edithatogo/nz-hansard-corpus huggingface dataset:
Little Andrew: Points of Order — Personal Reflections and Unparliamentary Language—Withdrawal and ApologyText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLittle Andrew: Points of Order — Personal Reflections and Unparliamentary Language—Withdrawal and Apology[Sitting date: 09 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8683. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition): I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. In recent weeks statements have been made by members on this side of the House about you which reflected upon you. I wish to draw to the attention of this House that correspondence has gone to the chair of the Privileges Committee today accepting that those comments were unparliamentary and expressing regret for them—all of which demonstrate that this House is capable of acting if not in the spirit of Christmas then in the spirit of the Bloody Red Baron.
Key John: Points of Order — Personal Reflections and Unparliamentary Language—Withdrawal and ApologyText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKey John: Points of Order — Personal Reflections and Unparliamentary Language—Withdrawal and Apology[Sitting date: 09 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8683. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. During question time on 10 November in response to a supplementary question on question No. 1 I made a comment about the Opposition that caused offence. Subsequently the matter has been raised several other times in the House. I have reflected on my comments and on this the last sitting day of the year and so close to Christmas I would like to withdraw and apologise for that response.
Carter David: Visitors — Australia—Senator Bridget McKenzie SenateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCarter David: Visitors — Australia—Senator Bridget McKenzie Senate[Sitting date: 09 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8683. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Mr SPEAKER: Honourable members I am sure that members would wish to welcome Senator Bridget McKenzie Senator for Victoria in the Australian Senate who is present in the gallery.
Visitors — Australia—Senator Bridget McKenzie Senator VictoriaText is subject to correctionVisitors — Australia—Senator Bridget McKenzie Senator Victoria[Sitting date: 09 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:1. Text is subject to correction.]Wednesday 9 DECEMBER 2015Mr Speaker took the Chair at 2 p.m.Prayers.VisitorsAustralia—Senator Bridget McKenzie Senator VictoriaMr SPEAKER: Honourable members I am sure that members would wish to welcome Senator Bridget McKenzie Senator for Victoria in the Australian Senate who is present in the gallery.
Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill Legislation (Confirmable Instruments) Amendment Bill — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSubordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill Legislation (Confirmable Instruments) Amendment Bill — Third Readings[Sitting date: 09 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8716. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) BillLegislation (Confirmable Instruments) Amendment BillThird ReadingsHon GERRY BROWNLEE (Leader of the House): I move That the Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill and the Legislation (Confirmable Instruments) Amendment Bill be now read a third time.Bills read a third time.
Statutes Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeStatutes Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 09 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8715. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Statutes Amendment BillFirst ReadingHon GERRY BROWNLEE (Leader of the House) on behalf of theAssociate Minister of Justice: I move That the Statutes Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Government Administration Committee to consider the bill. As the House will be aware the Statutes Amendment Bill is a legislative vehicle that makes it possible for minor technical and non-controversial amendments to be made to a number of Acts at once. It allows amendments to be made that would not usually receive sufficient priority to be progressed individually. This is achieved with the support of all parties in Parliament.The bill amends 28 Acts administered by 13 different Government agencies. Many of the amendments are designed to correct drafting errors omissions or incorrect references. Some amendments are non-controversial and support refinements to machinery provisions. Although all political parties in the Parliament support the amendments proposed in the bill I look forward to hearing the committee’s examination and views on these matters as well as the views of the public. I look forward to the passage of the bill through all its stages and working constructively with parties as the bill is put together in the future. I commend the bill to the House.CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka): I want to give a very brief contribution in the debate on the Statutes Amendment Bill which the Labour Party will be supporting. I want to assure any members of the public who are watching this debate that the 28 different Acts being amended will be given the scrutiny they deserve at the Government Administration Committee. This is an efficient way for the Parliament to deal with quite an array of technical minor and almost in some cases what would seem to be relatively trivial matters without choking up a huge amount of the House’s time. Therefore I do not see any need to choke up a huge amount of the House’s time contributing much more to the debate that we are having at the moment other than—Hon Gerry Brownlee: Other than? Oh—other than.CHRIS HIPKINS: —some people want to go home—simply to say that we will ensure that there is sufficient scrutiny of it.Perhaps I could also point out to Government members sitting opposite that many of the members’ bills that seem to have appeared in the ballot of late could well be advanced much more efficiently and promptly were they part of a Statutes Amendment Bill such is the lack of controversy surrounding many of those pieces of proposed legislation.Bill read a first time.Bill referred to the Government Administration Committee.
