In 2015 Consumer Affairs Victoria announced a full review of Victoria’s rental laws, which had not been meaningfully updated in twenty years.
During that time the nature of renting had completely changed from a short-term, temporary option for most to a long-term, or even life-long, form of housing.
Despite this, the initial consultation paper released for public comment indicated there was a serious risk that pressure from the real estate industry would stifle any positive reforms for over 1.5 million Victorians who rent their homes.
Tenants Victoria wanted to make the most of this opportunity and engaged Social Change Projects to develop and implement a campaign strategy that would deliver the best possible rental law reforms. The campaign’s objective was to identify the most critical reforms and ensure they were included in the final legislation.
Over the next two years, we built a broad coalition of 80 organisations and 10,000 individuals who campaigned for rental laws that would deliver greater safety, stability and privacy for renters.
Our theory of change was based around demonstrating the negative impact of current laws and the potential community benefit of our proposals. We then used personal stories, policy arguments and political pressure to win the desired reforms.
In opposition were the powerful real estate and property industries in addition to many landlords, who resisted changes. Some of the arguments put forward claimed catastrophic consequences would follow even modest changes that benefited renters.
We used state and local media, petitions, email and phone actions, direct lobbying, social media, video, infographics, policy and research publications and sophisticated stakeholder mapping to achieve our objectives. Tenants Victoria led the campaign with a range of contributions from other partners.
Two years later, the Victorian Government introduced legislation that included a large number of Tenants Victoria and Make Renting Fair’s proposals. Our campaign was referenced by a number of politicians as they spoke to the legislation, including crossbench MPs who held the votes needed for the laws to pass.
Most notably, the Victorian Premier adopted our campaign messaging when announcing the changes. This was a major vindication for our approach.
It’s also significant that other states adopted ‘Make Renting Fair’ for their rental law reform campaigns, some also experiencing success in their jurisdictions with similar messaging.
Tenants Victoria’s CEO, Mark O’Brien, said the changes included in this Bill will provide greater certainty to the state’s over 1.5 million renters. “This bill is a landmark step forward for legitimising renters as deserving of safety, stability and privacy in their homes. Most importantly, they will give renters the security they need to set down roots and build ties with their local communities which will, in turn, have positive benefits to the economy and society.”