Collins Judith: Retirement Villages Bill — Second Reading 
Collins Judith: Retirement Villages Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:609;Page:7033] 
JUDITH COLLINS (NZ National—Clevedon) 
: We have heard tonight some horror stories from the United Future member and the Green member about what can go wrong in retirement villages. Just to give a little balance I commend to those members of Parliament who feel that they might have gone past their use-by date a retirement village in my electorate of Clevedon called Longford Park Village. I make that recommendation with some trepidation on the basis that something might go wrong but that is a retirement village about which I have not heard one complaint from the residents. I have even had one darling old man who must have been close to 90 if he was not over it suggesting that I might like to put my name forward so that I could sign up there when I was old enough. I thought that was a really nice suggestion. I am sure that Mr Gosche opposite would love to come and join me there but actually I am not sure that he would be able to. 
One concern this legislation is trying to address is that people in an elderly condition are often alone—often they have lost a lifelong partner—and in a very vulnerable position. As a lawyer of 22 years in practice I have to say I have seen quite a few who wanted desperately to move into a particular retirement village. They have been sold it on the basis of lovely brochures and recommendations from their local MP—oops I did not mean to say that Mr Speaker—and those sorts of things. Some also feel unfortunately some pressure from family members who would like them to move to a retirement village because they are becoming a bit of a handful. It is actually quite sad that people should ever feel like that. I am very fortunate that neither of my parents ever felt the need to go into a retirement village. But it was great to know that there were some very nice villages available should they ever have wished to go into one. 
Of course there are many reasons for people wanting to move into villages and one in particular is concern for their personal safety. Unfortunately many elderly people feel that they are not in fact secure in their own homes. It is an absolute disgrace that people in their 80s and 90s feel that they could be attacked in their own homes. Unfortunately some are although most are not. 
 In addition to that there is the concern over loneliness. Many elderly people are so divorced from what their children and grandchildren are doing that they just feel plain lonely. If a person has had a lifelong partner then has lost that partner it is very difficult for that person—and these people are often very elderly—to try to resurrect some form of relationship with other people. It is very very hard. In a well-run retirement village they can often do all sorts of things such as the activities at Longford Park. They play bowls there are indoor swimming pools they go on day trips and to the movies and so on. Elderly people often live a more active life in those retirement villages that are well run than they would have done if they had stayed in their own homes or with their families. In many ways these sorts of retirement villages are a great thing. They have been existing and operating without this bill which is another stunning fact and they have done so in the market economy. 
One of the concerns is that sometimes elderly people sign up to retirement villages on the basis that they have good health and often do not realise that under the agreement the licence to occupy is such that they cannot go back to their own unit once their health deteriorates to the point where they have to go to a hospital wing. That is often a very difficult thing to know because most people would see themselves as owning the property rather than simply having a licence to occupy such as a licence to occupy a room. That is one of the concerns so I am pleased to see that there are provisions relating to disclosure in the bill. 
Retirement villages no matter what we want to say about the market economy and how well it works most of the time are quite a new thing from the point of view of both the legal system and of many elderly people being connected with it. We have heard tonight that 4 percent of people over the age of 65 are in retirement villages but that is a very small number of people. Consequently there are not many people who can say that they know about retirement villages because their parents went into one before them or their cousin or sister or brother. It is quite a small number of people. In part that number has been kept small because people are concerned about the financial ability of retirement villages to keep operating and about just how secure their own investments are. At the end of the day most retirement villages are for the elderly living in them rather than for investment. They are more of a safety net and a lifestyle choice. Quite often elderly people can free up some capital by going into one as well. So it is very important that we have the same sorts of safeguards as have been put forward here. 
I stress that the vast majority of retirement villages in this country are well run. They are not places where the elderly are routinely ripped off because those sorts of operations would never survive in this environment let alone any environment that was more regulated. I take some exception to the comments of one particular member who cast aspersions on all the retirement villages in existence at the moment. I thought that was a shame. But I applaud Mr Smith’s speech when he talked to us about his dissatisfaction with the way that a retirement village was run because of the many complaints from his constituents living in the area. 
In essence this bill has been brought about by some excellent work in the Justice and Electoral Committee. It started with the member’s bill from my colleague Dr Lynda Scott the first geriatrician as far as I am aware in the House and someone who can truly say she has worked for many years with the elderly and is fully aware of their concerns. I am very pleased to be able to support this bill both as a lawyer and as a member of Parliament and at the same time to commend to the House those many many retirement villages that are well run and managed and are providing a very good service even under the limited law that we currently have. 
Amendments recommended by the Justice and Electoral Committee by majority agreed to.