Twyford Phil: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTwyford Phil: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 31 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11515. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū): I want to start with the positive aspects of this bill because I always like to be positive when I talk about Nick Smith’s tenure as the Minister for Building and Housing. Let us look at the good things about this bill. The first thing I think that has to be said and acknowledged is that smoke alarms will be in place in 500000 rental properties as a result of this bill. That is a good thing and I will not argue with that at all.This bill does contain some insulation standards and I will talk some more about those standards in the course of this contribution but it is a good thing that there are insulation standards in this bill. The bill establishes the machinery for requiring monitoring and compliance activities for the quality of housing. The role of the Tenancy Tribunal the requirement for the landlord to sign a statement that certifies that the property meets the required standards and all of those things are useful. In fact they will be helpful when Andrew Little’s Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill (No 2) is passed and we need that machinery there to implement decent standards. That is why Labour members are voting for this bill. It is something—it is at least something—but it is just not enough.The second thing I want to say is that this issue of healthy homes is so important. Otago University’s most recent calculation is that New Zealand is hospitalising 50000 children every year primarily because of cold damp and mouldy homes and the toxic cocktail of poverty and overcrowding in poor quality homes. An estimated 15 children a year are dying needless deaths because of the poor quality of New Zealand housing.Generations of young New Zealanders have their lungs permanently scarred from bronchiectasis. We have some of the most shockingly high rates of rheumatic fever of any developed country and that is because of poverty and poor-quality housing. We often talk about these issues in relation to the kids and that is right. We should be ashamed of the way that we are blighting the life chances of young New Zealanders because of poor-quality homes. But we should think about the old people as well. We should think about the thousands and thousands of older New Zealanders all around the country particularly in places like the central North Island and in the colder parts of the South Island where people stay in their pyjamas or in bed all day because they cannot afford to heat their homes in winter. It is a depressing soul destroying thing and New Zealanders should not have to live in those conditions.This bill will be particularly important for children who are growing up in rental properties. It needs to be said that 70 percent of children who are living below the poverty line live in rentals both public and private. Fifty-three percent of children who are living in poverty live in private rentals. Those are the kids who will benefit from this bill but not enough. They are the kids whose life chances could be so enhanced if this bill had decent standards.I want to quote Dr Russell Wills again in this debate because he came to this Parliament and issued a damning indictment of Nick Smith’s lack of ambition and this National Government’s lack of ambition in tackling what is probably one of the most pressing public health challenges this country faces. Dr Wills the outgoing Children’s Commissioner came to the Parliament and said: “When the 2013 Budget came out … Government made a promise to New Zealand children: We will make your house healthy. Three years on from that Budget promise this bill”—which we are debating here tonight—“will do little for children living in cold damp mouldy housing.” He said: “It is a wasted opportunity and a broken promise to our children.” That is our view here on the Labour benches. This bill is a wasted opportunity because Nick Smith is not ambitious for the children of this country who are growing up in cold damp mouldy homes.Why is this bill yet another grudging half measure from this Minister for Building and Housing? It is one of such a long line of grudging half measures: the special housing areas which have delivered only a thousand houses in 3 years; the Crown land initiative which promised thousands of houses on 500 hectares of land and a year later has delivered only 13 hectares and no houses; the promise to remove the tariffs and dumping duties to lower the cost of building materials which has had zero impact on building materials in 2 years; and the brightline test which Treasury said would raise only $5 million and which it is very clear from looking at the Auckland housing market has had zero impact on property speculation and sky-rocketing house prices. This bill is yet another in that long line of grudging half measures.Let us talk about the insulation standard that Dr Smith spoke about. Dr Smith with his lack of ambition for the children of New Zealand is allowing with this bill and the accompanying draft regulations he released hundreds of thousands of rental properties around New Zealand that are insulated to the redundant outdated 1978 insulation standard. With this bill DrSmith is saying to landlords that that is OK. It is OK to continue with a redundant insulation standard instead of upgrading and insulating your rental property to the modern 2008 insulation standard.You are passing a bill Minister so why would you not require the modern insulation standard in every rental property? It is an obvious question. Why would you legislate for a redundant insulation standard? That speaks volumes about Nick Smith and this National Government’s lack of ambition. Dr Smith’s main rationale for not including a modern insulation standard across the board his rationale for not including ventilation or heating—the obvious things that would ensure a house is warm and dry for the people who live in it—is that it would put too much cost on landlords. I can barely cope with the absurdity of Nick Smith’s argument.Think about this: if a landlord has to replace the roof on a house because it is leaking and the water is pouring in on the poor tenants and it costs $20000 to replace that roof is the landlord then going to be able to go and bump up the rent of that house and charge the tenants for fixing the roof? No of course not. If the landlord has to re-pile a house because it is falling down the hill can he charge whatever it costs to re-pile the house? Can he charge that to the tenants and try to recoup it from their rent? Of course he cannot. Rents are set by supply and demand; it is not up to the landlords. They are not able to just bump up the rent to recoup whatever expenditure they have outlaid to keep that house up to scratch. Rents are set by supply and demand and if landlords do unreasonably put the cost of the rent up the tenant will simply go down the road.We have been arguing throughout this debate that heating should have been included in the standards. A heat pump would cost a landlord $3000 to put in and that expense would have a lifetime of 15 years which is about the average lifetime for a modern heat pump. Over that period a rental property will generate between $300000 and $400000 for the landlord in gross revenue. So that is $3000 for a heat pump and gross revenue over that same period of time for the landlord of $300000 to $400000 depending on where you are in New Zealand. That is not an unreasonable expense.I say again to the House that we know from credible New Zealand - based research that every dollar you spend on retrofitting a house to make it warm and dry will save $5 to $6 in public health expenditure. With this bill Nick Smith is standing alongside and siding with slum landlords—the bottom end of the rental market—who are happy to rent out houses that are cold damp and mouldy and are a risk to the health of their tenants. This Parliament will have the opportunity to vote for Andrew Little’s bill again very shortly and see it through this House. We will set decent standards for heating ventilation and insulation and we will ensure that every rental property in this country is warm and dry.