O'Rourke DenisDENIS O'ROURKE (NZ First): If the last member who spoke Simon O'Connor was ever to become a Minister I think he should be allocated the Ministry of Awful Attitudes" because that is all we heard from him throughout the entirety of his speech. It is those awful attitudes that have resulted in one of the most disappointing approaches to any subject that this Government has pursued. And it is especially disappointing that the Government and the ACT member as well David Seymour have blocked this bill from making any real progress through the select committee process. That is in the face of hundreds of submissions and yes we should include the standard form submissions because they are from real people. And the fact that they have the same—Simon O'Connor: Really?DENIS O'ROURKE: Yes. Really Mr O'Connor really—real people with good attitudes as distinct from your awful attitudes. And those people had a right whether they use a standard form or not to express their views and those views are diametrically opposed to National's attitudes and policies in this area. They have been ignored by National they have been ignored by Mr O'Connor and National should be ashamed of itself.Those people made submissions because like most people in New Zealand society whether they rent properties or not they do want to see an improvement in the quality of rental properties so that they are warm and dry and healthy by being required to be adequately heated and well ventilated and insulated up to modern-day standards. That is really all this bill is about—nothing fancier than that. Tenants and the Government itself through the accommodation supplement payments deserve a product in terms of a liveable tenancy that is fit for purpose. Far far too many of them these days are not. And the stories about that have been on TV. They have been in the news media many many times. It proves that it is just the tip of the iceberg and that this is a huge problem that this Government has not even begun to address. I do not believe for one moment the speeches I heard from Matt Doocey and from the other members opposite as though the current regulations actually achieve anything in this area. Demonstrably clearly and unmistakably they do not. But it does not need to be that way—it does not need to be that way.We in New Zealand First agree with this bill because it fairly requires landlords to upgrade properties over a reasonable period of time to acceptable standards. These are not sentiments as Mr O'Connor said of them. They are simply good and proper standards that should actually already be required and we now need regulation to do that and that is what this bill does.The bill requires the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment to objectively set minimum standards for both heating and insulation and there is nothing wrong with a bill requiring that to be done in the future in an objective way by a Government department. All of that work can be properly done and brought forward as a result of this bill. I think it is a good way of going about it rather than us as MPs trying to do so comprehensively in a member's bill. I think it is a very good way of going about it.All of that is of course what is missing in current legislation. It is precisely what the Government failed to do in its residential tenancies legislation. It had the opportunity then to do it. When you look at the arguments that were then put forward by Government members as to why they were not done they were rather pathetic arguments. They did not amount to any genuine reason why landlords should not within a reasonable period of time be required to come up to properly established standards. That is actually all the bill does. In fact it effectively gives 5 years for that to happen.I think that would be a very effective way of achieving the objective. It provides landlords with a reasonable period of time to comply. Good landlords would have no difficulty in doing so. Good landlords would be happy to do so. They want to provide a good product and those who do not should either get out of the market or come up to the standards that are required.It cannot be overstated how important the need for those standards is because of the need to drastically improve health outcomes and provide for much better use of energy. By the way if Mr O'Connor was still here I would point out that those are costs—Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: No the member is not allowed to make reference to a person's presence or otherwise in the House.DENIS O'ROURKE: I understand—I understand that. I would say to Mr O'Connor that he should look at this as an opportunity for savings in terms of energy not as a cost as he thought it exclusively was. In addition to all of that of course this is one of the ways in which a contribution can be made to our Paris climate change commitments.I would like to also just add this at this stage. There are already many community organisations and commercial companies that are working for the same objectives. I would like to mention a couple. I recently visited Community Energy Action in Christchurch. That organisation provides free advice for tenants homeowners and landlords on heating and insulation. It has a huge storage facility for good quality used drapes and curtains. It provides a repair and alterations service. It also tests properties for heat loss and gives advice on how to make a home warmer and drier.I also recently visited the opening of Pro Clima a factory in Auckland which is going to be providing in the New Zealand market for new properties and much better high-tech insulation systems for new homes using advanced membranes and fittings to hermetically seal homes together with an advanced system for heating. It also provides training for people to install those systems.All of these new technologies are there. They are cost-effective they save energy and they are brilliant when it comes to heating homes and providing for insulation. That applies to both new and existing properties. All of these technologies are arriving—more and more every day. They are the sorts of technologies that landlords would be able to afford and they would find that it is well worthwhile them doing so because in doing so they are also improving the value of their properties. Any landlord would be interested in that.What is actually missing here is genuine Government leadership. The Government could be doing things like for example providing some tax breaks for landlords who invest in those systems. It could for example allow landlords to write off for tax the full amount in any year—the amount incurred in insulating homes and bringing homes up to an adequate standard of heating. Landlords would then get a financial boost as well and why not? If they are going to invest why does the Government not encourage them in those sorts of ways?But most of all there does need to be a firm regulatory regime to establish a level playing field and a workable set of effective standards so that all landlords know the level to which they need to provide good insulation and good healthy dry warm homes.If there was a message for the Government to come out of all this it is that most people do not think that it is doing nearly enough. After all for so many people these days homeownership is out of the question and they are going to end up living for very long terms in rental properties. They need those to be good quality warm dry properties. The vast majority of New Zealanders do want to see the Government do more and I am flabbergasted that it is simply not willing to listen to them or to anybody else and to do a lot more when it is so easily done. This bill is a good start. The Government should be supporting it instead of trying to knock it out."