Twyford PhilHEALTHY HOMES GUARANTEE BILL (NO 2)In CommitteeClause 1 TitleHon PHIL TWYFORD (Minister of Housing and Urban Development): Thank you Madam Chair. It's a great pleasure to stand in the Chamber today for the beginning of the committee stage of the Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill (No 2). Labour is very proud to be bringing this bill to the committee. It is a bill that has been making its way through the parliamentary system for some time. It had its start in life as a member's bill that I was proud to bring to this House. It didn't make it all the way through three stages and it found new life under the sponsorship of the now Hon Andrew Little and we have since taking Government made what was a member's bill which passed its second reading at the end of the last parliamentary term a Government bill.This Government is committed to making life better for renters and there are some very important reasons for that. Given the falling rate of homeownership now more than half of all New Zealanders rent and yet we have some of the most archaic tenancy laws in the Western World. One of the most damaging things that face renters in this country is the appalling quality of much of the housing stock—the poor quality of that housing stock. The fact that more than half of our population are more than likely to be living in cold and damp homes is responsible for the fact that in this country some 1600 mostly older New Zealanders die premature deaths every winter. The reason? Cold damp homes and the fact that so many of them simply cannot afford to heat their homes.Every year more than 40000 children in this country are packed off to hospital hospitalised with respiratory and infectious diseases that leave them in many cases with permanent lung damage shortened life expectancy and a lifelong tendency towards respiratory illness. It's time that we dragged the housing stock in this country kicking and screaming into the 21st century. The passage of this bill when it becomes law and we set clear enforceable minimum standards that will ensure that rental properties in this country are warm and dry will amount to I believe the single most important public health reform we can make in this country at this time.I want to acknowledge the fact that every new Government often in many cases builds on the work that was done by previous Governments and I perhaps more than anyone have criticised in this House the record of the past National Government when it came to housing policy. But I want to acknowledge that under the tenure of the Hon Dr Nick Smith efforts were made in this area. After years and years of campaigning advocacy some of the finest public health research done by the University of Otago's healthy homes team and a tidal shift in public awareness and thinking about the importance of warm dry homes the former National Government did actually move. They passed an amendment to the 1986 Residential Tenancies Act last year that put in place some standards that required a level of insulation in rental properties and a requirement for smoke alarms in rental properties and importantly established an enforcement mechanism that would give the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) the responsibility to enforce those standards.We criticised it at the time because it did not go far enough and we stand by that. I think probably it was about 30 percent of the job done. What this bill does—the Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill (No 2)—is it finishes the job. It does a decent job because rather than just setting standards for insulation it sets standards also for ventilation drainage dampness and moisture. All of those things are critical because I think everybody realises it's not enough just to insulate a home. If you insulate a cold home it's still a cold home. If you insulate a damp home it's still a damp home and that's the critical thing. We have to take into account those other factors because ventilation draught stopping moisture drainage—these are all critical factors but the most important factor other than insulation is to have a fixed modern efficient and affordable heating source. That's one of the things that this bill will achieve.Now the mechanism in this bill is that the bill when passed into law will give the Government of the day the power to make regulations by Order in Council—to set standards. We don't want the politicians having to pass a law every time the standards need to be updated but the legislation gives a clear direction that standards for insulation heating moisture control drainage and ventilation will be set by the Government of the day and regularly updated. The second key thing is that we build on the enforcement mechanism that currently sits in the Residential Tenancies Act but we give the chief executive of MBIE—the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment—the mandate to undertake proactive investigations and risk-based auditing to ensure that the standards are being met in rental properties.There were many submitters at the select committee who came to us and said a complaint-based system is simply not realistic. Given the nature of the rental market especially when you have a tight rental market like we have now most tenants simply will not complain because they're scared of being moved on down the road. So we have to have a system that goes further than just being based on the complaints of tenants and actually provides Government with the mandate—not the opportunity; it doesn't allow them to do it. It mandates risk-based auditing and investigations by a team within MBIE to make sure that the standards are being met.Under this legislation there is an 18-month commencement period so the regulations will take effect from 1 July 2019. There is the opportunity in the regulation-making process for a further grace period if it's deemed that landlords or certain groups within the landlord community may require an additional period once the regulations have been published to prepare themselves for compliance. Then the way it works is that from that point on once the regulations themselves take effect every new tenancy agreement will have to contain a certification by the landlord that this property meets the standards of the regulations contained in association with the Healthy Homes Guarantee Act.We know that tenancies turn over very quickly in this country. We know that the average tenancy is less than a year but we have allowed a full five-year implementation period so that any tenancy agreement that hasn't turned over within that five-year period will have to comply at the end of five years. But we expect probably at the end of two years probably two-thirds or three-quarters of all tenancies will have to have complied.I look forward to this debate. I'm looking forward to hearing the questions and the comments from Opposition members. I think this is a bill that the whole Parliament can be proud of. This as I said will amount to the single most important public health reform that we can make in this country and alongside the other elements of Labour's housing reform programme this will transform housing policy in this country. And next year when we review the Residential Tenancies Act to deliver more security of tenure to renters alongside this bill which will overhaul the quality of rental housing in this country it will amount to a very significant improvement in the lives of renters.