O'Connor SimonSIMON O'CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): It's always really good to hear a Government MP who does strongly support the Government's legislation.Hon Scott Simpson: Not many of them do.SIMON O'CONNOR: No that's true. Not many do. So it is a pleasure to stand and speak to this Residential Tenancies (Prohibiting Letting Fees) Amendment Bill and to proudly not support it. Unlike the other side we don't think that costs get magicked away simply by a piece of legislation.You know listening to the speaker who's just taken her chair the Hon Jenny Salesa and as a constituent MP myself—you do hear these stories of people struggling. It's a reality but this bill is not going to reduce any costs because the costs are just going to be developed into a new area. To put it really really simply and other speakers have already you can take away the letting fee but landlords will just then allocate that into the weekly rent. Arguably speaking even if they decide just to up the rent by probably the minimum that they would of $5 that's ultimately going to be more money that someone renting is going to pay in order to cover the loss of the letting fees. It's a simple element of human nature and at the end of the day landlords are not bad people.We know that most landlords are actually mums and dads. It might be just the one other house that they own where they're trying to generate some income—more often than not actually just to cover the costs and we're touching on that of course. We've just had this Government announce today in Auckland that they're effectively going to double the tax on petrol just as they've increased a whole lot of other costs and look to do so even more. This is something which landlords will have to pass on and will pass on. As I said at the start this bill is not going to magic away the costs. At the end of the day those renting are going to have to pay more money.We also heard from the speaker who has just resumed her seat about the trouble of families moving and that's true. People have to move. I've had to move a number of times myself in life. It can be expensive but two things were overlooked in the contribution. The first is particularly for those who are struggling that the Ministry of Social Development provides support for bonds. I know this because I used to sign off thousands of dollars of them a week. There is support there.The second point is—and I will illustrate the second point with a story. Landlords get a letting agent in in order to help them vet to make the decisions. It's a service if you will a convenience not only to the landlord but also to those who are wanting to rent. They go through that process and in many ways they're contributing of course by paying the letting fee in order to get the place. Well a lot of landlords now will either rush that process or avoid it and avoiding it means of course that the house won't be available for renting. That's not going to make it any easier for families moving. Or the landlord's going to rush through the process and find a few days later that actually this isn't working out at all and they're going to do what they're allowed to do in the law which is move that family or that person on. So I'm suspecting we're going to see quite a churn in the rental market or a higher churn in the rental market because of a bill like this.As I said at the start one does not magic away the costs and I think it's an unfortunate element of this Government and it's certainly a problem in the left that they just believe that whatever they say whatever they write down in law makes things good and easy.Hon Scott Simpson: Virtue signalling.SIMON O'CONNOR: Virtue signalling as my colleague Scott Simpson has indicated and look this certainly fits into it. It just looks so good: We're just going to abolish the letting fees; you just don't have to worry about that any more tenants." Look as a tenant myself in the past absolutely at one level you'd love to see that go. The short-term win though will be instantly replaced by a long-term loss. Landlords will charge more. They will start to do that. Already even before we've concluded this first reading they'll be looking to increase the rent week after week after week on the tenants. And this I would suggest is just going to be one failed approach one failed policy more that this Government is introducing. If they really wanted to help in the residential tenancy space it would actually be by continuing to engage in the private market as well helping people—well seeing the opportunities to actually own to rent. There are greater opportunities than this virtue signalling.So look really it's a simple bill. It makes the simplest of mistakes. This is only going to transfer the costs on into the rent. As I say too it's going to make landlords race through this process themselves as they initially attempt to save some money. That's going to lead to poor decisions and at the end of the day the people who are going to suffer most which is the irony of all left-wing policies is the very people they're trying to help."