Points of Order — Personal Reflections and Unparliamentary Language—Withdrawal and ApologyText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePoints of Order — Personal Reflections and Unparliamentary Language—Withdrawal and Apology[Sitting date: 09 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8683. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Points of OrderPersonal Reflections and Unparliamentary Language—Withdrawal and ApologyRt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. During question time on 10 November in response to a supplementary question on question No. 1 I made a comment about the Opposition that caused offence. Subsequently the matter has been raised several other times in the House. I have reflected on my comments and on this the last sitting day of the year and so close to Christmas I would like to withdraw and apologise for that response.ANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition): I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. In recent weeks statements have been made by members on this side of the House about you which reflected upon you. I wish to draw to the attention of this House that correspondence has gone to the chair of the Privileges Committee today accepting that those comments were unparliamentary and expressing regret for them—all of which demonstrate that this House is capable of acting if not in the spirit of Christmas then in the spirit of the Bloody Red Baron.Mr SPEAKER: I thank the member sincerely.
Visitors — Australia—Senator Bridget McKenzie SenateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeVisitors — Australia—Senator Bridget McKenzie Senate[Sitting date: 09 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8683. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Wednesday 9 December 2015Mr Speaker took the Chair at 2 p.m.Prayers.VisitorsAustralia—Senator Bridget McKenzie SenateMr SPEAKER: Honourable members I am sure that members would wish to welcome Senator Bridget McKenzie Senator for Victoria in the Australian Senate who is present in the gallery.
Vote: Education Legislation Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeVote: Education Legislation Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8675. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]A party vote was called for on the question That the Education Legislation Bill be now read a first time.Ayes 63New Zealand National 59; Māori Party 2; ACT New Zealand 1; United Future 1.Noes 58New Zealand Labour 32; Green Party 14; New Zealand First 12.Bill read a first time.Bill referred to the Education and Science Committee.
Vote: Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeVote: Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8657. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]A party vote was called for on the question That the Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill be now read a first time.Ayes 109New Zealand National 59; New Zealand Labour 32; Green Party 14; Māori Party 2; ACT New Zealand 1; United Future 1.Noes 12New Zealand First 12.Bill read a first time.Bill referred to the Finance and Expenditure Committee.
Vote: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeVote: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8623. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]A party vote was called for on the question That the New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill be read a first time.Ayes 95New Zealand National 59; New Zealand Labour 32; Māori Party 2; ACT New Zealand 1; United Future 1.Noes 26Green Party 14; New Zealand First 12.Bill read a first time.Bill referred to the Health Committee.
