Congratulations new Ministers, MPs

The Tenants' Union congratulates the NSW Coalition parties on their re-election to State Government.

Congratulations to Brad Hazzard, who has been appointed Minister for Family and Community Services and Minister for Social Housing.

Having a Minister for Social Housing is a new development: in the Coalition Government's previous term, social housing was rolled into the Family and Community Services portfolio without distinction. Before that, social housing was the responsibility of a Minister for Housing, an office which went back to the 1940s, but which had for a long time been focused on social housing, rather than the wider housing system.

We're optimistic that the elevation of social housing to its own ministry will mean that the social housing sector will be elevated in the priorities of the State Government... but we'd still prefer to see Minister Hazzard (or another of his colleagues) as Minister for Housing, with a broad brief to develop policies for greater affordability, security and decency of housing across the tenures.

We should also note that Minister Hazzard, as Attorney-General in the previous term of the Government, deserves credit for his role in convincing the Federal Government to restore funding to community legal centres and Legal Aid which had previously been cut. We look forward to working with him on social housing.

Congratulations too to Victor Dominello, who has been appointed Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation, and whose responsibilities include tenancy law.

The 'Innovation and Better Regulation' ministry is a new development too, replacing the ministry of 'Fair Trading', which itself replaced 'Consumer Affairs' some time ago. We're a little concerned that the change in ministerial title may reflect an intention to shift away from consumer protection as the primary responsibility of the portfolio.

On the other hand, we know Minister Dominello from his early work on boarding house sector reform, so we look forward to working with him on tenancy reform.

And congratulations to all new and re-elected Members of Parliament, especially those who declared their support for More Bang for Your Bond:

Tim Crakanthorp (Labor, Newcastle)

Trish Doyle (Labor, Blue Mountains) 

Alex Greenwich (Independent, Sydney)

David Harris (Labor, Wyong)

Jo Haylen (Labor, Summer Hill)

Sonia Hornery MP (Labor, Wallsend)

Geoff Lee (Liberal, Parramatta)

Jenny Leong (Greens, Newtown)

Adam Marshall (Nationals, Northern Tablelands)

Bruce Notley-Smith (Liberal, Coogee)

Jamie Parker (Greens, Balmain)

John Robertson (Labor, Blacktown)

 and possibly more to come as counting continues!