Davidson Marama: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDavidson Marama: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 31 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11526. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARAMA DAVIDSON (Green): Tēnā tātou e Te Whare. Kia ora. The Green Party will be supporting the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill because it is a step. It is a step and so we support it but the Government is asking the wrong questions and using the wrong indicators for the standards that are required for families and the ordinary people of New Zealand to live in good safe warm homes. So whether or not we are talking about the standard of 19-whatever or the houses that were built after or before 19-whatever the real question that we need to be asking here is how we can ensure that every family has a warm safe home to live in. That is the standard. That is the standard; that is the question that we need to be asking.I rent my home. It is an old home because at the time when I was looking for a home the only sorts of houses that were going to be available to me as a Māori woman with children on the waiting list trying to find a tenancy property were old draughty cold homes which are incredibly difficult to heat. My home is so old that it is not guaranteed that it is going to be insulated under this bill. Last winter I was sending my children to bed wearing beanies and thermals and with tons of blankets for fear of turning on the heater. We had a go at turning on the heater in our house but the heat did not go anywhere except outside because the house is draughty and heat just escapes. The power bill was incredibly enormous but the heater still did not heat my home because the heat just disappeared. So after hours and hours of trying to keep my children warm the heat did not heat my home. My power was cut off because I could not afford to pay my bill because my home is not able to be heated without crippling us financially. You should not have to become an MP to be able to pay a power bill to simply turn on a heater to try to keep your children warm. Those are the questions and the measurements that our Government needs to be using whenever it is setting about setting legislation.That is why I look forward to the Green Party and the Labour Party and other parties that genuinely want a progressive Government working to change this Government. It has had 7 years and still the result is that too many families are not living in warm safe dry homes and this bill is not going to cure it. There are still going to be some houses that are not warm enough—and guess who they will be rented by. Guess who those houses will be rented by and guess who cannot afford to turn on a heater to try to heat a house that is draughty and cold—guess who they will be rented by.For one part they will be rented by Māori and Pacific families who have incredibly high rates of renting properties and rental tenancies in our country. There will be rented by people who are at the back of the queue when it comes to landlords who can pick and choose whom it is that they want to put in their warm nice homes. The homes that are cold and draughty and not insulated enough under this bill are going to go to Māori and Pacific and lower-income families. I was working when I could not afford to pay my power bill and try to heat my draughty home. Those are the homes that are going to be left out of this bill and those are the people who are going to be left to go into those houses.The Government is asking the wrong questions. The Minister Nick Smith could take a lesson out of Sister Anne Hurley’s book. She made a submission for the Sisters of Mercy Wiri on this bill and this is the standard that she asked for: “1. The bill sets standards high enough to ensure that the health and wellbeing of all those residing in all rental accommodation is not compromised.” That should be the standard. Thank you.