Dowie Sarah: Civil Defence Emergency Management Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDowie Sarah: Civil Defence Emergency Management Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8680. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SARAH DOWIE (National—Invercargill):It is my pleasure to take this short call on the Civil Defence Emergency Management Amendment Bill which is being referred to the Government Administration Committee. I think that as we move towards the adjournment for this year this bill is another example of the Government streamlining and beefing up a framework of civil defence legislation to solve real problems that are faced in New Zealand and to work towards building more resilient communities.As the Ministersaid earlier this bill is focused on moderate events that usually occur with our extreme weather conditions such as the Manawatū floods and those floodsin Dunedin talked about by the member opposite Clare Curran. In particular it is focused on the recovery work—the recovery phase of these emergency events. In particular what this bill does is it establishes recovery managers and gives them powers duties and a role to deal with that transitional phase between first response and recovery and a mandate to manage and coordinate that recovery which is often an expensive phase and often takes some time.It gives an ability to work through that recovery phase expediently and efficiently.As such transition notices are one such tool and as part of those transition notices the legislation gives recovery managers the opportunity to prevent people from entering on to land or into areas that may or could be dangerous in order to obviously preserve human life. The second thing that the legislation allows the recovery managers to do is to conserve fuel. Fuel consumption in isolated communities accessibility and getting to and from that isolated community is important. Finally shoring up dangerous structures where those structures could pose a danger to human life or other property is a very important tool in dealing with the recovery phase. As I said before recovery takes time and it is often expensive and we need to give our people on the ground the tools to work through the recovery phase as swiftly as possible. These tools allow us to build more resilient communities when these moderate events are faced to work through them and get through them expediently. With that I commend this bill to the House.
Tisch Lindsay: Civil Defence Emergency Management Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTisch Lindsay: Civil Defence Emergency Management Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8678. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I am sorry but the Minister’s time has expired.
Smith Stuart: Education Legislation Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSmith Stuart: Education Legislation Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8674. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]STUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura): E Te Mana Whakawā Tuarua tēnā koe. The Education Legislation Bill has clearly identified a philosophical divide across the House. The absolute bottom line on this on this side of the House is that it is actually all about the students—quite a novel concept with the students being the centre of education! I congratulate the Minister of Education the Hon Hekia Parata on being bold enough to actually get in and put a bill forward that is going to make a big difference to education.I have 54 schools in my electorate. It is really obvious when you get around a number of schools that there are some that do a better job than others and it comes down to the people at the top running the school. To have a principal who is more than capable of running more than one school get out there and actually make a difference in students’ lives if the community and the students and the parents in that community want that to happen—why would you not want that to happen? I cannot understand that. It is not about the kids if that is what you are worried about. Actually having flexibility in opening hours is all about education for the actual situation that you are talking about in that community. It is with that that I commend what is one of the better pieces of legislation I have seen in a long time come to this House. Thank you.
Hudson Brett: Education Legislation Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHudson Brett: Education Legislation Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8673. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BRETT HUDSON (National): I rise in support of the Education Legislation Bill. I am stunned listening to the Oppositionthis evening particularly the Labour members. I recall the words uttered by my colleague and friend Chris Bishop in this House just a couple of months ago when he pointed out that the Labour Party has become a mere shadow of its former self not just in numbers of members but as a party that fears change and that runs scared of any due progress. That is now a party of ultra-conservatives. The only genuine reforming parties in this House are the National Party and the ACT Party. They are the ones that know and put the achievement of our students in school ahead of fear of change. They are parties that are not scared to make good change in order to make progress in students’ educational attainment.Labour is now backed up by the Greens I see who are so scared of something that has been working since the year 2000—that is principals being in charge of more than one school—that they now want to stop the practice. So they are catching up to Labour in that sense.This Government believes in progress. It believes in good education for our children. I commend this bill to the House.
Tisch Lindsay: Education Legislation Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTisch Lindsay: Education Legislation Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8672. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): David Seymour—5 minutes.
Tisch Lindsay: Education Legislation Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTisch Lindsay: Education Legislation Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8670. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): The next call is a split call. Gareth Hughes—5 minutes.
