On 10 June the NSW Parliament adopted the biggest change to the State’s residential tenancies law in more than 20 years. Passage of the Residential Tenancies Act 2010 completed a review process initiated five years ago by the then Minister for Fair Trading, John Hatzistergos. Community comment was first sought on an Options Paper that was released in July 2005, followed by a Discussion Paper released by Minister Burney in September 2007, and a draft Bill released by Minister Judge in November 2009.

More than 2,000 submissions were received from individual tenants, landlords, agents, and key interest groups, including NCOSS, in the three rounds of public consultation held during the course of the review. According to the Minister for Fair Trading, Virginia Judge, the new legislation “delivers fairness, balance and social justice to hundreds of thousands of NSW families, whether they are tenants or residential property owners.”

The new Act has not been proclaimed and is thus not yet law. It will come into effect after the necessary supporting regulations have been made. It is hoped this will occur later in the year.

“Paying less stamp duty means very little for people who can’t afford to buy new homes when they are already struggling to make ends meet. What they most need is ongoing support to help them get back on their feet during tough times.”
(NCOSS Media Release 8 June, 2010)

This year’s State Budget has followed the example of the Commonwealth Budget from May – despite being the last before an election, the NSW Government was determined to produce a Budget that would be considered fiscally responsible. Treasurer Roozendaal said in the Budget speech: “The beacon of hope I talked about last year has lit the path to prosperity... we will invest in what is important to NSW families – essential frontline services, new infrastructure and jobs – and take NSW forward along a path which is responsible, fully funded and maintains our solid-gold AAA credit rating.”

NCOSS is not opposed to budgets being fiscally responsible provided that they are also fair. NCOSS is also not opposed to measures to build a strong economy provided that the benefits of such growth are shared across all parts of the community. The NCOSS analysis of the Budget reveals that while there are new measures to foster economic growth there is little in the way of new spending initiatives targeting those most in need. 

This independent review, chaired by Julian Disney, is examining the new job seeker compliance system that was legislated a year ago. Its aims were to improve compliance with Newstart Allowance activity requirements while reducing hardship caused by financial penalties.

If you have an interest in these issues, please make submissions and attend the consultations, where possible, so that our collective voices are heard!

The Review will conduct a number of informal public consultations around Australia during June and July. All interested people are welcome to attend and participate in the consultations:

• Melbourne 9 June 2010 3.00pm-5.00pm Rendezvous Hotel, 328 Flinders Street, Melbourne
• Townsville 21 June 2010 1.30pm-3.30pm Rydges South Bank Hotel, 23 Palmer St, South Townsville
• Brisbane 22 June 2010 11.00am-1.00pm Novotel Hotel, 200 Creek Street, Brisbane
• Perth 30 June 2010 2.00pm-4.00pm Novotel Perth Langley Hotel, 221 Adelaide Terrace, Perth 
• Sydney 6 July 2010 9:30am - 12pm Aerial Function Centre, Building 10, University of Technology, cnr Broadway and Jones St, Ultimo

The Review is now calling for written submissions on matters within its terms of reference no later than 16 July 2010. Unless marked confidential, they will be made publicly available. Submissions and inquiries in relation to the Review should be directed to:

• Job Seeker Compliance Review
  PO Box 113 Darlinghurst, NSW 1300
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The 2010-11 NSW State Budget was released on 8 June 2009. NCOSS has prepared a detailed analysis.  A full analysis of the Budget is now available from our Resources section - here.

NCOSS also delivered a community sector briefing and analysis of the NSW State Budget today, 9 June, at the NSW Teachers Federation Building.

Further analysis will be included in the July 2010 issue of NCOSS News.

The Emergency Relief Handbook is a resource for organisations involved in the provision of emergency relief (ER). It includes general information about ER and government funding, plus specific resources for workers (including volunteers) and managers.

ACOSS is updating the Handbook and is consulting with ER providers across the country, including via face-to-face roundtables in each capital city and some regional locations.  ACOSS has developed a package on the 4th Edition of the Handbook which includes information on the consultation process.

• Download:  ER Handbook 4th Edition Information Package

The Handbook was last produced in 2003 and is available on the ACOSS website:

• Download: http://acoss.org.au/images/uploads/363__ER_handbook.pdf

Information

If you would like further information, or if you would like to register for a consultation, please contact:

• Emily or Penny at ACOSS
  ph: 02 9310 6200
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Investigating new ways to make our forums, seminars and conferences available to more of our members, other community sector organisations and the general public - especially those in rural and regional areas - NCOSS has started trialling live webcasting. Recently, during our Vote 1 Fairness Election Forums held in Merimbula and Cooma at the end of May, we utilised wireless broadband, our laptop and a webcamera to televise several hours worth of proceedings from both locations.

The webcast is sent live through a third party provider (ustream.com) and can then be watched in real time by anyone with a web-enabled device either directly through u-Stream or via an embedded frame on our website: www.ncoss.org.au/webcast (an added bonus for watching it on our site is no advertisements for soft drinks and American TV shows!)

At Cooma the webcast covered an education/information session on ‘big picture’ issues and the work NCOSS is doing. On the next day, at Merimbula, we presented a politician’s forum - featuring Andrew Constance, Liberals MP and Member for Bega; Penny Sharpe, ALP MLC, and; Sylvia Hale, Greens MLC - discussing their party’s policy positions and why they are a vote for fairness.

For the most part there were surprisingly few technical hiccups, and the technology set-up was straight-forward and only took a few minutes. Whilst there were not many viewers there had also been limited promotion for the webcast and it is still a fairly novel concept for many. We’re intending to provide more webcasts in the near future and, as it becomes a more commonly used form of technology, expect it to reach a wider audience.

Our next scheduled webcast is Wednesday 9 June @ 2pm-4pm - NCOSS will hold a Budget briefing for the community sector today (the day after the handing down of the NSW State Budget) and give feedback on our preliminary analysis of the Budget by portfolio area. To watch, simply tune in to www.ncoss.org.au/webcast from 2pm (as we develop a schedule of upcoming events there will also be a program listed on that page).

by Alison Peters, NCOSS Director

When NCOSS released its Pre-Budget Submission (PBS) last year we said that the PBS sought to balance the many pressing priorities in the community with the fact that there are limited resources available.

NCOSS also said that as a peak advocacy body we needed to advocate both for the “popular” front of mind issues but also for those that are often overlooked to ensure that vulnerable people, whatever their vulnerability, are supported.

The Hon. Frank Sartor, MP, Minister for Climate Change and the Environment, launched the NSW Government’s Home Power Saver Program on 27 May 2010. Aimed at assisting 200,000 low-income households, the program will assist households lower their power bills and cut carbon emissions by reducing power consumption while maintaining health and comfort. The program is free to low income households and offers:

• a home power assessment by an energy expert;
• a Power Savings Kit; and
• a personal Power Savings Action Plan.

Households who join the program will learn what’s using the most power in their home and new ways to save up to 20% off their power use helping them save money and the environment.

To be eligible for the program households must be in NSW and contribute to the energy bills for the property. Further, households must be an energy hardship customer OR hold one of the following cards:

• Centrelink Pensioner Concession Card
• Centrelink Low Income Health Care Card
• Department of Veterans’ Affairs Pensioner Concession Card
• Department of Veterans’ Affairs (Gold) Repatriation Health Card
• Department of Veterans’ Affairs (White) Repatriation Health Card.

Eligible households can join the program now by calling 1300 662 416.

Further information: www.savepower.nsw.gov.au