Webb DuncanDr DUNCAN WEBB (Labour—Christchurch Central): Madam Speaker thank you [Drops glasses]—just organising myself in these COVID times. First of all look yes congratulations to Nicola Willis for getting this bill this far. Look it was never going to be an easy bill not only because it's technical but also because as has been pointed out an asset like an apartment is frequently the most important asset that a person has.And of course by definition with apartments and many unit titles people are living very close together and some conflicts with those kinds of interactions are inevitable. And we certainly heard a range of views in select committee from interest groups and from people who had been disappointed in conflicts and some pretty bitter experiences but I think despite the fact that people have gone away and aren't happy with where we've landed as a House of Representatives we've done a pretty good job at looking very carefully at all of those broad views and trying to strike the best balance. And as Mr Bayly said—and I don't often agree with him but I think getting the right balance here and having a sound framework for unit titles is really really important so that not only can people have confidence personally when they buy it but financers and the like can have confidence as well and the transactional costs of getting into apartment dwelling are sufficiently low and proportionate to the risks that are borne.So look I think this has become a really good bill. And look I absolutely want to endorse the views that the select committee and all the members on the select committee worked really hard and brought their own experiences whether it be from provincial towns which have different kinds of bodies corporate to inner-city MPs who talk about much more dense apartment dwelling. And also Poto Williams put and committed considerable resources to this bill and I think she's done a great job and her officials in again making sure that the opportunity was taken not only to do those things which the member in charge identified as wanting but also making sure that all those other—what may appear small tidy-ups advantage was taken of that. So we actually have a much more modern framework for unit title developments now whether that be the recognition of the risks of conflicts of interest which probably was there anyway in the sense that it would have been dealt with but at least it's overt that people have to turn their mind to questions like that. Body corporate managers have to think about it and so on and I think that is a really really good thing. Of course dragging it into the 21st century in terms of electronic and audiovisual meetings and voting and so on—making it so much easier for body corporate members to participate in what is a kind of democratic process; having influence on decision making that is proportionate to their ownership interests but with that backstop that the majority cannot tyrannise the minority in body corporate by those oppression provisions that are in there as well; and also the whole idea—had a really good discussion actually around long-term maintenance and what it means and the fact that if you're the owner of a large apartment building you do have to look out 30 years to think about what those costs are going to be and you can't simply kick the can down the road as some Governments have and defer maintenance forever; you've got to recognise that work's going to have to be done in a regular and scheduled way. But a good discussion because we can't predict exactly when the roof or the cladding or whatever has to be repaired and the idea that you have a medium-term detailed maintenance plan and long-term much more generalised maintenance plan as well. So that was good.And also that whole information exchange or disclosure that goes on at the front-end of the contract—absolutely critical to make sure that all relevant information that the purchaser needs is provided at the very earliest opportunity. And of course this is no longer folders upon folders of photocopied information and that's really transformed the expectations that we can have. It's no longer onerous to say we want body corporate minutes going back several years or building reports going back several years because any competent body corporate manager will have all of those files stored electronically and it's pretty much a click and drag into some kind of pen drive or Google or Dropbox or whatever you like. And indeed many of us will have engaged in a process similar to that when we've purchased properties ourselves so that's a really good thing.Of course making sure that earthquake status—whether the building is earthquake-prone and whether it's had weathertightness issues. Now these buildings may still be a good buy and there's maybe no reason not to buy them but information is critical: that people know what they're getting into and there's not an opportunity by sleight of hand to deceive an incoming purchaser of what's going on.And of course the other really important part of this bill was the recognition of body corporate managers. And the fact of the matter is that this is an emerging profession and it's one that may well need more scrutiny in the future but at the same time we need to encourage bodies corporate to use professional managers because the task can be complex. Running meetings can be complex resolving disputes can be complex and having a schedule of maintenance is of critical importance that if it's not well managed can lead to a real loss of significant value in the future. So recognising body corporate managers and in larger developments requiring body corporates to either have one or to explicitly opt out of having one is a really good innovation there as well. I think that's going to really help a lot of people. And certainly I have seen in a previous life bodies corporate that weren't well managed and they were managed by the body corporate members in a rather amateurish way. And whilst you can't blame them for not doing the job because they're essentially volunteers doing a very complex task it did lead to some significant complications.Of course the other thing that's really important here is the increased role of the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and the powers of the tribunal so that there can be a degree of compulsion to make sure that bodies corporate do what they're required to do. And I think that is really important. And to give the chief executive of MBIE the power to essentially intervene if body corps are being mismanaged or if individual's rights and interests are being entirely ignored and allowing MBIE essentially or the chief executive of MBIE to be a party to proceedings and to pursue them and prosecute them on an owners' behalf I think that's a really good innovation because there are going to be a lot of body corporate owners—and the retirement village - style complex is a really good example where they may well need someone to stand in their shoes because they haven't got the resources or the wherewithal to get up and do that themselves. So I think that's really good.So in conclusion congratulations to members who have contributed to this. Congratulations to Nicola Willis for pushing it through. It is really important that we have an effective market for unit titles whether they be less dense retirement village - style or in fact the dense apartment-style ones I think this has struck the balance between one-size-fits-all and having some rules which are opt in and opt out depending on whether you're a smaller or larger unit title development. So I'll be keeping a close eye on this. I think there's some regulations underlying it which we can tweak and it's always good to be able to do that and keep up to date in that sense but overall a very very good and innovative improvement to unit title law. I commend it to the House.