, the chairperson; Judy Clements, the vice chairperson and recent City of Whittlesea Volunteer of the Year award winner; Stephanie McCall; Tom McGillan and others. They care for this cemetery so beautifully. In fact Judy’s family donated the cost of the construction of a beautiful chapel onsite there at the cemetery. That chapel would take your breath away; it is just gorgeous – I did not mean that as a pun; I just realised.

The cemetery is really old. It was first used in the 1850s because of the first labourer death among the employees working to build the Yan Yean Reservoir embankment. The Yan Yean Cemetery is very close to the Yan Yean Reservoir. Unfortunately, with practices as they were back then, there were multiple deaths during the construction of the Yan Yean Reservoir, and they had multiple labourers buried there at the Yan Yean Cemetery. The oldest headstone there was erected in 1858, and that is found near the two-trunked oak tree in compartment 2.

The cemetery has fantastic plans for expansion. When you walk around the Yan Yean Cemetery you get a slice or understanding of our community. It is an old farming area cemetery with lots of Mr Smiths and Mrs Johnsons and the like. The cemetery is now much more multicultural, and there are vibrant decorations on different headstones. There are sections dedicated to the Greek community, to Eastern European communities and, increasingly, to Indian-born community members, so it is nice to see the cemetery reflecting our community in that way as another indicator of how we are becoming more multicultural.

I touched briefly on the changes to residential parks. These reforms essentially are about enhancing protections for residents of residential parks, ensuring they have got access to relevant, clear information and that they are supported to make informed choices, not just when entering into these parks and not just when living in them but also when they seek to leave residential parks.

As I said at the outset, this bill is fundamentally about fairness, and this government is fundamentally about fairness. We just cannot help ourselves. In every portfolio in every way we will always work, reform, update and improve with the goal of improved fairness for all Victorians in all ways every day.

Bronwyn HALFPENNY (Thomastown) (15:44): I rise to make a contribution on the Residential Tenancies and Funerals Amendment Bill 2024. It is great to see this legislation being debated at this time. The Thomastown electorate has a number of village parks and a number of residents have approached me with concerns around the way some of the businesses operate. Before I get onto the local stuff, I will just give a bit of a summary of the parts of the legislation that I will be talking about in more depth. I am sure that previous speakers have talked on this as well, but I just want to go through a couple of things.

The main parts of the bill are that we are going to amend, if this bill is passed, part 4A of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 to require that all residential park site agreements are in a prescribed form. I will make more reference to and give explanation of some of these terms later in my contribution. The bill will also provide a power to make regulations to prescribe and standardise a form for the site agreements and to expand the types of information that a site owner must disclose to a prospective site tenant before entering into such an agreement – things such as the name and contact details of the site owner, for example. There will also be a requirement that rent increases will be by a fixed amount. This will be explicitly provided in a formula and with a method to calculate the rent increase so that the resident who is paying the rent will know in advance what it is that they are going to be expected to pay and they will not be disadvantaged by any figure that the site owner comes up with.

Also, there will be amendments to the Funerals Act 2006 to require funeral providers to display goods and services and coffin prices online and in a prominent position in their business premises. I note that a number of previous speakers have described some really sad experiences where people have been at their most vulnerable in their grief and so on and funeral services have been provided in such a way as to take advantage of the person’s grief when they were not really in a position to carefully calculate the cost and prices, particularly when they were not displayed anywhere and then perhaps there may have been no thought about asking what those prices were. The bill will also prescribe a penalty for noncompliance with requirements to display price lists and enable regulations to be made to prescribe the form and particulars of the way that those prices will be displayed and where.

