Collins JudithHon JUDITH COLLINS (National—Papakura): Thank you for the opportunity to speak in support of this bill. This was a bill that was first introduced under the National Government in May 2017 and had its first reading in Parliament in July of the same year. The select committee submissions closed in August 2017 and it's taken this long for the matter to come back to Parliament after the second reading in November last year. So it's probably an indication of the lack of legislation that the Government has been able to cobble together that it's having to come back with a National Party bill with a few amendment.Look apart from that you know the Minister in the chair Kris Faafoi has correctly read out the notes on it and the bill itself I think is one that does deal with a very difficult situation. I'm very pleased that the Minister referred to the Osaki case because if ever there is a law of unintended consequences that is it. When we have a court that has decided according to the law—and obviously that was correct because it would have to be—that a tenant was not at all liable for careless damage or damage caused in a property I would have to say On what planet?" And the planet would be here in New Zealand on Planet Earth where by the way there are consequences. The consequence is that insurance company premiums go up and the consequence is that it's harder to get insurance for tenants of properties. So the consequences are that costs then go up for the tenant and when we're looking for some of the reasons why the average rental cost in this country has gone up by $50 a week in the last 18 months we can look at the fact that Governments courts Parliament and others are always looking to shift the cost on to the landlord. The trouble is that the landlord then has to shift that cost again and it ends up back with the tenant. But in this case we've got situations where we have very good tenants having to pay more often because of the behaviour of a few very poor tenants—poor not in economic terms but in terms of their behaviour.I think there are some very good things in this bill and that's why the National Party is continuing to support it particularly around the issues around sorting out some compromise solution to the Osaki case but as with all compromises there are some people who would think that it maybe didn't go far enough. There are some issues that I think are important for tenants to know about their liabilities under the law. They need to know about what is an obligation—the obligation here that tenants who destroy properties or cause excessive damage could end up paying a maximum four weeks' rent for each instance of damage caused by carelessness. That does really require a landlord to keep a close eye or a property manager to keep a close eye on a property because four weeks' rent can be sucked up pretty quickly when it comes to repairing damage. For those again who say "Oh but they'll be insured." well I've just dealt with that issue. All of this costs money. In addition it is important that tenants do understand what their liability is because it is only right that for people if they wish to have wild parties—which I think from memory was the case in the Osaki case—and have properties destroyed there is actually a consequence and the consequence should not just be on the owner of the property.It is tough being a landlord and it is tough being a landlord because of the fact that there are a lot of costs on landlords and also a lot of liabilities that people don't always understand. I'm also very aware it's tough being a tenant particularly if you can't keep a rental property because the landlord has decided to sell it because it's too much of a pain to be a landlord and it's also tough if you can't pay the extra rent that you now need to pay because of many of the changes that have happened in the last 18 months particularly attacks on landlords. But in essence we support the bill and we're happy to see it go forward."