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The Tenants’ Union of NSW is an organisation representing the interests of tenants and other renters, including residents of residential parks and boarding houses, in New South Wales, Australia.

The Tenants’ Union of NSW is a specialist community legal centre with its own legal practice in residential tenancies law and is the primary resource body for the State-wide network of twenty-one Tenants Advice and Advocacy Services. This network comprises both generalist and Aboriginal services. It produces a blog called The Brown Couch which has been preserved as part of the Pandora Archive project. It produces two newsletters called Tenant News for tenants and Outasite for residential park residents The Tenants’ Union is a member of National Association of Tenant Organisations and the International Union of Tenants. It is recognised by both Government and industry groups as a major stakeholder with whom to negotiate.

Background
As early as 1910 the Rent Payers Association campaigned for fair rent legislation in NSW. Action around tenancy issues increased during the Depression of the 1930s when families of unemployed workers were evicted for not being able to pay their rent. The Unemployed Workers Movement in Sydney, which was established in 1930, had a policy of opposing evictions and employed tactics that included occupation and sieges in response to the evictions. In 1931 the State Government of the day introduced a law postponing evictions where there was hardship.

During the Second World War legislation controlling rents and restricting evictions was implemented. The legislation was subsequently kept in place by the NSW Government in the post-war period. By the 1960’s, however, war-time rent controls were beginning to be phased out and home ownership increased. According to Paul Mortimer’s history of the Tenants’ Union and tenant activism in NSW, tenants declined as an electoral force as a result of these changes.

By the early 1970s the bulk of tenants across New South Wales were not protected by the rent control legislation. The Australian Government Commission of Inquiry into Poverty at the time reported that landlord and tenant legislation across Australia was in many respects unfair to tenants, particularly the poor and disadvantaged. A major report to the Poverty Commission stated that the law contained grave deficiencies that needed to be remedied in the interests of tenants. Around this time state-wide tenants organisations began to form across Australia.

Formation
The Tenants’ Union of NSW grew out of a working group of Shelter NSW, a newly established housing organisation at the time. Early members of the Tenants’ Union of NSW were activists drawn from a variety of backgrounds. Initially it focused on establishing a network of tenant services across the state and campaigning for consumer rights-style reform legislation along the lines advocated by the Poverty Commission. The Tenants’ Union was also part of a coalition that campaigned around a report called ‘Reforming a Feudal Law’ as a blue-print for new legislation. A model residential lease was promoted. Other campaigns around tenancy law reform included one called ‘Campaign Action for Rental Reform’ or CARR for short, a play on the name of the then Minister for Consumer Affairs, Bob Carr.

Early campaigns ran in tandem with those run by resident groups to save large tracts of inner Sydney housing seen as slums from being demolished by the state housing authority. A similar campaign in the early 1980’s responded to the decision by a large Sydney public hospital to bulldoze half its stock and sell off the rest. There were also campaigns on broader issues of housing justice, including setting up a Tent City in Hyde Park to highlight issues of housing affordability in Sydney. Ten years after the establishment of the Tenants’ Union, that residential tenancy law reform was introduced in New South Wales.

Current work
The initial focus of the Tenants’ Union of NSW was reforming residential tenancy legislation and establishing a network of voluntary and paid tenant services. However, by the 1980s it became evident that improving the circumstances of tenants was more complex than just reforming residential tenancy legislation. The Tenants’ Union of NSW became part of wider campaigns for fairer housing and from the early 1980s promoted both public and community housing. The Tenants’ Union now contributes to the broader housing debate, including around housing affordability.

Challenges
Unlike some of the tenant organisations in Europe, tenants’ unions across Australia do not enjoy mass membership. In Australia the bulk of tenants are tenants of private landlords and the types of landlords who dominate in this market are small scale individual investors (some referred to as ‘mum-and-dad’ investors) with one or two properties, attracted to rental property investment by tax breaks. Indeed, Australian Taxation Office shows that one in six people lodging a tax return in 2012-13, both in New South Wales and across Australia, were investors in rental property. According to Robert Mowbray, a founding member of the Tenants’ Union, “to organise tenants and sustain their membership where there are so many landlords has always been a daunting task”.