In summary, all elements of this bill are to provide additional consumer protection to Victorians to ensure that they are better protected in these areas. Before I go into more of the detail of the bill, I would like to explain some of the differences. For example, what is the difference between a lifestyle village and a retirement village? What we are talking about in this legislation are the lifestyle villages, not the retirement villages. In the case of a retirement village contract it usually gives the purchaser or the owner a strata title or a leasehold over the land on which their accommodation is or will be built. However, the lifestyle villages provide occupants with a rental agreement. So they might purchase the dwelling, but then they must rent the land on which that dwelling is. That could be a caravan, for example, or a mobile home, or in the case of the places in the Thomastown electorate – the lifestyle villages Lifestyle Lyndarum or Lifestyle Wollert – it is a house, but it is on land that is owned by the owner of the lifestyle village. As I said, they are the two that I have regular contact with in the electorate of Thomastown. I do often speak with them and visit those places, and they will be very happy with the changes that we are making here.

First of all, in terms of the Residential Tenancies Act there will be a requirement that all residential park or lifestyle village agreements are in a prescribed standard form as determined by the regulations. What often happens, and what people have raised with me, is that the contracts are written in different ways, with different terms and in different sections, so that you cannot really compare one contract from one particular lifestyle village to the contract of another and you cannot clearly compare, in terms of the price and what sorts of facilities you might be getting, another place that you might be looking at as well. Standardising the agreements will allow consumers to easily compare, so that they can see if there is a big difference between the rental costs or type of facilities that might be offered in order to make an informed choice about where it is that they might want to be, because of course lifestyle villages are often the place you go after selling the family home when you are making your decision to retire or leave the workforce. The idea of the lifestyle village is that you sell your home, then purchase into a lifestyle village at a lower price because you are not actually owning the land, and of course you get an amount of cash that then you can use to enhance your retirement, whether it is just to top up in terms of the pension or if it means you want to do the stereotypical buying of the caravan and travel Australia or maybe go overseas or, as we often see – and this definitely happens within the Thomastown electorate amongst residents – give some money to your children so that they can also improve their lifestyles, whether it is by helping with the purchase of a house or even in some cases assisting with supporting grandchildren.

On the prescribed standard form, we have spoken about that and how important that is to ensure people have proper freedom of choice and proper information in order to decide what sort of lifestyle village they would go to. Of course as this lifestyle villages sector of the housing market grows – and it is growing – the Victorian government wants to make sure that there are the right protections in place for consumers, for those who are selling, in most cases, their family home and moving into a place that they hope will be one of joy, less maintenance, less garden, more socialising and more facilities, where they can take up all those lovely hobbies that they may have once wished they could do and did not have time for before but expect they will be doing now. This of course is not the end of the reform that the Allan Labor government is looking at in terms of lifestyle villages and caravan parks when it comes to people living permanently. There also is a review into this type of accommodation, because it is growing and there have been concerns.

I have to give a bit of a shout-out, as the member for Laverton, whose seat I was in just before, gave a shout-out. But I also have to thank her because she has really led in a lot of this work in terms of the local MPs and raising this issue with the minister, who, as I said, initiated the review into this type of home ownership. Judith Duff is an unrelenting and dedicated advocate for those home owners in what is called the Manufactured Homeowners Association Victoria. She has been raising the concerns of residents on behalf of residents who find themselves in their forever last home but then have problems develop as part of the model that means that the land is rented, and of course that could end up meaning unexpected high fees or increasing fees without any sort of justification and making people’s life not unhappy but less happy in their retirement than it ought to be. I have met with Judith Duff. I know a number of other MPs in this place have done so. We have all discussed with the minister’s office and know that there is a very sympathetic ear with the minister in this matter.

Kathleen MATTHEWS-WARD (Broadmeadows) (15:54): I rise to support the Residential Tenancies and Funerals Amendment Bill 2024. The bill will amend part 4A of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 to improve clarity for Victorians living in residential parks and will amend the Funerals Act 2006 to strengthen funeral price transparency.

Typically a resident living permanently in a residential park owns a movable dwelling such as a prefab, portable, relocatable or tiny home and rents the underlying land from the owner. Often people living permanently in residential parks choose them because they are affordable for low socio-economic or senior members of the community. The amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act will strengthen the protections and rights for those entering agreements with park or village operators and provide protections for more vulnerable members of society.

