Pillay Lynne: Real Estate Agents Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Pillay Lynne: Real Estate Agents Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:649;Page:18373] 
LYNNE PILLAY (Labour—Waitakere) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to stand and speak in support of the Real Estate Agents Bill. Had the previous speaker been on the select committee he would have listened to the submissions—the compelling submissions—about people who have had really bad experiences in the industry and how they were really not well treated in terms of seeing complaints handled and upheld. 
Firstly I thank the officials who have worked incredibly hard on this legislation because the very constructive submissions that we heard had a number of themes and the officials were able to give us very sound advice on them and amendments were made in the Justice and Electoral Committee to ensure that the issues raised were addressed. I also acknowledge Sue Bradford. Sue talked about the visit undertaken by me Labour colleagues and Sue to Barfoot and Thompson who took us right through the whole process of real estate and explained how it worked. It was a very very fruitful visit. 
I note that there were two types of submissions from firms. There were the firms who came along and who had put a tremendous amount of work into their submissions. That was very constructive. They supported many parts of the bill. In fact many supported independent regulation over self-regulation because I think they went to the purpose of the Act. That is why we made an amendment. The original purpose was to promote and protect the interests of consumers relating to real estate. That was the primary purpose but it was also to promote public confidence in the performance of real estate agency work. I thank those firms who came along. I feel that their submissions were very constructive. 
I also note that there were many many other submissions that were standard form submissions. We are all pragmatists here; we know how it works. The Real Estate Institute had a very very strong view about self-regulation and about the status quo and produced a form submission that it encouraged many of its members to sign. That was perfectly pragmatic; that is what happens. But at the end of the day when we sat and talked to people about protection there was very much a meeting of minds with many of those submitters about the need for protection but more important for independence and for a system that the public has confidence in. 
I am absolutely appalled at the games the National Party members are playing. I have to say that they were there they knew what the issues were they were not in disagreement with many but at the end of the day they held the old finger up in the wind to see where they thought they would get a lot of support from in terms of the people who were important to them in an election year. They made a very pragmatic decision—and certainly a decision that I do not respect—not to support this bill. There is absolute nonsense coming from National members around the issue of property management. National knows that it was outside the scope of the bill. We heard from independent people who do not work in the real estate industry but who work in property management. They came to the committee and said: “We support regulation but we won’t be covered. We support looking into this and covering the whole industry around standards.” And we say: “Good on you for doing that.” That is why there is a commitment to review the status of property management and should legislation be required—and I believe that will be the case—then that will come into effect. The Minister has made the commitment that it will come into effect at the same time as this legislation comes into effect. 
All of the nonsense about how this legislation does not meet needs is absolute rubbish. Thank heavens National does not have the numbers because it wants the status quo whereby people who have a complaint are at the mercy of the industry there is no independence whatsoever and there are no fines of any impact that give people who are investing in the biggest investment of their lives the protection they deserve. This is a fantastic bill. It has been dramatically improved by the select committee process and I am proud to stand in this House to commend it.