To be honest, a lot of this looks to me like trying to say you’re doing something without doing much at all.

Rent bidding will also be banned under new laws

Rent bidding is already ostensibly banned, as far as I’m aware.

protect renters’ privacy by requiring 48 hours entry notice

I think that’s an increase from 24 hours, which is pretty nice. But again the problem is less the specific amount of time required and more the fact that it gets violated anyway without real recourse.

ensure renters have a fee-free option to pay rent

Also technically already the case, though this being mentioned could be a sign of intent to make it true in practice as well as in theory. Like if the only “fee-free” option is currently cheque, that is in practice impossible for most people, and maybe the rule change will make it so a true, accessible option is required. If that’s the case, this is very good.

stronger rules for rental property investors and managers will be developed, with penalties for those who don’t comply, so Queensland renters feel secure and protected.

If this pans out, it’s good. The problem is that tenants can be afraid from reporting because there is next to no protection against retaliation, because it’s so hard to prove retaliation.

The state’s changes from a year or two ago to “end no-grounds evictions” were a farce. If “the lease was up” is grounds for eviction, and we have a cultural norm of 6 or 12 month leases, this is completely useless. The lease ending cannot be an acceptable grounds for eviction if you want tenants to feel secure in their homes. It should only be for a breach of some kind, the owner wanting to move back in (with harsh penalties if they end up not actually doing that), or the building undergoing significant renovations. That’s it. I cannot think of any other legitimate grounds for evicting someone from their home.

Our currently has more than 20 supports and services that provide assistance to renters

I’m currently running on a severe lack of sleep, so please somebody correct me if I’m wrong. But this is just…a nonsense sentence, right? Like it makes no sense grammatically or semantically?

applying the annual limit for rent increases to the rental property not the tenancy

Okay, right down the bottom of the presser there’s some real good shit. This is excellent. You’ll never get an admission out of Labor for it, but this is them directly taking what the Greens have proposed since before the last raft of changes were legislated and delivering it exactly. This is fixing up an obvious flaw in the previous changes, and it is to be commended. Better late than never.

Stronger renters’ rights to be delivered through new amendments, including to make it easier for renters to install modifications they need to live safely and securely in their rental home and to have confidence their privacy is protected.

At first I thought this was going to be better than it was. But then it didn’t stop at “install modifications”, and instead stipulated that only a specific type of modification is permitted. “modifications they need to live safely and securely”. Not entirely clear what it means, but it sounds like it is meant to exclude things like “hang a picture on the wall”. That is some very disappointing weaksauce from the Miles Government.