Tenants' Rights Manual Launch

The beautiful Mitchell building of the State Library played host to the launch of the Tenants' Rights Manual 4th Edition yesterday morning. The event went brilliantly!

The author with the fruits of his labour

Guests from a range of places including: tenants from Newcastle to Surry Hills; tenant advocates from all over the place; the author of the original Tenants' Rights Manual, Dr. Robert Mowbray; community organisations, legal centres and law firms; government departments Fair Trading NSW and Legal Aid NSW; and politicans from all sides of politics, including the Hon. Minister for Fair Trading, Anthony Roberts who launched the Manual.

The Hon. Anthony Roberts during his launch speech

The event was part of Anti-Poverty Week and we took the opportunity to reflect that 65% of low income renters in NSW are in housing stress, paying an unsustainable amount of rent. We also heard that it is estimated that by 2020 the number of renters aged over 65 will have increased by 115%. The importance of access to knowledge of the rights and responsibilites in tenancy agreements will only become more important over time.

The speechgivers and the author: from l-r, Dr Chris Martin, Senior Policy Officer of the Tenants' Union of NSW; Julie Foreman, Executive Officer of the Tenants' Union of NSW; the Hon. Anthony Roberts MP, NSW Minister of Fair Trading; Geoff Mulherin, Director of the NSW Law & Justice Foundation; Dr Alex Byrne, Chief Executive of the NSW State Library.

Thanks to all our guests, speakers, contributors and supporters!

Finally, you can now purchase the Tenants' Rights Manual from Federation Press. Very soon, you will also be able to find a physical copy of the Manual in every public library in NSW through the Legal Information Access Centre's (LIAC) Legal Toolkit. You'll also be able to access the Manual through LIAC's page on the State Library website here. That page will contain the most up to date version of the Manual as occasional updates are published.