Smith Nick; Rurawhe AdrianHon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson): This is a hollow shallow bill that achieves absolutely nothing of what the previous member Marama Davidson claimed. Let's just subject it to a little bit of scrutiny. The Green member claimed that the previous Government did nothing in nine years. Let me give her some hard numbers. In the last nine years 350000 homes in New Zealand were insulated. Let's compare that to the previous nine years of a Labour-Green Government and the number was 35000. That is the National Government just past insulated ten times as many homes per year as the left Government that preceded it which reinforces that we are about action; they are about spin.Let's then ask the question: what does this bill actually do? Answer: nothing—absolutely zero. Let me take the issues through. Does the current law passed two years ago by the previous National Government not require every single rental home to be insulated by 1 July 2019? Well yes it does. At the time it was passed members opposite said it was far too slow yet this bill makes absolutely no change in that date for those remaining 180000 homes to be insulated. And here's the real irony: for those that were in the Parliament last year they will have seen Phil Twyford running around the press gallery running around the House with two different pieces of insulation. He said if he was in Government he would require the higher standard of insulation. Yet nowhere in this bill does it do that. It's absolutely silent on that question again just showing the double standards from this Government.And then I've heard the lofty words that this bill is going to deal with issues like heating issues like the drainage issues like the mould. But here's the problem: every single one of the issues in this bill is already covered by the housing regulations. There are requirements and I can read them. There is a requirement for all houses to be free of mould. There is a requirement to have proper drainage. There is a requirement for there to be heating. Now there is the option right now to use those to be able to regulate but today's debate is not about the regulations because we've got no idea what the Government is proposing. But the power to regulate exists right now has been done and this bill adds absolutely diddly-squat. It is so much in line with that brilliant speech by the Leader of the Opposition that said that this Government is long on intent but actually vacuous on the substance that's required to deliver the goods. That is guys opposite intent is not good enough. It is substance that matters and having a Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill (No 2) guarantees absolutely nothing for the homeowners of New Zealand.Then I also want to challenge the Green Party on some facts. The Building Research Association of New Zealand reviews and reports on the standard of our housing stock every five years and has done so since the 1960s. In those reports most recently out just 18 months ago it showed actually that there'd been a 22 percent improvement in the quality of our housing stock. And so when I hear these highly partisan and ill-informed speeches from the Greens claiming that the stock of our housing stock went down are they effectively saying that the Building Research Association of New Zealand cannot be relied upon? Are they saying they're biased? Where is their proof? Again we find the huge gaps between the rhetoric of this Government and the reality.The last point I want to make is that this bill is meaningless unless it is backed up by funding. In our very first Budget our Government the National Government—when we faced billions and billions of deficits bequeathed to us by the financial incompetence opposite—committed $500 million to getting homes insulated. Now this bill might have had some substance if there was some commitment from members opposite to actually fund insulation but on that they are absolutely silent.So let me be clear again: the law already requires every rental property in New Zealand to be insulated. That was passed by a National Government. The law already requires every rental property to be free of mould to be free of dampness and actually the real issue is enforcement in which we changed the law to allow the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment to directly enforce the law but this bill actually changes the legal requirements on any of those issues associated with our rental properties not one iota. Thirdly this bill does not put one penny into the exercise of improving the insulation of homes.You see this bill just sums up the new Government perfectly and that is: yes they're good on spin. Yes the intent—the voluminous objectives of this Government—are long and hard but when you drill down into the substance bills like this are as shallow as a bird bath and should appropriately be rejected.Paul Eagle: Thank you Mr Speaker—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Order! You have to call.Paul Eagle: Oh sorry. Mr Speaker?The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): I call Paul Eagle.