Little AndrewHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Justice): Thank you Madam Chair. The Government is acutely alert to the stresses and strains being faced by small business and actually for that matter by some landlords too. Some landlord-owners of big properties are small businesses themselves and have as their tenants large multinational corporations so this is not a one-way street by any stretch of the imagination. One thing we have been very alert to is to make sure that the kind of support the Government provides and the kind of intervention we do doesn't end up becoming a subsidy to the landlord to maintain their incomes at a level that they're used to in a way that virtually no other person experiencing this crisis is enjoying.Pretty much everybody is taking a hit in their income in one way or another. So our first response was to announce that we intended to amend the Property Law Act admittedly retrospectively—it's not a very good thing to do; it's a pretty ugly thing to do. But it would provide some extra breathing space for the parties to commercial leases rather than give the notice and 10 days later that's it and everything follows from there. It provides some breathing space and we expected there'd be some sensible mature negotiations to allow the parties to come to terms with the exigencies of the current circumstances and work out something for the medium to longer term. The reality is for landlords who think there's an opportunity here to get rid of a tenant who hasn't paid their rent on 1 April there isn't a very long queue of substitute tenants lining up behind them. Most landlords I think have responded sensibly to that. There are some who haven't and I've seen the correspondence and I've seen the correspondence from the Property Council and they've given good evidence that there are some parties who just do not seem to respect the current circumstances that are facing everybody. So the Government is now actively considering a further intervention that would provide or allow or at least require those parties—where certain material circumstances have arrived such as a substantial loss of revenue the failure to gain access to commercial premises from which a business is run—then to enter an agreement that would manage the issues associated with rent. It might be as much as a rent waiver for a period of time it might be a discount of varying levels over a period of time to apply during the period in which premises cannot be accessed and/or the business is suffering a material loss as a result of COVID-19 and the measures the Government has taken to ensure physical distancing and generally looking after the public health needs. That is under active consideration. One thing we are very clear about is we're not interested in providing a subsidy to landlords so that they maintain their incomes when nobody else in the country is. So it is about everybody sharing the burden. It is about everybody coming to the party and we look forward to the work and talking to colleagues around the House and indeed in the sector to make sure we come up with an answer that means that everybody is treated fairly that everybody gets through this that good businesses get to survive and that landlords understand their contribution but that everybody is treated fairly.