O'Connor GregGREG O'CONNOR (Labour—Ōhāriu): I stand very much in support of this bill. It's been interesting listening to the debate today because so many of the issues that we come here to fix are around housing. We talk about health and we talk about so many of the other issues that exist in our society but so many of them come back to housing—to making sure people have somewhere to call home. Now the new Opposition MP Dan Bidois talked about the fact that he's paid his letting fees six times in the last several years—I think he said three years. If that's not evidence of just how unfair this is I don't know what is. Just the unfairness of this: just take the situation where there are two properties for let and that's likely today because of the shortage of properties—and I won't go into that. We had the member from Papakura absolutely taking the opportunity that she seems to on every occasion to rubbish KiwiBuild and to try and sort of build a case against it—as if anyone over there or anywhere could build a case against a programme which is designed to put more houses on the market—and that's what this is about. Of course I realise—coming back to the bill—that it means that the more houses we have the more there will be to rent and this is the whole point. So going back to the situation where you have two people lining up and probably a hundred people looking for flats one of those flats is being rented privately and the person who is successful there—who will no doubt be the best tenant—will not have to pay this fee but the person who is going to where the property is being rented through an agency will have to pay this fee. So what we're actually doing is punishing the best tenants in this particular situation. They are the ones that are going to end up having to pay. The best tenants are the ones that are going to end up having to pay more and I presume my acquaintance Mr Bidois is one of those good tenants. He has had to pay that much more money than if he had gone private. So that's the unfairness around us. The other thing too is of course we're going to now get a generation of renters. I mean the reality of it is that we through KiwiBuild will be doing our best to ensure—we have seen evidence just this week of people who are earning and who are out of the market. Unbelievable isn't it? People who actually have two good incomes still can't get into the market—and I'm sure those who are shaking their heads across the House they go to the market. Already we've talked about how they go out meeting their constituents. They will know this to be a fact. They will know that they have people on two good incomes often with a good deposit who are locked out of the market and these are the very people we're going to bring back in. Coming back to the point of the bill they are the people who even with that will no doubt be a generation that are going to have to rent and what we have to do is ensure that we look after the rights of those people. We have to be flexible as a Parliament. We have to be flexible as legislators to make sure we're making laws now that are going to be relevant for the future. I'm reminded of a friend of mine who lived in a mountain village in Switzerland who had rented. Her mother had rented. They had rights. There was an expectation that they would be able to remain in this house till the day she died—which was in fact the case—because most of the people in that village rented. Again this situation had existed and they had made sure that they took into account the rights of those people and this is what we've got to make sure we do here. So going back to the bill certainly we have to be careful—we know that there are poor tenants and we know there are going to be problem tenants but we've got to make sure that our legislation is not punishing the good tenants and that's exactly what is going to end up happening if we continue this. One of the points brought up was why we don't wait to do a full review of the Residential Tenancies Act. Well if we wait till we do a full review that will be another two or three years—again depending on how long it takes and certainly the for legislation that will go with it—before we actually get this situation rectified. We are in a situation where the majority of younger people hitting the market are going to be renting. They have no more rights now than they had 15 20 or 30 years ago and yet the situation—the rental market; the whole housing situation they'll be going to—has changed completely. So as legislators we owe it to them to make sure we're creating an environment that takes into account that a new Generation Rent is coming on stream. So I stand here proudly to recommend this bill to the House. Again it's not going to be an instant quick fix but it's going to be one of those trends that is going to ensure that we are adapting to the new market which we are in now which sadly is Generation Rent. While we as this Government will build cheaper and while KiwiBuild will succeed—I saw the final-term member for the Wairarapa there yelling across the House that KiwiBuild hasn't achieved anything. All I'll say is to watch this space because I'm proud to stand here and I know that while Rome wasn't built in a day we are still admiring—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yes but we're not talking about KiwiBuild. GREG O'CONNOR: —some very fine buildings called the Colosseum. So I recommend this bill to the House.