Woodhouse MichaelClause 3 Principal ActHon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National): Thank you Madam Chair. It's my pleasure to talk on clause 3 of this bill a relatively straightforward one-sentence statement which says that This Act"—when passed—"amends the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 (the principal Act)." I would simply ask this one question: why? Why on earth are we here amending the Residential Tenancies Act which needs no amendment? Even if the Minister was of a mind to create a regulation-making power he already has it. It's already there in the Residential Tenancies Act. He can pass this regulation without the grandstanding the virtue-signalling of the introduction of what was an Opposition bill the Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill—remember? They're going to guarantee healthy homes—a lofty goal.But I want to come back to the comments that the Minister said in his intervention in clause 2. It is revealing on one level but not on another. It was in essence why we are doing this. His argument was that the standards that he intends to promulgate go further because it covers other matters. So that could be illuminating to the degree—he didn't say it goes further because the standards would be higher; he said it goes further because there would be more of them. Only they don't because every single one of the standards introduced by the amendment of the Residential Tenancies Act is already possible. And that was the advice the select committee in the Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill got. That was the advice that was given.I draw the Minister's attention to that subsequent advice in a memo to the committee dated 5 August 2006 at paragraph 26 referencing actually the Housing Improvement Regulations 1947. Those regulations place requirements on landlords and owner/occupiers for that matter. So it's not just a requirement on rental properties. Every living room shall be fitted with a fireplace or other approved form of heating. Every bathroom should have a means of ventilation. Every habitable room should have windows to allow for adequate lighting and ventilation. Every house must have efficient drainage. Every house must be provided with gutters downpipes and drains. Ventilation dampness weatherproof—they're all here and they were augmented and strengthened by the passage of the Residential Tenancies (Smoke Alarms and Insulation) Regulations that were the consequence of our amendment to the Residential Tenancies Act last year.So in our efforts to examine clause 3 and to ask what amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act we are passing I once again implore the Minister to confirm or otherwise whether we are here because the standards go further because there are more of them—which is not correct—or whether the standards that already exist are going to be strengthened. The Minister can sit there and smirk and gloat all he likes but he was the one that ran around Parliament with the insulation material. He was the one that said this bill the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill which the previous National Government passed was not good enough and when he became the Minister he was going to make it better. Only he's sitting in the chair. We want to analyse the bill. We want to know how the Residential Tenancies Act is going to be amended and what regulation-making power is going to be given to the Minister so that we can make an assessment of whether that is worthy cost-effective—Hon Andrew Little: It's pretty clear what the power is. It's in the bill.Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: It's not clear Mr Little.Hon Andrew Little: It's very clear. Read it.Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: If it's that clear please answer this one question: will the new regulation that the Minister intends to bring about by the passage of this legislation require houses with insulation under the 1978 and 2001 standards to be upgraded? It's a reasonable question. It's not a political question. It's absolutely crucial to our understanding of what we're doing here. So the member who had sponsored the bill before his party became Government said "It's clear." I might be a bit slow. Tell me the answer to that."