Lee Melissa: Education Legislation Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLee Melissa: Education Legislation Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8670. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MELISSA LEE (National): Mr Assistant Speaker—[Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! I want to hear Melissa Lee.MELISSA LEE: I was a little bit slow in getting up and I apologise for that. I had not quite realised that Miss Tracey Martin had finished. I understand her passion and I believe her passion comes from having actually sat on a school board.Thank you for the opportunity to take a short call in support of this bill. Unlike Miss Tracey Martin I think it is actually a great bill. I do not understand why Miss Martin thinks we have not consulted or we are not going to be consulting. I thought the whole point about legislation going to a select committee is that it is opened up for the public to make a submission to the committee to see whether they can improve it show they hate it or put forward their recommendations for the select committee to consider.This bill the Education Legislation Bill is a key piece of omnibus legislation. Indeed it is the first of its kind in over 25 years. I am pleased that I can have the opportunity to take a short call on this. This bill is being proposed because this Government is committed to ensuring that every New Zealander can have the same opportunities within our education system as part of our aspirational country. I would like to commend the amazing Minister of Education. I have never seen anybody as passionate as Minister Parata about education and the future of our children. I also commend the parliamentary—actually the private secretary Mr Seymour on this as well.This bill when passed will see a number of changes designed to reinforce and promote the best possible learning approaches for our nation’s children and raise achievement for students wherever they are learning around New Zealand. These changes include the ability for communities and their schools to make schooling hours more flexible for their students as well as new tools for better support of the partnership and kura hourua schools programme which we successfully implemented during the last term of this Government.This bill also will support better online learning through the national student numbers which will work as an identification code supporting participation and innovative online learning. My whip was just looking at me so I think she wants me to wrap it up. This is a great bill and I commend the bill to the House because the quicker we get on with it the quicker we will consider it in the select committee. I look forward to this bill coming to the Education and Science Committee in the new year.
Foster-Bell Paul: Education Legislation Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFoster-Bell Paul: Education Legislation Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8665. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PAUL FOSTER-BELL (National): E Te Mana Whakawā Tuarua tēnā koe. Tēnā koutou katoa. As much as I like and respect the member Jenny Salesa I pity her for having to recite and parrot such absolute ideological bilge in this House. This is a Government that cares very much about the education of New Zealand’s children our future generations. I want to congratulate the Minister of Education the Hon Hekia Parata who has an unrelenting focus on achievement in our education system.In supporting this Education Legislation Bill in its first reading I want to point out I think just two of its advantages. It allows principals to manage multiple schools and as much as the Opposition may wish to characterise that as some sort of gamble this is hardly an exciting or novel concept. It is in fact something that we share in common with 15 other countries that have a shared head of State. If it works well at that level I think we can expect it to work well where we have high-performing principals managing multiple schools. Secondly it allows much more flexibility in school opening hours. This is common in the workplace. If you look at Government departments they have flexible hours. You can see the advantage of allowing perhaps education to take place in the morning and then trades training in the afternoon in some institutions.This bill simply brings schools up to working in the modern world in which we live. It is a very fine bill put forward by an outstanding Minister and I commend it to the House.
Yang Jian: Education Legislation Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeYang Jian: Education Legislation Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8662. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr JIAN YANG (National): Partnership schools are providing parents with greater choice and are also showing signs of improved outcomes for high-priority students. Education has been a top priority for this National-led Government. This Government is committed to ensuring that every young New Zealander has the skills and the qualifications required to successfully participate in the modern economy. I would like to congratulate our Minister of Education the Hon Hekia Parata on her excellent work in the past few years. We have seen the Minister constantly visiting schools and talking to teachers staff the management team and communities so under her leadership we have achieved a lot.We have a long list of achievements of course but here are just a couple of examples. The proportion of 18-year-olds who achieve National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 2 or more has increased by over 20 percent up from 68 percent in 2008 to 88.3 percent in 2014. There are also the increased percentages for Pasifika and Māori students which are even higher. We have also had substantially increased collaboration among our schools which is another very important achievement. As Minister Hekia Parata has just mentioned 793 schools are now working together to systematically raise student achievement through a community of learning.National’s unrelenting focus is on raising achievement for all of our students. This Government will never stop working and it will work even harder in the coming years. We want to further improve our education system. Now of course we are facing some challenges particularly because of overly complex legal requirements and it has become increasingly difficult for the officials and for the sector to effectively meet statutory obligations and provide particular services. That is why we are introducing this bill.This bill will amend eight statutes to improve administrative and governance arrangements for educational entities and funding organisations across the education sector. Changes include allowing schools to change their opening hours with the agreement of their communities. This change will give schools the opportunity for more flexibility in their timetables to cater for the particular needs of their schools and students. This bill will also enable a principal to be employed to manage more than one school. This bill will help ensure that we will have a modern education system that reflects New Zealand now and into the future. I commend the bill to the House. Thank you.
