Flavell Te Ururoa: Real Estate Agents Bill — First Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Real Estate Agents Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:644;Page:13824] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe ki a koe ano Mr Assistant Speaker kia ora tatou katoa e te Whare. Let me open this korero with something that I found fromMargaret Mahy: “These days it seems to me that when I look at the world I see many people including politicians television readers real estate agents and free-market financiers librarians too at times dressing as sharks eating leaves and drinking out of puddles casually taking over the powerful and dangerous images that the imagination presents eager to exploit the fictional forms that haunt us all …”. How awesome is that! In other words the operation of truth is exercised with a certain amount of freedom. 
As anyone who regularly has a look at the real estate magazines would know real estate agents have a pretty remarkable talent at being enormously creative in the way they describe the state of property. A derelict rundown shack can be branded as “needing a lick of paint” an ugly throw-back to the 1970s with colours thrown together during a late-night dope session or acid trip is promoted as “funky” and a house that breaches every building code under the Act is labelled as “DIY delight”. The reality is that disturbing mistruths poor contractual advice misleading representations and outright lies have all entered the environment in which we consider this bill—a bill to protect and promote the interests of consumers in real estate transactions and the Maori Party says it is about time. I think the ultimate irony of the state of the real estate industry was revealed earlier this year when Harcourts sought to honour one of its real estate agents who deliberately misled consumers. 
The Maori Party welcomes the advent of a new regulatory framework for the real estate industry for another very important reason: the correlation between discrimination by real estate agents and limited accommodation options for Maori has long been a part of the scene. In 1991 the Maori Women’s Housing Research Project reported that non-Maori or Pakeha families will have more choice of housing because landlords letting agents real estate agents and mortgage lenders will feel more comfortable interacting with them and will believe their families to be more reliable trustworthy tenants or mortgagees. 
Just 2 years ago in October 2005 in my own electorate a Maori woman was reported to have been told by a Tauranga real estate agent from First National that the rental property did not want Maori tenants. Kelly Lovett subsequently lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission and the Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres and they confirmed that such discrimination was illegal. Illegal or not Tokoroa landlord Walter Pellikan quickly came in to support the taking of such a stand. His view was that “banning Maori tenants makes good business sense and should be allowed”. Just to put this in some context the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand eventually came out with a very strong statement encouraging members to “actively work against racist policies by rental property owners”. It also advised that such actions went against the institute’s code of conduct. Yet 6 months later despite the advice of the industry leaders another report this time in Nelson Tasman and Marlborough confirmed that discrimination in the home ownership market was still being delivered by some real estate agents. The Centre for Housing Research described comments from social service organisations in Marlborough that spoke of difficulties in working with real estate agents to house Maori clients concluding that Maori were being discriminated against by racist practices that act as barriers to Maori accessing rental housing. 
I rise to give this context to provide some perspective on how Maori consumers have experienced real estate agents managers and salespeople for decades upon decades of encounters. We are well aware that the industry’s disciplinary procedures and processes have not worked in ways that exude transparency and accountability. The sales psychology has dominated over industry standards. Consumers have faced real risk from agents who have mishandled funds given poor contractual advice misused information or have undisclosed conflicts of interest. The home truths of the industry have been far from acceptable. 
We will support this bill to ensure that the administration of licensing complaints disciplinary and enforcement processes industry standards and practice rules are enabled to take place and restore the reputation of the real estate industry. The bill sets out the specifications by which anyone engaged in real estate agency work must be licensed and act within the scope of that licence. That is extremely constructive and well worth supporting. 
There is one issue we are hoping the select committee stage will advance. The bill enables certain exemptions for the licensing processes for real estate agency work. Amongst the exemptions are Landcorp and its employees. This issue is one that we are keen to receive further advice on particularly in light of the issues that we have been raising over the past 2 years in regard to Landcorp sales. 
We have brought to this House and to the attention of the Ministers concerns raised by Hauraki and the Tainui Waka Alliance Ngati Kahu Ngati Tuwharetoa the New Zealand Maori Council and other iwi regarding Landcorp activities in relation to the sale of lands subject to Treaty claims. We all remember the noble advocacy put forward by Ngati Kahu to try and stop the sale of the repossessed Rangiputa station on the Karekare peninsula. We remember the concerns over the sale of the Taurewa land blocks and the proposed sale of a $10 million block of prime Coromandel land at Whenuakite which should have been the subject of negotiation with the Hauraki Maori Trust Board. 
While we were pleased that in raising these issues the Minister for State Owned Enterprises eventually announced a review of Crown land disposal a review reported back in September that we must never leave a stone unturned when considering the vital significance of whenua of land to tangata whenua. We will be looking at the select committee process for clarity around the exemptions from the regulations proposed in this bill particularly the fact that Landcorp will be exempt from the regulations around disclosure of conflicts of interest. We in the Maori Party believe we need robust processes for the sale of land subject to Treaty claims by Landcorp and we will definitely be interested in the debate as it unfolds. 
Finally urgency can be long and hard work without too much let-up or moments of light relief. In thinking about where these problems have come from in the recent real estate industry debacles I came across this poem by Andrew Chiu-kit Tsang of Manukau that I thought I might add to the debate. This poem this waiata this korero is called “During the Real Estate Boom” and I am sure Mr Power will be interested in this because he listened to my first waiata— 
Simon Power 
: I did. 
TE URUROA FLAVELL 
: Thank you very much. It goes something like this: 
During the real estate boom 
Everyone becomes a real estate agent 
No wonder 
There are 13000 real estate agents 
8000 police 
and 3000 soldiers in our country 
I went to my favourite sandwich shop in Manukau 
The boss wished to sell me his listing 
But I only wanted a sandwich! 
I went to Papatoetoe to get a fresh chicken 
The boss wished to sell me her listing 
But I only want a fresh chicken 
I ring up my best friend in Howick hoping for a good chat 
He also wished to sell me his listing 
But I only want a good chat! 
Some say a good man should be able to buy his own castle 
Gimme a break! 
I’m not yet a good man! 
That is deep and meaningful. It is food for thought honourable members. Tena koutou katoa.