With more and more pressure on Victoria’s housing market, Victorians are turning to residential parks, and there has been a growth in the land lease industry. Land lease communities are rapidly gaining popularity for working, semi-retired and retired people over the age of 50. They are different to retirement villages as the prefab homes built on the sites are technically movable, so the tenants enter into an agreement to rent the land the home is built on. Currently there are in excess of 20 lifestyle parks across the state, with more in production, and there are also multiple caravan parks offering land site rentals. As the population ages, downsizing is a popular choice for many senior Victorians looking for options for retirement.

Extensive consultation was undertaken as part of the Victorian government’s review of the Retirement Villages Act 1986, which identified significant differences in protections and rights for those living in a land lease community versus those living in retirement villages, which are protected under their own act. I take this opportunity to thank former commissioner for senior Victorians Gerard Mansour for his work and advocacy during that review.

Part 4A of the Residential Tenancies Act currently dictates that the site agreement must be a written agreement between the site tenant and the site owner. It also indicates minimum information to be contained within the site agreement. However, it does not require the written agreement to be in a standard format, such as a residential tenancy agreement. This enables inconsistencies to enter into agreements from site to site and does not allow for potential residents to easily compare terms and conditions. This bill will amend the Residential Tenancies Act to ensure that site agreements are provided in a standard format. The site agreements will also provide clarity around the method and frequency of rent increases. They will specify that rent increases will either be a fixed amount according to a specified calculation method or a non-fixed amount. The bill will also increase the amount of information that the site owner must disclose prior to entering into the site agreement.

As part of the consultation for the Retirement Villages Act, many residents advised that the current agreements are too complex and the amount of information given prior to signing up did not allow residents to fully understand the costs associated with living in and exiting a residential park. The proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will ensure that the cost of bond arrangements, additional site and park costs and fees and exit costs are fully disclosed up-front. In addition, the predisclosure will include the name and contact details of the site owner, the site owner’s representative at the park and the proposed site agreement that is to be entered into to become a site tenant.

The protections being introduced by the bill will benefit the members of the community that need them most. Often, entering into a permanent agreement with a caravan park is made with members of the community when they are at a vulnerable point in their life and are seeking an affordable home when other avenues have been exhausted. Seniors moving into a lifestyle village are also potentially doing so as a result of the need to downsize for financial reasons or due to the unfortunate loss of a spouse later in life and may be seeking community support with others in the same situation. To have the knowledge that their rights are being protected will take some of the stress out of their move to their new living arrangements.

The Allan Labor government is taking steps to ensure the rights of residents of all types of housing are protected. Recent changes to support the rights of domestic renters were included in the Estate Agents, Residential Tenancies and Other Acts Amendment (Funding) Bill 2024. Some key amendments in that bill were making rental applications easier and protecting renters’ personal information, introducing a portable rent bond scheme, restricting rent increases between successive fixed-term rental agreements, a ban on all types of rental bidding and an extension of notice of rent increases and notices to vacate periods to 90 days.

The Allan Labor government is delivering on a key promise of the housing statement, with more support for Victorian renters and those with rental stress. The $7.8 million rental stress support package will help families stay in their homes and prevent homelessness, and will back the vital work of community organisations addressing the high demand for rental assistance that has been seen across Victoria and in my electorate of Broadmeadows. The package builds on a $4.74 million investment to support Consumer Affairs Victoria tenancy programs, including the tenancy and retirement housing assistance and advocacy programs. These programs helped more than 8800 Victorian renters last financial year with information and advice, negotiations and support and assistance with VCAT hearings. The Victorian government is working quickly to establish Rental Dispute Resolution Victoria, which will support –

The SPEAKER: Order! The time has come for me to interrupt business for the matter of public importance.

Business interrupted under sessional orders.