Simpson Scott: Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSimpson Scott: Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8657. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): As the last speaker in this first reading debate it falls to me to round off the debate. I have listened carefully to the contributions from members across the House and some have been better than others. Really I just wanted to acknowledge the very fine contribution from the ACT member Mr David Seymour who really did get to the essence and the nub of this bill. There are three primary purposes to this bill: firstly the student loan information aspect; secondly the property investment rule changes; and thirdly the GST on online services. I know that the select committee is going to do a very thorough job of scrutinising this piece of legislation. I thoroughly commend it to the House.
Scott Alastair: Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeScott Alastair: Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8654. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ALASTAIR SCOTT (National—Wairarapa): I rise in support of the Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill. The three parts of this bill are very sensible and very practical and I am not quite sure why Mr Tabuteau would not agree with any of them. The first part is about student loan information-sharing. That seems a very obvious very sensible very practical way of understanding the New Zealanders who have taken out loans and travelled to Australia. That is Part 1—very sensible and very practical. The second part imposes a residential land withholding tax on the gains made by those offshore people who have sold property within 2 years. It is the third part of a trifecta of legislation and this is just the last piece of it. Again it enables the Government to ensure that people who live offshore pay their fair share of tax. It is very sensible and very practical. The third part of the bill deals with GST online and deals with the goods and services that are sold over the internet and it requires people to register for and pay GST on services and products that they provide online. That is very sensible and very practical and that is why I commend this bill to the House.
Borrows Chester: Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBorrows Chester: Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8653. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I call David Seymour—a 5-minute call.
Bayly Andrew: Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBayly Andrew: Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8651. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW BAYLY (National—Hunua): It is a pleasure to be talking on this bill. I have got to say that the previous speaker Fletcher Tabuteau talked about apathy. I can tell you that the only apathy I had was listening to that speech. Where was the enthusiasm the vigour? It was gone but this is a Government certainly with lots of energy.This bill is a great bill because it deals with three very important issues. In fact the first part of this bill is about how we deal with housing. Of course we have already introduced two bills into the House about that: one dealing with the brightline test and also the one that required foreign buyers to get a bank account and an IRD number. So this bill tonight deals with the third leg of the treble which is about non-resident people paying their fair share of tax on capital gains or the gains that they derive from buying and selling houses within 2 years. This is money that should be paid to the Government and this is a way of going about and doing that in a legitimate fashion.What this bill does is it requires offshore persons to pay tax if they buy and sell a house within 2 years. The definition of “offshore person” has four categories: first all non - New Zealand residents; second non-permanent residents; thirdly New Zealanders living overseas who have lived there for more than 3 years; and fourthly New Zealanders who have got a resident class visa but have not visited New Zealand in the past 12 months.What we are doing here is still applying the same exemptions that we applied in the brightline test which is that income tax is not due if you buy and sell a house for all the appropriate reasons but what the bill does do is say that if you buy and sell a house and make a capital gain then you have to pay the lower of the 10 percent of the sale value or 33 percent of the tax on that gain. These provisions come in on 1 July 2016 and they are the third leg of a treble that is seeing the house prices in Auckland starting to flatten off if not starting to decrease. That is why they are so important and that is why I am so supportive of them.The second element of this speech is just dealing very briefly with GST. Again I have heard members of the Opposition talking about the issue of us not listening to people. Well that is not correct and in fact this part of the bill addresses specifically that issue about making sure that our retailers are not disadvantaged from a competitive position where people can buy goods offshore for more than $400 and not pay GST on them. This is a very good provision around that and I commend the bill to the House.