Lobbying for law reform that promotes increased security of tenure remains a major objective of the Tenants’ Union of NSW. However, according to some commentators, increased security of tenure may only become achievable when the types of landlord who dominate the rental market become large institutional investors. For example, a report by the City Futures Research Centre argues that while a housing market dominated by speculative small-scale individual investors serves the top end of the rental market well, “the lower end of the rental market, where rental yields are relatively constant and secure over the longterm, is likely to be better served by institutions prioritising long-term stable income returns rather than unpredictable capital gains.” In another report the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute argues that “[g]iven the scale of housing needs, and the inability of governments to provide for them directly, harnessing superannuation and insurance funds is an obvious route to take, especially given their long-term investment horizons and the limitations and risks offered by short term commercial finance.”

In Australia total superannuation industry assets were $2.0 trillion as at 30 June 2015. In recent years a coalition comprising peak social service, union, housing industry and community housing bodies has been lobbying for superannuation funds to invest in affordable rental housing, but so far with limited success.

REFERENCES Articles, Reports, Books Australian Prudential Regulation Authority 2015, Statistics: Annual Superannuation Bulletin, June, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, Sydney, viewed 19 June 2016, . Australian Taxation Office 2015, Taxation statistics 2012-13, Australian Taxation Office, viewed 19 June 2016, . Bowden, A 2015, ‘Investing With a Home-Bias: Innovations in Affordable Housing’, Pro Bono Australia, 4 February, viewed 19 June 2016, . Lawson, J, Berry, M, Hamilton, C & Pawson, H 2014, Enhancing affordable rental housing investment via an intermediary and guarantee, AHURI Final Report No. 220, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, viewed 19 June 2016, . Milligan, V, Pawson, H, Williams, P & Yates, J 2015, Next moves? Expanding affordable rental housing in Australia through institutional investment, City Futures Research Centre UNSW, viewed 19 June 2016, . Mortimer, P, Hearn, M & Tenants’ Union of N. S.W 1996, Unfinished business: the story of the Tenants’ Union of NSW 1976-1996, Tenants’ Union of NSW, Millers Point, N.S.W, viewed 19 June 2016, . Mowbray, R 2013, ‘Tenant activism: the emergence of the Tenants’ Union of NSW’, Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association of NSW Inc, viewed 19 June 2016, . NSW Aboriginal Tenancy Advice Service, NSW Aboriginal Tenancy Advice Service, viewed 19 June 2016, . Pawson, H & City Futures Research Centre NSW 2013, ‘Tenant participation: Australian and international perspectives’, paper presented at NSWFA Conference, Sydney, viewed 19 June 2016, . Simpson, R 1999, Tenants’ Rights in NSW, Briefing Paper No 9/99, NSW Parliamentary Library Research Service, viewed 19 June 2016, . Collection of leaflets, newscuttings, cards and letters relating to fair rent, landlord and tenant legislation in New South Wales 1904, Various, viewed 19 June 2016, . Wheatley, N & Cottle, D 1999, ‘Sydney’s Anti-Eviction Movement: Community or Conspiracy?’, paper presented at Labour & Community - Sixth National Conference of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Research Online, viewed 19 June 2016, .

Websites About us, Tenants’ Union of NSW, viewed 19 June 2016, . Advice services, Tenants’ Union of NSW, viewed 19 June 2016, . Just Renting - Law Reform for Housing Justice, Tenants’ Union of NSW, viewed 19 June 2016, . Members Australia, International Union of Tenants, viewed 19 June 2016, . Policy papers, Tenants’ Union of NSW, viewed 19 June 2016, <http://www.tenantsunion.org.au/publications/papers-submissions>. Tenants Association Australia wide, TenancyCheck.com.au, viewed 19 June 2016, <http://www.tenancycheck.com.au/tenants-association/>. Tenants’ Union of NSW 2016, The Brown Couch: The Tenants’ Union of NSW blog, viewed 19 June 2016, <http://tunswblog.blogspot.com.au>. Tenants’ Union of NSW, More Bang for your Bond!, viewed 19 June 2016a, <http://yourbond.org>. Tenants’ Union of NSW, Facebook, viewed 19 June 2016b, <https://www.facebook.com/TUNSW/#>. Tenants’ Union of NSW, The Noticeboard | Information for NSW park residents, viewed 19 June 2016c, <http://www.thenoticeboard.org.au/outasite>.