Williams PotoPOTO WILLIAMS (Labour—Christchurch East): Firstly I want to commend the member Metiria Turei for such an awesome bill. It is long overdue and I thank her for bringing it to the House.I would not have thought that twice in one evening I would be speaking about housing and how it impacts the people in my electorate of Christchurch East. In my earlier contribution I talked about how in the last 6 weeks 28 people have come to my office—28 people have come to my office—because they are finding it difficult to find bonds and to pay rent. They are coming into an electorate office. My heart goes out to these people because many of them have children and they are scared and they are stressed. That is the answer to that member Jono Naylor's speech that he just made about how there are rogue tenants and they do terrible things to houses. There are dozens and dozens—thousands—of people out there who are scared that any day they are going to lose the roof over their head.The Christchurch experience is a cautionary tale that we must all listen to because we had the experience of rack-renters for years. When the insurance money washed into Christchurch for people to rebuild and repair their homes there was money for people to go out and rent properties and the landlords took advantage of that. There were people who were paying $1000 a week for a substandard house. When there is an opportunity to make money unfortunately there are some people who will do that and they will exploit other people to do it.This bill attempts to put a stop to that. All it wants to do is bring fairness back into the housing market. Not only did we have the experience of rack-renters—not for 1 year not for 2 years but for several years—but we had and we continue to have the condition of as-is where-is" homes. People actually took their money they left their damaged homes they rented them out and they went and bought somewhere nice and dry and warm somewhere else. They left these properties unrepaired or not repaired to a fit standard. We have got thousands of them across Christchurch. We have got many of them in my electorate. People have not repaired their homes and they are making money. They are exploiting people.I am incensed that the National Government members can stand there and defend these practices. Sure we have got some great landlords in this country but I can tell you that we have many many landlords who are just in it to exploit to make money and actually to cause misery to people. The whole idea of letting fees—we have got people who turn over their leases every 6 months and they charge hundreds of dollars just to renew a lease. That is exploitation and it should not happen. I am really angry about this—I am really angry.I just want to challenge Alfred Ngaro and his view—his take—about this. Mr Ngaro I want to say something to you. I have Cook Islands people from Auckland getting in touch with me in Christchurch to try to help them find rentals. I have Cook Islands people trying to find rentals in Auckland. They are ringing me in Christchurch.Alfred Ngaro: Why are you using the Cook Islands thing?POTO WILLIAMS: Because they cannot afford to find rentals in Auckland. They are facing eviction. They have huge costs.Alfred Ngaro: What's your point Poto?POTO WILLIAMS: My point Mr Ngaro is that Cook Islanders have the lowest homeownership rates of any Pacific Islanders—the lowest homeownership rates. They are our people. They are our people Mr Ngaro and that is a shame. You should be ashamed of supporting a Government that does not promote homeownership for our people. Homeownership is the only way that we are going to be able to put down roots and develop a strong community not being transient—Alfred Ngaro: What have you done for our people?POTO WILLIAMS: What have you done for our people? Stand up. Stand up right now Mr Ngaro and tell me what you have done for the Cook Islands people in this country.Alfred Ngaro: You stand up.POTO WILLIAMS: You stand up and tell me that Mr Ngaro because I know—Alfred Ngaro: You're ashamed to say that.POTO WILLIAMS: Excuse me. [Interruption]"