Borrows Chester: Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBorrows Chester: Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8649. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Tēnā koe e Te Whare ā tēnā koutou te whānau o Te Whare Pāremata tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa. Members when we broke for the dinner suspension we were debating the Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill. We are expecting our next speaker from New Zealand First.Fletcher Tabuteau: That is one way to phrase it Mr Deputy Speaker. Thank you.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Oh are you seeking a call?
Smith Stuart: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSmith Stuart: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8640. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]STUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura): I think we could all be forgiven for thinking that this is a very recent problem that has just arisen given some of the speeches that have gone before. But the first Housing New Zealand house was built in 1937 not that far from here in Miramar and it took decades after that before the first Housing New Zealand houses were insulated. So this is not a new issue that has arisen. Those houses were cold and likely damp from 1937 on and they were until recently when all the houses in Housing New Zealand’s stock that could be were insulated. We are well on track to insulate 26 times more houses than Labour did in its 9 years in Government and I think that is a phenomenal achievement. It is really putting our money and our actions where our mouth is actually to do a good job for those people in that disadvantaged position.There has been quite a bit of talk about something like a warrant of fitness for housing stock but that would add $100 million a year just to do the inspections or $225 per home. That amount of money is far better going into insulation and into smoke alarms which will make a real difference to those people. The significant issues such as excessive dampness faulty wiring and those sorts of things are in fact covered under current legislation so what is needed is not more rules; it is actually enforcement. That is coming in under this bill where we are strengthening the legal provisions to allow for that very enforcement that is needed.So I think this is a fantastic bill. It actually comes from the party that looks after the people at the bottom of the heap and makes their lives better and that is backed up by lots of legislation put forward by this party. I commend this bill to the House.Bill read a first time.Bill referred to the Social Services Committee.
Parmar Parmjeet: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParmar Parmjeet: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8637. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr PARMJEET PARMAR (National):I am taking a very short call to support the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill. This National Government holds a great record in providing for drier and warmer houses as we have insulated every State house that can be insulated. As the Minister said this bill is the next step in that direction. This bill aims to provide for warmer drier and also safer residential rental properties. This bill will require all social houses to fulfil the requirement for insulation from 1 July 2016 and other residential rental properties from 1 July 2019. Along with insulation this will also require residential rental properties to be fitted with smoke alarms and the protection for tenants—those who raise matters related to unfit properties with the Tenancy Tribunal—will also be strengthened through this bill. Finally this bill will also help landlords to re-tenant their properties once they know that a property has been abandoned and they know that the tenant is not going to come back. This process will be fast-tracked as per this bill. It is a great bill. I support this bill and commend it to the House. Thank you.
Muller Todd: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMuller Todd: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8635. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TODD MULLER (National—Bay of Plenty): It is great to take a short call to stand and support the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill. What a great bill this is building on a proud record of investment and activity in the housing portfolio. If I can start by saying that I am not going to stand here and be lectured by the Labour Party—particularly by Phil Twyford and Carmel Sepuloni—a party that invested in 20000 homes that were insulated over its 9 years. We are on the path to 500000—20000 it did in 9 years and if you listen to it it decries every one of the half a million we have been doing for New Zealand and it is a disgrace.I am not going to stand here and be lectured by a party that insulated 200 homes a month in Auckland because we are doing 800 now. I am not going to be lectured by a Labour Party that pulled $1 billion out of the maintenance of the Housing New Zealand budget when it was there and directed it to new housing builds because in the words of the then Labour Minister “There’s no photo-ops in front of well-maintained houses. Where’s the photo opportunity in that?”. I am not going to be lectured by a Labour Party that has high rhetoric and no action in the housing space. Instead I take pride in standing and supporting a Government that has a record of achievement and that puts a bill in front of this House that says: “We prioritise warm homes drier homes and safer homes and we will have a bill in this House that will enable it.”So it is with great pride that I stand and support this bill which will make all rentals have fire alarms next year; which will of course make rentals insulated—the Housing New Zealand ones next year and all rentals by 2019; and which will have greater protection for tenants. Again this is a party that delivers action as opposed to the hollow rhetoric that continues to come from the other side. I look forward to hearing the various submissions on this bill and I very much commend it to the House. Thank you.
