Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with REINT CEO Quentin Killian

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Katie Woolf spoke with REINT CEO Quentin Killian · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, as you've heard us discussing throughout the morning, we
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: know changes to the Northern Territory Residential Tendancies Act from
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine are going to commence on the first
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: of January next year, after being passed by the Parliament
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: earlier this year. We know that they were deferred to
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: allow for some further legislative changes required in response to
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: COVID nineteen, but it is looking as though this controversial
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: change enabling pets at a resident well at these rental
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: properties is set to forge ahead. Now joining us on
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: the line from the Real Estate Institute of the Northern Territory,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Quentin Killian.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Quentin, Morning Katie. Quentin.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: I know that you've stood very firm on your beliefs
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: with this. It's not the right move.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: No far from it. Like this is a bit like
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: groundhog Day. It's just coming around again. Legislation that should
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: have been thrown out. In fact, it was the government's
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: own Scrutiny Committee, led by four of its own members,
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: that stood up and said this is nonsensical legislation. It
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: should never be passed, to which the Attorney General at
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: the time was Natasha Files stood up five minutes later
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: in the same parliament and said we're ignoring our own
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: committee and passing the legislation. It is nonsensical. It flies
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: in the face of attracting investors of growing the market,
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: which is what the mantra of the government is at
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: the moment. The mantra is let's get rid of red tape,
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: let's regrow the government, rego the economy, let's bounce back.
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  Speaker 3: And they're introducing legislation which is going to scare away
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: a huge block of our investor market.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Quentin, look for me, I can't understand why they've introduced this,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: so I sort of think it didn't seem broken to
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: me previously.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: So what are they trying to fix?
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: Why is the committee, said Katie. Their own committee said
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: there is nothing broken. The current system works. Current legislation
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: that is contained in the Residential Tenancies Act of nineteen
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: ninety nine works. It simply means that you have to
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: ask your landlord permission to have a PET. All you're
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: doing at the moment now is you're forcing the landlord
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: to accept a PET or at the landlord's cost, to
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: go to nt CAT, which then starts to clog up
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: the tribunal with claims against lamas in living rooms and
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: turtles in the backyard, and god knows what else. So
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: I mean, there's an example in Victoria of the in fact,
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: I got you just yesterday of a group of people
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: in a very small apartment that decided they wanted to
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: have a dog, and so they told their landlord, we're
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: getting one. The landlord objected, and the case ended up
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: in the VCAT. Turns out, in an eighty square apartment,
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: these guys wanted a very large husky and they got
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: it because the VCT said no, no, you're going to
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: have the dog. Now, in an eighty square meter apartment,
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: they have a huge husky living in there, and cost
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: knows what it's doing.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: You know, Quentin, I know that those who own investment
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: properties around the territory who are listening this morning will
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: be thinking to themselves, shit, have I got a leg
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: to stand on here?
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: Well, essentially, no. The way that the legislation works is
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: that under this legislation that the government is bringing in,
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: sneaking in our might add during the Christmas break, they've
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: had all year to do something with it, and they've
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: sat on it, hidden it in a drawer, and now
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: over Christmas break, they're sneaking it in. Under this legislation,
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: the tenant can decide that they're going to have a
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: lama in their living room. They then tell the landlord
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: I'm doing this. The landlord has fourteen days to object
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: in writing to the tenant and then must go under
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: their own steam and their own cost, to the tribunal
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: to the nt CAT and lodge a claim to stop
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: this occurring. And then it goes to a hearing in
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  Speaker 3: front of a delegate. And the delegate not the landlord
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: who owns the property, who invested millions of dollars into
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: these properties, not that person, but a third person who
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: sits in a tribunal position, gets to decide whether or
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: not the tenant is allowed to have that pet in
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  Speaker 3: the property.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Quentin, are we property owners maybe just being a bit
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: you know, a bit mean here? I mean, is it
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: actually appropriate that people are allowed to have a pet?
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: To play Devil's advocacy.
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: Katie, They're allowed to have a pet now, there's nothing
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  Speaker 3: stopping them having a pet if they ask their landlord,
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  Speaker 3: if they speak to their landlord. There's many the multitude
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: of landlords out there already who allowed pets in properties.
