Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): I rise on behalf of the ACT Party in support of this bill and I would like to begin by commending the member Jami-Lee Ross in whose name the bill has been brought to the House. I think it is an example of what the members' ballot should be used for. It should be used by members of Parliament who are not members of Cabinet to bring to the House issues that have been raised in their electorates so that they might be resolved. That is the members' ballot at its best that is what this bill does and so I commend Jami-Lee Ross for bringing this bill to the House.The issue that is being addressed is perhaps a bit more multifaceted than might first meet the eye and I can tell you this on behalf of many residents of the Epsom electorate and particularly in Greenlane. Like Jami-Lee Ross I serve an electorate where window washing is a problem not just directly but also indirectly. The direct problems are quite easy to understand: we have people doing something that is technically not legal but very very difficult for the authorities including the police to enforce. Without the infringement notice regime that this bill produces people must be taken through the courts at great expense of time and money and it really does not serve as a useful deterrent when the people doing this stuff know that the police have such a large cost imposed upon them when they try to enforce the law. Having an infringement notice regime contrary to what the Green Party member just told the House is actually something that the Auckland Council has been asking for. This is not something councils are opposed to; this is something that councils have explicitly asked for. And alongside them it is something that the police have asked for in order that the law around window washing can be properly enforced.But the next issue is: why would we want to stop window washing? Many of us might have a charitable view towards mostly younger people who take their initiative get out and make some money. I actually share that view that you have got to admire a certain amount of entrepreneurial streak in the people who are doing the window washing. The difficulty is that it ends up being abusive. One of the principals of the schools in my electorate was abused and had her car attacked with a squeegee mop broom when she refused to have her window washed because she did not want it done and she may not have had change and she may not have had the money. That is one of a large number of complaints that have built into a chorus of people from around Greenlane worried about this.But secondly there are the indirect impacts which are that window washing has become a centre for other crimes. There are two large intersections in Auckland that are close to a train station that does not have security gates: one of them in Mount Wellington and one of them at Greenlane. Both of those areas have come to be areas of considerable crime.Denis O'Rourke: This bill won't change that.DAVID SEYMOUR: I have had small children from Remuera Intermediate School and Cornwall Park District School get bashed up have their phones taken and their bikes taken—Denis O'Rourke: Nothing to do with this bill.DAVID SEYMOUR: And if you talk to the local police which is what a good local MP should do—unlike that barracking member in the corner who would never represent an electorate because no electorate would have him—they will tell you that all of these things are interlinked and that the window washing is a centre for crimes and violence of other types around the areas where it happens.So I commend this bill. I think potentially there should be some changes as it goes on. We should be very wary of unintended consequences—the Greens have a point about that. I think we should consider the possibility that we should also fine the people who pay window washers for two reasons. One is that they are the other half of the transaction and also because it gives them a reason to say no. They can say: No this is illegal this is fineable. I'm not going to pay." But with those possible additions in my view this is an excellent bill. I look forward to voting for it through all stages I commend it to the House and I congratulate Jami-Lee Ross on bringing such a useful contribution to members' day. Thank you."