Doocey Matt: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDoocey Matt: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8631. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri): It is an honour and a pleasure to rise in support of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill in its first reading. I would like to just acknowledge the hard-working Minister for Building and Housing Nick Smith and also the Social Services Committee chair Alfred Ngaro. I am looking forward to this bill passing through the first reading and into the select committee and I just acknowledge the pragmatic response we are getting from across the whole House at the moment.There are two key areas of minimum standards around here. One is around insulating these houses and as we have heard from the Opposition members today I think 19000 houses in 7 years were insulated and when you look at this Government’s record of insulating over 300000 houses it is well on its way to insulating over half a million. I had members of the Community Energy Action volunteer group in my electorate office just recently and they were outlining a very clear correlation in Canterbury District Health Board data of people presenting at the accident and emergency department with respiratory illnesses—bronchitis and asthma—and how going into these houses and insulating them can have such a positive effect on these tenants and avoid people accessing hospitals and accident and emergency departments. So I acknowledge the work of the Government in this space supporting vulnerable New Zealanders.I had a brief count-up this morning of 118 first readings passed by this Government this year and when you look at the theme running through all those first readings it is around supporting hard-working New Zealanders. This year that is what this Government is standing up for: hard-working New Zealanders.In respect of putting in smoke alarms I was at the Kaiapoi Volunteer Fire Brigade service awards in my electorate recently and they raised this issue around putting fire alarms in rental accommodation. These are guys who are volunteering. We have still got the alarm out in Rangiora where I live. When it goes off they all drop what they are doing and head out to face a fire so it is great that we are putting practices in place that will support them. We have got to realise that over 90 percent of fatalities are in rental accommodation so it is right that we are putting a minimum standard of a smoke alarm in these rental properties. I commend this bill to the House. Thank you.
Smith Nick: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSmith Nick: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8624. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for the Environment) on behalf of theMinister of Health: I move That the New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill be reported back to the House by 11 April 2016.Motion agreed to.
Reti Shane: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeReti Shane: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8623. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr SHANE RETI (National—Whangarei): It is a pleasure to take a short call on this bill. Over a period of time I had the privilege of three consecutive appointments to a district health board. They are complex entities they can be slow to change and they take time to have real effect. You push on one side of a district health board and it bulges on another side that you did not quite expect. It is not as if you are breaking linkages; you are breaking people if you get it wrong so you really need to take great care when you are changing things.We have heard from Opposition members about funding. They have bandied around the term population-based funding formula or “PBFF”. Well that rolled easily off the tongue—especially for the member from New Zealand First! She really needs to know what she is talking about because she has made the claim that the population-based funding formula does not cover funding for the regions. Yes it does. There is a whole major arm called adjusters and under adjusters some of the components are rurality and unmet need. You need to be very careful using these terms which raises this point. My observation with newly elected members to boards is that it can take 3 to 6 months sometimes to pick up some of the really complex funding terms of the district health board—diagnostic-related groups inter-district flow or even population-based funding formula.It is a really hard area to work in and it is hard when the district health board is doing well. No one disagrees that the Southern District Health Board has got a challenging environment. In that environment I think it would be particularly unfair and inappropriate to ask newly elected members to step in and have an impact. On that basis I totally support and commend this bill to the House.