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  Speaker 3: I was a landlord for a while, and I happily
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: allowed the family that was living in our property to
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: have a dog because they asked, and it was the
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: right sort of animal, and it was for that property.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: It's appropriate for that tenant to ask the landlord for permission,
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  Speaker 3: and if it's appropriate for that animal to be there,
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: and things like body corporate rules allow it and so forth,
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: then why not. But it's inappropriate to say, here's a
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: person who's invested their hard earned cash into a property
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: which is their future, and you're telling them that they
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: have no control over what happens in that property.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the thing I'm really grappling with. You know,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: I'm trying my best to see this from the other
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: side of the fence. And you know, I've been a
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: renter who had a pet in my younger days. I've
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: had dogs most of my adult life, and I never
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: rented a place where I didn't have approval to have
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: a pet. So for me, I'm just really struggling with
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  Speaker 1: why they've made this change.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: Well, the argument that they're putting forward in their lame
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: attempt to justify this is that there's a balance between
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: the tenant and the landlord. Well, it's not. You're actually
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: taking away landlord's rights. So forget, forget the fact for
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: a moment that this is about Pitts right. Put that
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: to one side. This is about landlord's rights, and it's
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: the thin edge of the wedge. Because there's a whole
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: lot more to come that we've already seen previewed in
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: the last round of negotiations on the Residential Tenancies Act.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: This is the thin edge of the wedge about landlord's rights,
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: and that's what it comes down to. You're the person
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: who owns the property. You've invested in it. Quite frankly,
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: if a tenant wants to have the same rights as
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: a landlord, then purchase a property, then that property is yours.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: You can do what you want with it. Well, for
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: the time being, you're a guest in somebody else's house
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: that you're renting from them. You don't have the right
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: to just do what you want because it's not your property.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Well, you're not taking that same level of risk that
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: the person who's purchased the home and is carrying that
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: level of debt is actually taking. Quentin, can I just
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: ask I know that that prior to these changes going
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: through Parliament, you had actually started a petition, you know,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: I guess now that's been that was presented to parliament,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: wasn't it and the still went ahead?
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: So no, no, no, it wasn't. That was the problem
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: is that the opposition leader attempted to present it to
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: Parliament and the government blocked it. They would not accept
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: it in parliament. They refused to accept the petition in parliament.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: Why because they were too busy. They were too busy
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: introducing COVID legislation to In fact, it was about a
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: twenty minute ramp as to why they wouldn't accept the
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: petition for what would have taken one minute to pass through.
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: So the petition was never accepted by parliament or by
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: the government in parliament. How many people signed it to
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: be presented.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: How many people signed that petition?
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: Around eighty three hundred people.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: So they've not listened to those eight thousand people. Were
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: they all from the Northern Territory or were some of
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: them from interstates?
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: From it? There were some there were interstatus, there was internationals,
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  Speaker 3: so there was that there was a wide church of
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: people who were saying we are property investors or potential
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: property investors, and we think this is nonsensical ruling.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: Goodness, may Quentin. I know that.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Look, I know that people, some people listening this morning
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: who own an investment property are going to feel be
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: feeling quite demoralized by these changes. You know, if they
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: if they are really concerned, is there somewhere there they
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: can that they can go for more information or or
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: to seek some some you know, some support.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: I guess you might say.
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: Well, I assume because the government is rushing this through,
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: that they're going to put out some sort of fact sheet.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: Perhaps they can talk to Consumer Affairs. I'm sure that
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: Consumer Affairs will have some information on it. But you
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: know what I would have been encouraging all investors to do,
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: and all concern people, those people with concerns is contact
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: your local member, right to your local member, Ring your
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: local member and let them know en mass how concerned
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: you are. Ring the Attorney General herself, ring her office
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  Speaker 3: right to her office emailer, right to the Chief Minister,
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: and tell them this is not on You're making a
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: huge mistake here. We told you this last year when
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: this was all starting, that this was a big mistake.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: Your own committee told you that this was a big mistake.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: And you've done it anyway you.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: Continue to do this groundhole day activity and push through
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  Speaker 3: more red tape that completely disrupts a market that is
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: only just starting to rebound.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: Well, Quentin Killian, we are going to have to leave
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  Speaker 2: it there.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: SEEO of the Real Estate Institute of the Northern Territory.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: for coming with.
