Faafoi KrisRESIDENTIAL TENANCIES AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingHon KRIS FAAFOI (Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing)): I move That the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill be now read a second time.Firstly I want to thank the Social Services and Community Committee for its consideration of the 1436 submissions on the bill from 1246 submitters. Many of these were also supplemented by oral submissions and I also want to thank submitters for their valuable contributions. Mr Speaker—or Madam Speaker; that was quick—the select committee held hearings during the alert level 4 lockdown via Zoom and I appreciate submitters taking the time to be involved under these unusual circumstances.Since the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) came into force over 30 years ago our homeownership rates have declined and the proportion of households living in the rental market has increased significantly. More people including families and older people are renting for longer or for life. This bill aligns New Zealand's rental laws with the present-day realities of renting in New Zealand. It ensures that there are appropriate protections in place both for tenants and for landlords. The changes in the bill will improve tenant security and stability while continuing to protect landlords' interests in their property. The changes also balance the rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords and modernise the legislation so that it can respond to the changing trends of the rental market.The committee has by majority recommended the bill be reported back to the House with proposed amendments and the Government has accepted these amendments. I will briefly outline these changes today and I would again like to thank the select committee members for their productive and thoughtful contributions. Firstly I want to outline an exemption that the committee has added to the Residential Tenancies Act so that it does not apply to transitional and emergency housing where this housing is funded either by a Government department or under a special needs grant programme. Emergency and transitional housing is a short-term safe place—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): Sorry to interrupt the—I'm finding it really difficult to hear the contribution from the Hon Kris Faafoi. Could members please have a conversation in the lobby. Thank you—sorry.Hon KRIS FAAFOI: —thank you Madam Speaker—to stay while longer-term accommodation can be found. There is an existing exemption in the RTA for temporary or transient housing but the length of time that some clients are now remaining in these services make it unclear where the exemption does and does not apply. This change to the bill clarifies the legal position of emergency and transitional housing. The Residential Tenancies Act notice requirements do not align well with the purpose of transitional and emergency accommodation where the intention is for clients to move to more permanent housing as soon as this can be arranged. The new exemption helps ensure that providers can continue to provide this valuable service to people who need a safe place to stay.I also intend to address some further issues through a Supplementary Order Paper in my name. Some of the submitters to the select committee drew attention to family violence as an area where tenants' rights could be further improved. The Government has listened to these concerns and we intend to add further amendments to the bill to allow a victim of family violence to leave a tenancy quickly by providing the landlord with a family violence termination notice. As I'm sure everyone in this House will agree with family violence in all its forms is unacceptable. I also intend to include further provision in the Supplementary Order Paper allowing landlords to issue termination notices where the tenant has committed physical assault on either the landlord a family member of the landlord or an agent of the landlord.As part of a Supplementary Order Paper I also intend to extend some provisions from the COVID-19 legislation. The RTA was amended to provide greater flexibility for the Tenancy Tribunal's operations in recognition of the need to hold tribunal hearings by teleconference during alert levels 3 and 4. I intend to extend these provisions for a further six months from the current expiry date of 25 September in order to allow the tribunal to hold a greater number of hearings and therefore reduce waiting times.The committee had also made some more minor technical amendments to the bill and these optimise the bill and will ensure that it will be effective to achieve the outcomes we're seeking in the rental market. Employers offering a serviced tenancy as part of an employment agreement will now be exempt from the obligation to state the amount of rent when advertising and the requirement for a landlord to permit and facilitate the installation of fibre in certain circumstances has been improved through some minor technical changes. Some amendments have also been made to the provisions for termination by notice so that an action showing that the ground is being exercised must now occur within 90 days—one example of this is where a landlord wishes to terminate a tenancy to allow a family member to move in that family member must move in within 90 days.Provisions for termination and transfer in social housing tenancies have also been clarified and the ability to transfer a social housing tenant to another tenancy has been amended to align it with the Public and Community Housing Management Act of 1992. An amendment has also been made so that where the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment takes a case to the Tenancy Tribunal as the regulator on behalf of a party that party's name will automatically be anonymised. In some cases tenants may not be aware that a case has been taken up on their behalf and we would not wish them to be potentially disadvantaged for future tenancy applications.The bill also provides that landlords with six or more tenancies would be subject to higher infringement fees and pecuniary penalties and amendments to the bill will clarify who counts as an associated person and whose tenancies will therefore count towards the landlord's number of tenancies. The amendments reflect submitters' concerns that the original definition of an associated person in the bill was too wide. The Regulations Review Committee recommended that the bill should include guidelines as to the exercise or the regulation-making power to specify infringement notices and the committee has therefore added a requirement that the Minister responsible for the Residential Tenancies Act consult with the Minister of Justice on any new proposed infringement offences before recommending any regulations.This bill along with the changes made by the committee will improve security and wellbeing for approximately 600000 households that live in rented homes in New Zealand. In conclusion I recommend this bill to the House.