Dalziel Lianne: Retirement Villages Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Dalziel Lianne: Retirement Villages Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:612;Page:9433] 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL (Associate Minister of Justice) 
: 
 I move  
That the Retirement Villages Bill be now read a third time 
. This is important legislation and it is long overdue. As members of this House will now be aware it provides protection for people who choose retirement village living and builds on the recommendations of the Law Commission. The provisions of this bill will have the effect of addressing a legislative mismatch that has exposed many older people and their families to unnecessary distress. Until this legislation is enacted there is little in law specifically to protect the rights and various interests of older people living in a retirement village apart from the securities legislation that covers it now and clearly was not designed for the purpose. 
At its best retirement village living can provide a wonderful lifestyle and a sense of community with as much personal privacy as people want. But at its worst a choice to buy into a retirement village can result in a feeling of being trapped—a tragic way to spend one’s retirement years. I accept that most operators run good villages and most residents are very happy with their choices but there are cowboys in the industry and this bill is designed to ensure that no more cowboys are able to enter the industry. If the cowboys who are there now are put out of business then I say that is a jolly good thing. 
But we need to put in place provisions that will limit risk protect interests and promote good practice. I know that the ACT party believes that everyone can protect his or her own interests and should be left to do so. It is not my experience of reality. I think if Stephen Franks had read letters from widows who felt like prisoners because they could not move out of the place they were stuck in then maybe he would have been prepared to rethink what I can only describe as the modern-day equivalent of the Flat Earth Society approach. 
Ignorance creates risk. This bill mitigates that risk. It is true that risk will never be completely removed but what we have done with this bill is ensure that no one can enter into an occupation-right agreement without being provided with information relevant to making an informed decision. An operator must disclose information relating to entry residency and exit costs. An intending resident cannot enter into an occupation-right agreement unless he or she has obtained legal advice. 
Good relationships between residents or between residents and village operators cannot be legislated for but can be promoted. This bill provides for operators to operate a complaints facility and for a formalised dispute resolution process involving independent dispute panels whose members are pre-approved by the Retirement Commissioner. 
 This bill also includes a provision requiring a village operator unless exceptional circumstances exist to appoint a statutory supervisor which ensures that the financial stability of a village is monitored. Another form of external oversight will be provided through the Retirement Commissioner who will have the role of reporting on and monitoring the effectiveness of the Act. 
Another key component of this legislation is that it will compel compliance with an industry-wide code of practice. The matters the code of practice must cover are prescribed but the specifics of the code will in the first instance be generated by the industry and other stakeholders which I personally believe is a much greater protection than that offered by the amendment proposed by the ACT party which was voted down in the Committee stage. Stakeholders will be invited to submit draft codes for consideration and the Retirement Commissioner will publicly invite submissions on them. On the recommendation of the Retirement Commissioner the responsible Minister will approve a code that has effect as a regulation. The decision as to who the responsible Minister will be has not been made yet. That is my response to New Zealand First members who think I cannot read a bill when obviously I can. 
Dail Jones 
: Absolutely right about that one. 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL 
: Yes but the responsible Minister will be driven off who the registrar is which I would have thought would be obvious to anyone. Through the formalised processes set in the bill the code will be able to be refined and adapted so that it remains a living document throughout its life. 
This legislation is eagerly awaited by many people living in retirement villages and it has been well supported by people within the retirement village industry. To those who say we should simply have picked up the Law Commission’s proposed bill and put it into effect I say that that would have satisfied no one. It would not have satisfied the retirement village industry or people living in retirement villages. This is much better legislation. 
I appreciate the work and effort that have gone into producing the bill. I thank the Justice and Electoral Committee; the village operators the village residents the Retirement Villages Association Grey Power Age Concern and other interest groups; individuals including Leo Steele a Christchurch lawyer with a passion in this area second to none; and all the members of this House who have contributed to the fine-tuning of this long-overdue bill. The Justice and Electoral Committee’s comprehensive consideration of the bill resulted in recommendations that in my view will improve the effectiveness and workability of the provisions. The bill as amended in the Committee stage now strikes an optimally effective three-way balance between promoting the individual rights and interests of residents protecting the collective interest of residents and recognising the needs and interests of the retirement village industry itself. It is often difficult to get a balance but I believe that we have achieved that here today. 
In closing I thank my officials the people from the Office for Senior Citizens within the Ministry of Social Development who are here in the House this afternoon. I acknowledge they have done a great thing in bringing this legislation together. I know that it is a hard ask for a ministry that is not resourced like the Ministry of Justice is to deal with this kind of legislation. 
Stephen Franks 
: They’d muck it up even worse don’t worry. 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL 
: It is extremely unhelpful that the ACT party has made some very unpleasant comments about officials who have worked exceptionally well and hard to try to get a balance in a very difficult situation where it is hard to get a balance between competing interests. I pay credit to those officials in this House. I believe that it is the height of rudeness to try to undermine the effective working of the public service but we have come to expect that from the ACT party. 
I am proud of this legislation. It has been a long time coming. It will be welcomed by all quarters of those interests that we have been seeking to protect. I commend the bill to the House.