Barclay Todd: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBarclay Todd: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8620. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TODD BARCLAY (National—Clutha-Southland): It is an honour to speak in support of this bill as one of the few members who has spoken today who actually understands what is going on there—one of the few members who has spoken who has actually met the commissioner Kathy Grant and her deputies who has actually met the chief executive who follows the updates in the media who knows what is going on and who is in touch with their constituency.After going around and talking to my local health boards and small community groups I can say they are in support of these changes. There has been such a mess for so long that it is about time that something is happening to rectify the situation. People want confidence in their health system. The Greens are so out of touch. They clearly have not spoken to any of the constituents in Otago or Southland nor have New Zealand First members. Finally for a change there is certainty and there is direction moving forward in health and we can start to see that through the commissioner’s updates.To touch on David Clark’s questions around the progress around the upgrade it is part of a six-stage process. They are already in the strategic assessment stage to be followed by four design stages. It is going to take some time obviously because it is a significant capital upgrade and it needs to go through Treasury’s Better Business Cases for Capital Proposals model. Following on from the strategic assessment stage there will be a concept stage a preliminary design stage a developed design stage a detailed design stage and then construction. It just goes to show how much the future Mayor of Dunedin Clare Curran pays attention to these sorts of processes because she clearly is wrong once again.With regard to the Government’s contribution to the Southern District Health Board over the last 7 years we have increased funding by over $134 million to a record $852 million. This organisation is almost a billion-dollar organisation. The commissioners need time they need space and they need fresh air—without these democratic elections coming up next year which will interfere in the work they have already done—to start making some changes. We do not want to slash and burn; we want a medium to long term work programme that will see a systemic change in health in that area which will benefit patients and will benefit our communities.It is an honour to speak on this bill and I would like to congratulate the Minister of Health and the commissioner Kathy Grant and her team on all the hard work that they are doing.
Dean Jacqui: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDean Jacqui: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8618. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki): I regret that the Opposition has chosen once again to oppose a piece of legislation that has the interests of the people of Otago and Southland at its heart. I regret that because I think that in its so doing it completely misses the point of this bill and it completely misses the point of the process around appointing commissioners in order to address the many issues surrounding the Southern District Health Board.I have had many conversations with the chief executive officer and with members of the board I have met with the commissioners and I have met with the boards and management of the smaller hospitals around the region and they are focused on what is important. They are focused on doing the best for their people. That is something that has been missing in today’s debate. There have been conflicting arguments from the New Zealand First member about it taking too long or it not taking long enough and there has been a mix of arguments from Labour—well it used to be the major Opposition party—about just what its position is but I very seldom heard the expression of what is good for the people and what is good for the patients who use the services of the Southern District Health Board.In my communities the people spoke long and loud about the proposed 10 percent cut to their funding and rightly so. There were public meetings and there were rallies. I went to as many of them as I could because I too share their concern at the potential loss of 10 percent funding. The placing of the commissioners into the Southern District Health Board is going to address those issues. They are listening to our concerns they are listening to the concerns of the smaller hospitals and it is not a job that can be done in the next 12 months. Why the Opposition refuses to acknowledge that is beyond me. Who does it care about? Does it care about the patients? I do not think it does.
Kuriger Barbara: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKuriger Barbara: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8614. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BARBARA KURIGER (National—Taranaki - King Country): It is a pleasure to speak briefly on this bill this afternoon. We have heard quite a bit this afternoon about Dunedin Hospital which is an important component of what the Southern District Health Board does. I have been down there recently with my good colleague here Todd Barclay and the people out in the open spaces are really thinking about primary health care and how it is delivered close to where they live.I really support the reappointment of the commissioner and the delaying of the election because a plan will be developed. Something was not working down there before and they are really having a look at how the plan may be developed. There will be new ways of thinking there is consultation going on with staff there will be consultation going on with the community and hopefully there will be something that will come out that is much better than it was before.So I support this bill. It needs time. A good picture will be built and a good plan will be built and I commend this bill to the House.