Simpson ScottHon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): Thank you Madam Speaker. In rising to support the third reading of the Resource Management (Enabling Housing Supply and Other Matters) Amendment Bill on behalf of the National Party I just want to commence my contribution by picking up where the deputy chair of the Environment Committee Rachel Brooking who has just resumed her seat left off and that was to acknowledge with grateful appreciation the very hard work that was done on this piece of legislation by officials who worked extraordinarily long hours under significant time constraints and pressure—to the Parliamentary Counsel Office staff who were grappling with some quite technical issues around planning and I recognise that that tested their remarkable skill. They are incredibly talented people and at this time of the year it pays sometimes just to acknowledge some of the people that don't have a public face around this place but are integral to the effective working of our Parliament but also to the creation of enduring legislative drafting that actually does the job that select committees and Parliament wants done.This piece of legislation is an interesting culmination of work that has actually transpired over several months and I think it's worthwhile just traversing some of the history as to how we got to what is in many respects quite an unusual situation where the two major parties in this Parliament—and I think actually all but one of the smaller parties in the Parliament—are supporting this legislation. On this side of the House we have long argued that the answer to our housing challenges and to getting more housing built and to providing the opportunities for young people and first-home buyers in particular to get into the property market was reform of the Resource Management Act (RMA). And we have long argued that that piece of legislation needed work. So it was that in the last election campaign when our former leader Judith Collins was spokesperson for housing she actually wrote to the Government and offered a bipartisan approach to solving housing issues. Now that of itself was I think an important step forward because throughout the nine years of the National administration every single time that the John Key and Bill English - Government tried to reform the RMA it was universally opposed by the then Opposition—every single time every single time; oppose oppose oppose. And there was never any sense of collegiality or a sense of Parliament trying to act as a unifier to solve some of these issues.Well on this side of the House we think that when an issue as important as this becomes apparent and an opportunity for a bipartisan approach presents we should take it. So during that 2020 campaign we announced that we would introduce emergency measures to cut back on red tape and make it easier to build houses. So this is effectively what this piece of legislation does. This is National Party policy that we campaigned on and I'm surprised that that has come as a surprise to some people who have been commentating and passing criticism about this legislation. And then in January of this year Judith Collins actually wrote to the Prime Minister offering to work together on emergency legislation and in April she introduced into the members' ballot our own bill that would have required councils to zone at least for 30 years of growth. That bill in the ballot actually incorporated much of what is being proposed and will be passed by this piece of legislation. Then not much happened through the next several months until in June of this year my colleague the deputy leader of the National Party Nicola Willis and I received letters from Ministers Woods and Parker responding to what they say had been their own proposal on how to achieve the aims of National's bill. And we actually welcomed that. It's understandable that we were initially a bit surprised but we were welcoming of the fact that they were open to discussing elements of our proposed legislation and our solution and as a result negotiations ensued and the legislation was introduced to Parliament.And it's fair to say that this actually at third reading is a very much improved and better bill than the bill at first reading and that's largely due to the good efforts done at Environment Committee and I too want to acknowledge the role played by my colleagues on that select committee but in particular I want to acknowledge the chair of the select committee the Hon Eugenie Sage who I think did a terrific job reading literally a thousand or more documents. We received close to a thousand submissions and we heard from nearly 200 submitters over a very condensed period of time. Some of the most compelling submissions from my point of view were not those submissions that came from people who for one reason or another objected to the general concept of intensification but those submissions that came actually from young people I found most compelling—those people those young people who said This bill gives us hope. It gives us hope for the potential that one day we too can be property owners and that we can buy a house and that we can get a foot on to the property ladder." We are interested actually they said as young people in going further than this bill has gone. They wanted actually even more radical reform than this bill proposes. So I was heartened by that response and encouraged by it and I was less compelled by those who came to the select committee and actually said "Oh no—well enough is being done" and "We're working towards it" and "Things are happening" and "We've got a plan." Well actually more than 4000 people tonight will be asleep in a motel unit because we have such a shortage of affordable and easily obtained purchased houses in New Zealand.So this is a bill that's all about freeing up land markets. It's all about property rights actually. It's all about the ability of a property owner to free up the capital that lies currently buried on their back lawn. And I heard one commentator say that the answer to much of what is our housing crisis literally lies in our backyards and this is what this bill is about: it's a bill that enables property owners to add an extra dwelling two or three on to an existing property. And for many property owners that's something that has been impossible to achieve because there has been so much red tape. There have been so many barriers. There have been so many hurdles for them to overcome. So this is a piece of legislation that changes the balance of influence and power if you like from those who plan restrict and constrain intensification in our major urban cities to one where the presumption now is to build and to allow homes to be built. And I for one and we on this side of the House think that that is a good thing.I heard a term mentioned by my colleague the deputy leader of the National Party Nicola Willis that I hadn't heard actually for probably several decades and it's a term that we need to hear more of because I can certainly remember as a younger person at university when we were discussing weighty issues about Parliament and legislation and law reform and democracy in our great little nation we would often talk about how proud we were to be members of an egalitarian property-owning democracy. And it's that term—"egalitarian property-owning democracy"—that I heard Nicola Willis mention in her contribution today and I think that's important. That is something that is good it's aspirational it's positive and it's future looking. And this is a piece of legislation that does a whole lot of things and the deputy chair of the select committee went through some of the detail; I'm not going to repeat it. But what this piece of legislation does is give hope to people who currently are locked out of the property market—that they too soon will be able to buy a home. And why is that important? Well it's important because homeownership is good for people good for individuals good for families good for neighbourhoods good for communities and good for us a nation. Property ownership is something that we should aspire to and we should be encouraging and making it as available as possible to as many New Zealanders who want to be property owners—then surely we should be creating the environment that allows for that to occur.So this is a bill that's all about reducing red tape changing the presumption from one of not being permissive to one that permits and encourages building and development in our urban environments and it's a bill that on this side of the House we are very pleased to support in the bipartisan nature that it has been presented."