Williams PotoHon POTO WILLIAMS (Minister for Building and Construction): Thank you Mr Chair and I thank you for the opportunity to speak this morning. First off can I just say aroha nui to Christchurch for this morning waking up to the fact that we have two positive COVID cases in Christchurch. It really does bring home the reason that we are doing this mahi today: that our responses to COVID have to be swift and there are some times when we are able to put in responses after the event but there are some times when we are given the opportunity in which to prepare as a Government and as a Parliament and as local members of Parliament for things that may happen which are outside of our control. Unfortunately sadly we have had that experience happen to us in Christchurch today knowing that we have to now make some decisions about how we move forward to ensure that all of our communities are safe. So just aroha nui to our whānau and friends in Christchurch and across the Canterbury region.I want to have the opportunity to speak to the Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) that was put up by the Hon Julie Anne Genter in relation to the changes to Schedule 5 the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) changes. She made some really useful points and I want to just say to her that the issues that she raised were issues that our officials also had as a part of the discussion and that Ministers also had an opportunity to discuss. The issues that she raises in SOP 70 are primarily about the changes that we make with regards to turning off the clock for terminations for residential terminations and then being able to allow for once we are out of level 4 lockdown a top up of 28 days for termination so that if for whatever reason tenants aren't able to continue with being able to move to a new property they are given a top-up period to allow them to go and seek new accommodation and view it.The reason that we are not supporting the Hon Genter's proposal about having that extended into level 3 is that when we're in an alert level 3 environment it's quite different to level 4 because in level 3 you are able to go and view properties; you are able to make contact with potential landlords and view those properties which is quite different from a level 4 setting where you're required to stay at home you cannot view properties you cannot actually move from your home—you're actually required to stay at home. In level 3 those restrictions are lifted you are able to view properties and you are able to move into those properties. So for that reason we are not supporting the provisions as outlined in SOP 70.The other matter that the Hon Genter raises is the matter of ceasing to have any rent increases in an alert level 4 environment. You may recall that when we made changes to the RTA one of the changes that we made was to limit the number of rent increases that a landlord could make on a property in any 12-month period to one. So in any 12-month period the landlord is only able to increase the rent once. So for that reason because you can only increase the rent once in a 12-month period we thought that we don't need to provide any extra support around rental increases because those provisions have already been taken care of in a piece of work prior to this. So we are not supporting the SOP. However we are very supportive of having this discussion and I thank the Hon Genter for raising these matters with us and for her ongoing support of the RTA changes in Schedule 5 as part of this bill. Thank you Mr Chair.