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: You time, Katie. People ring your ring your local member
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  Speaker 3: and let them know how upset you are.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Quintin and well for the sake of transparency,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: we did definitely put in a request. I've put in
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: a request into the Attorney General's office for the last
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: couple of days, actually not just on this topic. In fact,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: we didn't know that this announcement was going to be
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: made until late yesterday or yesterday, But we had also
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: put in a request to speak to Selena Rubau earlier
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: in the week about those proposed cuts to some of
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: those rehab programs for corrections and for those that have
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: done time in correctional facilities.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: We weren't able to get her on about that.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: I am of the understanding that they have now extended
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: some of that money when it comes to the correction's
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: rehab programs. But look, I'd be very keen to have
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: the Minister on to find out exactly why the government
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: has forged ahead with these changes despite the fact that
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: there was a petition, and there is a petition that
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: more than eight thousand people have signed. I know that
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: some of those from what Quentin killy And has said,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: they're very upfront. Some of those are obviously into state.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Some of those people who've also signed are overseas investors.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: But that petition, from what Quentin has said to us,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: wasn't able to be presented to parliament earlier this year.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: The opposition leader Leofanocchiaro wasn't able to present it to
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: parliament because the Government of the day had said that
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: there was other legislation that needed to be introduced and
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: changed on urgency due to COVID. Now, to me, this
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: is a real example of changing something for the sake
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: of changing it. You know, if their own committee, for
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: members of that committee had said it's not broken, so
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: we don't need to fix it, we don't need to
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: implement these changes, why on earth.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Have they gone through?
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Now there are a lot of you getting in contact
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: with us this morning, and do you know what if
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: you want to call through, if you want us to
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: talk about this on air, If you want to call through,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: if you if you own a property and do you
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: want to make your voice heard, give us a ring.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Eight nine one four nine is the number. We've got
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: quite a bit of time after ten o'clock. If you
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: want to make sure that your voice is heard on
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: this issue, call through. I've got a message here, Katie.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: I can only rent as I don't have money, but
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: my daughter is highly allergic to cat here and some dogs.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: This is going to make things harder to find a properties.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: That message I read out a little earlier as well.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: I've got one here. This pet law is something the
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Victorian government did. This mob just follows them. Another one, hi, Katie,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: was the community provided opportunity to input. I did not
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: get anything to indicate it was about to change. What
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: about constant barking dogs, arrogant and high handed behavior?
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Says that Texter. Another one here, Katie.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: The cynic in me says the government want to push
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: through the ability for people to be allowed to have
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: dogs in particular to maybe influence the break and entry numbers,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: maybe reduces the crime stats as well. I think that
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: one's matting driver. There's another one high Katie and co.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Regards to the Tenants Act to allow dogs. This is
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: a way for the government and their mates to in
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: litigation to make more money. Government thinks landlords are all rich,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: so tax, tax, tax in any way to rip people off,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: silly people running the looney farm. And yeah, look there
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: is a lot more. There's a lot coming through. One
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: here says my property, my rules. If you choose to
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: rent from me, you choose to follow my rules. Don't
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: like my rules, don't rent from me, says that texter.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Another one here. The last time you had this pet
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: story on, I told you about my tenant who kept
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: pigeons in the internal cupboards. Oh my goodness, they had
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: permission to have a dog. I shudder when I think
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: of my public housing neighbor who had seven dogs and
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: then went to prison. Goodness, gracious, that is crazy stuff.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: And look, if you do want to send us a message,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: feel free to do so. Zero four one eight nine
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: five seven three six nine. I do want to point
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: out I know that there are a lot of wonderful
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: renters who have dogs and other animals who actually look
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: after homes beautifully. And I've been one of those people
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: who has had a small dog while renting my property
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: and done everything I could to keep that property immaculate.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: So I do definitely want to point out that there's
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: lots of people who do the right thing. But the
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: concern here, of course, is that you know that people
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: who own these properties sort of are feeling like they
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: don't have a leg to stand on.