Radhakrishnan PriyancaRESIDENTIAL TENANCIES AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingDebate resumed.PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. It is actually with great pride that I rise to take a call on this bill because this is a bill that ultimately will rebalance some of the power imbalance that we see between landlords and tenants.I want to begin though by responding to a couple of points made by the previous speaker Simon O'Connor. One of the things he went on and on about was the idea of kindness and that somehow on this side of the House we were being unkind because we were intending to make some changes through Supplementary Order Papers (SOPs) that the Minister plans to table and for some reason that was incredibly unkind. The member mentioned that even though members opposite didn't actually know what were in the SOPs they were likely to vote against them. What they would be voting against are provisions to help victim-survivors of family violence to actually be able to leave a tenancy. So that is an incredibly disappointing attitude for members opposite and I would urge them to perhaps reconsider what kindness actually means.We had a number of submissions we had over 1400 submissions that were made and there were a few submissions in there from the likes of the National Collective of Women's Refuges and also Rural Women New Zealand who made the point very clearly that there were other jurisdictions that had some very strong provisions in legislation to ensure that the rights of victim-survivors of violence were protected through similar legislation. I don't think to be fair that there were any members on the Social Services and Community Committee who would oppose that but there were some of us on the select committee—particularly those of us who have worked in the sector—supporting victim-survivors of violence who were very keen for those changes to be made as a result of the submitters' oral and written submissions. I for one on this side of the House am incredibly pleased and I commend the Minister for taking those changes on board and incorporating them into the legislation.So we might quibble about the way in which it's being achieved but the fact that it's being achieved through this legislation is the point that I want to make and it will make life fairer for those who are trying to get out of tenancies but couldn't do so because they were victims of family violence and their name was on the lease. Because of the way in which legislation stands at the moment they are actually unable to get out. So this will actually make things better for them.Just very quickly because I think the Minister has outlined the changes that will be brought in as a result of this the point of this legislation is that we're seeing an increasing number of people who are renting. Long-term renting needs to become a viable option for them. It is not currently and to be able to achieve that we need to improve security of tenure and that's what this bill does. It aims to achieve a better balance between the rights responsibilities and protections for both landlords and tenants. So while members opposite might want to paint or build a narrative that Government members are doing this to somehow be punitive towards landlords that's absolutely untrue.The changes that this bill will bring about—and they've been outlined already by the Minister—I'll just point to one. The ending of no-cause terminations because we have heard from submitters during the select committee process that many of them are being asked to leave tenancies and landlords because of legislation that currently stands don't have to give a reason for that. So we don't have data on how many people have been thrown out of their houses for reasons that are possibly not reasons that we would consider fair in the current day. So that's the kind of change that this bill will bring about. At the end of the day it's about the right that everyone has to housing—to have a warm dry safe home and that's what on this side of the House we believe in strongly. Thank you.