Andersen GinnyGINNY ANDERSEN (Labour): Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to rise to speak on a bill that I was able to be party to at the select committee as part of the Governance and Administration Committee and to listen to the submitters who came forth.So the bill covers three main areas. The first is to clarify the law with regard to tenant liability for damage. It is incredibly important to get that balance right between tenants and landlords and where those powers lie. Secondly this bill clarifies to make sure that the Residential Tenancies Act applies to all premises intended for residential use even if they are in fact unlawful. So that is an important area as well. And thirdly and most controversially and I think most importantly as well this bill sets out the rights and responsibilities that parties have in relation to contaminants and contamination specifically to methamphetamine.The submitters that we heard at the select committee were a really good cross-section of people who were touched by this issue. They included individuals that were from the tenancy sector. There were tenancy advocacy groups landlords property managers student associations charities community groups and particular individuals that were influenced. One of the ones that really springs to mind as being clear was from the Drug Foundation which presented—Ross Bell came forward. One of the big issues that it really brought forward to the committee at that time was this issue between use and manufacture. It was at that time that the committee really turned their minds to the difference between the use of methamphetamine in a property and the manufacture. It was that that began the real questioning of the current meth-testing standard to see whether or not that was an effective tool for identifying what had been happening in relation to meth use or in fact meth manufacturing.What the difficulty is and which was presented is proving the use and this is where some of the injustices occurred. Just because traces of methamphetamine are potentially found in a house does not demonstrate that it was in fact those tenants residing in the house at that present time who were responsible for that. So it is important to know where the harm levels lie.I realise that the previous speaker mentioned that there was concern around how that meth-testing standard was developed and there were accusations in terms of the quality of those who were on the board who came forward to make those decisions and where that standard lies. Well I guess the way you can point that out is that it wasn't right—it wasn't right—in terms of people being victimised for methamphetamine use when there was no clear way of proving that there was harm associated. The subsequent scientific reports from Chief Science Advisor Gluckman have indicated that it is in fact manufacture that has harm to people and children using houses while the use of methamphetamine residue does not have ongoing harmful conditions to people living in those areas.It's really promising to see that the Government is doing more work in this space. The fact that this legislation enables through Order in Council further amendments to be made enables the Government to work on developing methamphetamine regulations so that landlords tenants and the meth industry have a clear and comprehensive way of looking at those rules so that we know what actually contamination is and that there is agreement on that; how testing should actually be undertaken; and what decontamination actions are required when we are clear that the contamination has in fact actually occurred.I think also what it will stop doing is the springing up of this industry that has come about where you do have cavalier tests of people wiping a wall testing positive for meth and then holding tenants responsible. The bill is sent to the landlord and a small side business has been established. I think it's important that if people are going to be held liable for damage there is a clear fair understood way of ensuring we know we are all talking about the same thing.I think this is an excellent piece of legislation. I'm proud to be one of the members of the committee who enabled this legislation to be strengthened and I'm pleased to see that the rights of tenants have been upheld in an area which is so important. I commend this bill to the House.