Turei MetiriaMETIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green): What makes a house a home? What is it that makes a house a home? It is things like having your kids' birthday parties in the backyard. It is things like planting a vege garden for you and your family and to share with your community. It is a photo album full of the years of tears and laughter in the house that you have made a home where you and your family have been safe and secure.New Zealanders need safe and secure rental homes in which to raise their kids put down roots and build a decent life. There are families in Aotearoa who have never and will never own their own home. They will rent their whole lives and the chances are so will their children. We need to do what is right and help them make their rental house a home—a home for them and their children. Why is this so important? We have always had renting in Aotearoa New Zealand. Well it is because renting is growing at twice the rate of homeownership in Aotearoa. Over half a million households now rent their home—it is a third of all households in this country. In just the last year there were 13700 more renting households than owner-occupied households of which there were only 6000 new ones in the last 12 months. Renting has become the new normal for Aotearoa New Zealand. Families cannot afford to buy their own home so they are raising their kids from little babies to high school in rental houses. They need to be able to build from that rental house a home even if they do rent the property itself from someone else. It is still their home in which their kids live and should thrive.We must modernise our renting legislation so that it meets the growing needs of families who need safe and secure rental homes. This is the principle on which my member's bill has been based. It is due for its first reading soon—possibly as soon as next week. It is building a law that meets these 21st century challenges for families who will rent for their whole lives. My bill makes modest changes to the Residential Tenancies Act—only modest changes—so that renters will have a real chance to turn their rented house into a home where they can raise their children and be safe and secure.Under my bill renters will have certainty about how much the rent will go up and when it will go up. They will have certainty about staying long term in the home that they have created for the sake of their kids. They will not have to pay fees to land agents just for the privilege of renting a home. They will not have to fear being kicked out with just a few weeks' notice and nowhere else to go. That is the uncertainty that families today are living with—families who have children to raise and lives to lead are living with this constant uncertainty that they will lose their rented house. Families can make their rental house their home if my bill succeeds when it comes up for its first reading.Renting can no longer be the second-rate option for New Zealand. If we modernise the tenancy rules to provide more secure and stable renting—stable long-term tenancies are great for both tenants and for landlords. Properties get looked after better when tenants can truly call these houses their homes. Landlords can develop great relationships with their tenants so that they are both invested in maintaining a healthy quality home. When families can trust that they will not be kicked out with just a few weeks' notice and when landlords know that their tenants will care for their property because it is their home we will have a much more secure and sensible renting situation in this country. So let us change the laws so that those good relationships between landlords and tenants are formed and are protected. Let us do what is right to help renting families make their house their home. Thank you.