Smith NickHon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for Building and Construction): There is absolutely no disagreement on this side of the House of the importance of our homes being insulated of our homes being warm of our homes being drained of our homes being of a proper standard. But what the member introducing this bill Andrew Little has illustrated is that spin and waffle is no substitute for good law. This bill represents everything that is wrong about the Labour Party and its leadership. This bill is slow and late to the cause and will actually slow down the legal requirements for insulating homes across New Zealand. It is a sloppy piece of legislation that is poorly drafted and impractical. If passed it will not result in any—not a single healthier home than we have now. Like so much of Labour Party policy when you look past the spin when you look past the mush they are hollow promises. Let me deal with a number of those issues.Last year this Parliament passed amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act. It specifically requires that every one of our 450000 rental properties be insulated by 1 July 2019. What is the date in this bill? If the member bothered to look at the actual bill it says that the insulation requirement will come into effect 5 years after it is enacted. That means that Labour is saying it is going to give landlords until the year 2022—3 years longer than what the current law requires in terms of insulation. I say to members opposite: how does that in any way make for healthier homes?Then I come to the issues that the member claims—and let me say there are six issues that are listed in respect of regulations that would be required. The regulations under this bill supposedly require methods of heating ventilation draught stopping drainage and for other standards in respect of ensuring that homes are warm and dry. But here is the problem: here are the existing housing regulations which are the law of the land right now. Out of those six things Mr Little five of them are in the current law. Let me read them to the House from the Housing Improvement Regulations. If you look at clause 14: every home shall have efficient drainage for the removal of storm water surface water and ground water. … Every house will be provided with gutters downpipes and drains for the removal of water … every house [will have] adequate space and vents to ensure proper ventilation" to ensure that every house is free of dampness." So five out of the six requirements that Mr Little's bill wants to put in the law are already the law.But then there is one that is not. There is one I accept that is not—that is that the member suggests that Parliament should regulate a minimum indoor temperature for landlords. Think about it. Is it really practical for the Parliament to say to the landlord: "You have got to ensure that your house is at a minimum temperature of 19 degrees."? Any member of this House with even a tiny fraction of intelligence would know that actually whether you close the drapes whether you turn the heater on whether you close the windows and doors will affect the temperature. It is impractical and unworkable for the Parliament to say to the landlord: "You've got to maintain a minimum temperature." Members on this side of the House do say that a landlord has got a responsibility to provide heating in a home and that again is already in the regulations.I am proud of this Government's record on improving the standards of our rental properties. Do we know that they are improving? I think that most members of this House would expect that the Building Research Association of New Zealand is an independent organisation. For the last 30 years it has done a survey every 5 years of the standard of our accommodation and the latest survey shows that over the last 5 years there has been a marked improvement in the quality of our rental accommodation. In fact it shows—and it sets out in this comprehensive report which I would be happy to table—that over the period of the last 5 years we have seen the number of properties that are rented and improved actually improved by a marked 10 percent. This Government is not saying it is good enough. We are wanting to do more but it is headed in the right direction.I want to deal specifically with the issue of insulation. Let us compare the record. During the last Labour Government's 9 years it insulated 35000 homes—35000. The first thing we did when we came to Government is we said "The Government needs to get its own house in order so every one of those 30000 State houses that we own we are going to get on and insulate straight away." and we did so within a period of 2 years. We then brought in the subsidy scheme to rental homes and do you know how many we have insulated? Over 300000 homes—300000 homes—have been insulated under that initiative. Then last year we passed that legislation that requires every home to be insulated by 1 July 2019 and that will insulate a further 180000. I am happy to go to the electorate on 23 September and say: "Ignore the rhetoric. Compare the record." There were 35000 homes insulated under the last Labour Government in 9 years and 380000 insulated under this Government and a programme to get that number to 500000. The last point I want to make is this: let us be honest about the issues of the standards of our rental accommodation. The issue is not the law; the issue is the enforcement of the law—that is every one of those slum properties that members opposite and on our side of the House find unacceptable in terms of leaking or moisture or drainage.Peeni Henare: What are you doing about it?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The members opposite interject and say "What should you do?". What you should do is enforce the law and that is why this Government proudly introduced the compliance and investigation unit. Last year we provided it with a budget. There are over 400 cases of prosecutions before the Tenancy Tribunal as a consequence of that law change that our Government made because it is our view that it is actually the enforcement of the standards that are already in the law that is the key to ensuring that we improve the standards of rental accommodation.I say again: the issue here is not whether you care. The question here is not whether you understand the connection between healthy homes and our society doing better around all those issues that are being debated. The real issue is whether this bill makes any material difference and the answer is that it takes us backwards. Why on earth would any member of this House want to not get homes insulated by 1 July 2019 and stretch it out to 2022? The reality is that Andrew Little is a johnny-come-lately. He has not been at the forefront like on so many issues. On so many issues this Government has the programmes in place to address the issues even before Mr Little is out of the starting blocks.He is too busy having a breather to address the issues that New Zealand needs addressed. The right policy around improving the standards of our residential property is in the bill this Parliament passed over 1 year ago; in the enforcement that is now taking place with the new unit within the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment; and also with the further amendments that are proposed in the residential tenancy bill that is now before a select committee. Again I say that this bill represents everything that is so shallow about the Labour Party and its leader."