Huo RaymondRAYMOND HUO (Labour): I would like to thank the Hon Mark Mitchell the new Minister for Land Information who has just resumed his seat. The Land Transfer Bill is to amend the Land Transfer Act 1952 and other relevant pieces of legislation and it will become the new principal Act in this area. The law change is well overdue and the bill will bring the key piece of property legislation into the 21st century.From the Law Commission issues paper released in 2008 to the Law Commission report A New Land Transfer Act in 2010 followed by consultation with stakeholders the bill was introduced in February 2016. This is certainly a long time in gestation. For many stakeholders involved those from either the legal fraternity or banking institutes the journey is truly a labour of love. For someone like myself who is from a legal background it is a privilege to get involved in the process of seeing the bill get through the Committee of the whole House process and the current third reading. For someone like myself who has just returned to the House it is more like that this bill has offered me a great opportunity to exercise the politicians' art of arriving late but claiming all of the credit. However I should acknowledge the contributions by previous and current presidents of the Law Commission Sir Geoffrey Palmer and Professor John Burrows QC. I would also like to acknowledge Land Information New Zealand which produced such a thoughtful departmental report and the Hon Ruth Dyson the able chair of the Government Administration Committee. The committee heard all of the submissions and did a thorough analysis and presented the bill to the House in its current form.The primary purpose of this bill is to produce a piece of legislation that is centred on electronic registration. The second objective of reform is to ensure that the new Act is acceptable and written in plain modern English. The bill continues and maintains the Torrens system of land title in New Zealand. The bill also makes changes to land law aimed at improving security of property rights and efficiency including indefeasibility of title identity verification and other issues related to encumbrances and covenants in gross. The bill also introduces a new power for the High Court to alter the land register in case of manifest injustice which in turn has the potential for profound impact on banks and other lenders who lend money on the security of land.During the Committee of the whole House we also looked at some Supplementary Order Papers with one calling for a mechanism to be established to create a foreign buyers register. The National Government's current position is not helpful. Listening to the questions and answers during today's question time between Mr Phil Twyford MP and the honourable Minister Nick Smith one could not help but wonder for how long the Minister could carry on insisting that the current way of collecting data is good and conclusive.We have three problems with the Land Information New Zealand data. Even the Minister at the time admitted that the data was not inclusive and should not be viewed as a foreign buyers register. Those figures were based on the low side of the market. They were collected after the introduction of the new IRD disclosure rules in May 2015. The data did not and will not include trusts and business buyers.The dilemma is that on the one hand we have a housing crisis and on the other nobody knows about the scope and size of foreign ownership of New Zealand residential properties. The population in Auckland has gone up by 45000 a year. We need about 15000 or so houses a year and we are building about half that number. Supply is falling far short of demand and that puts prices up. But notwithstanding that piece of political context the substance of this bill heads in the right direction and updates the land transfer law.Can I commend the good work of the Government Administration Committee again for its efforts in considering the bill. I also want to thank the submitters such as the New Zealand Law Society the Auckland District Law Society the New Zealand Bankers' Association and the New Zealand Institute of Valuers etc. for their thoughts concerns and contributions.This bill is a long overdue update of the land transfer mechanism and is a restatement of the core principles that govern indefeasibility of title and our Torrens system of land registration. As Professor Geoffrey Palmer said the Land Transfer Act is a basic part of the New Zealand legal infrastructure. An effective system for land transfer is essential for the workings of a modern economy. Much of the bill is technically laden and could be very dry but detail matters in the land transfer system. The Law Commission and Land Information New Zealand have managed to make this bill clear modern and effective. Labour supports this bill.