O'Connor GregGREG O'CONNOR (Labour—Ōhāriu): Thank you Madam Speaker. Good to see the member opposite remains an irony-free zone. A shame that speech wasn't made in about 2013 when the Salvation Army were told by Bill English in his office that they had a major housing problem coming and could they help with it and they had to tell him they couldn't. What a shame that that member didn't stand up and make that speech about then because we probably wouldn't be in the situation we are now where fortunately—I'm very proud to be a member of a Government that has actually now hit record number of consents. Hon Judith Collins: Point of order Madam Speaker. The member who has now resumed his seat has no idea about what speeches I gave at those appropriate times.GREG O'CONNOR: Well if I get a lazy moment some time over the winter then I'll go through Hansard and find one shall I—to that speaker. I'm sure that there'll be some riveting reading.But anyway perhaps I should get back to the topic. This is a topic that really is a time because even that last speaker did speak of how many people there are in the UK. In fact just a bit of accuracy: if you overlay a map of the South Island over the UK you will see it's actually vastly smaller than the whole of New Zealand land area itself. But she does make a good point: as you do walk around the UK around anywhere around Europe; any of the major capitals Barcelona comes to mind—where certainly you've got to walk a long way from city centres before you'll see any single-level dwellings. You may get the odd relic of wealthier times in the area but certainly living in apartments living multi-storey is part of life in the Northern Hemisphere. As a result the laws around the regulations around and the way that people live have evolved accordingly.Of course in New Zealand we haven't. We have looked forward to our quarter-acre paradise designed at a time when those people who owned those houses or were even renting them were expected to put in a garden out the back there was room for it and they would actually grow their own vegetables and supplies. Well those days are well and truly gone. If you go to any town or city in New Zealand of any medium size you'll find many of those back lawns now have been subdivided and the dreaded cross-lease that the previous speaker talked about is a reality even if it is really only down a driveway.I personally nearly bought a property recently myself became aware of the complications that were going to arise as a result of it being a unit title particularly since one of the people on the unit title didn't live in either of the flats on the property but did own the land around and was going to be able to do essentially what he wanted as an equal partner in that.Many speakers before me today have spoken of finding out just—well human nature initially particularly where there is a sharing because when you live in those sort of confines if you can't rely on human nature if you can't rely on the goodwill of your fellow man or woman in that area then you will actually require some sort of governance; some sort of oversight.In fact it's quite important that while we discuss this tonight it is an amendment bill to go back to actually what the Unit Titles Act 2010—it's the law governing building developments where multiple owners own a unit title and there is shared ownership of common areas such as lifts lobbies or driveways.More New Zealanders are choosing to live in apartments and townhouses. The annual number of townhouses flats and units consented exceeding 10000 for the first time in August. So again all talk really be it around your local territorial authority your local council district councils is all now about intensification particularly in the city. While many residents' associations and others are naturally concerned to preserve the nature of their areas the reality of it I think we all know is we can't continue to just build out particularly where you drive into work and you see what once was beautiful growing luscious and fertile land now being housing. That's pretty much the case around most cities and even towns in New Zealand now. It simply can't continue and the reality of it is: we simply must go up. If we're going to go up we need the sort of rules and regulations and guidelines that this piece of legislation actually enables.This long-term maintenance plan—I think I was on the committee that considered this bill and really that was I suppose the part of it that really struck me as we started talking about the need for a 30-year long-term maintenance plan. So what's that all about? Well clearly that's the sort of plan—there's nothing worse than buying into a building into an apartment into a unit and suddenly finding out the lifts are going to need replacing in five years' time and it was well known to those who perhaps got out perhaps to those who have been part of the body corporate not minuted and so there was no way they would have been able to find out. So you get in and all of a sudden find not only is it the dreaded leaky" that many speakers have spoken about tonight but actually you're up for the lifts. Also just another aspect is of where someone who did buy into a body corporate they were on the property the property they actually occupied was industrial property which wasn't even connected to the largely residential and semi-commercial property connected to it which did have lifts had quite high maintenance long-term maintenance costs and although these particular tenants or these owners were never going to be beneficiaries of that they were also up for the costs. So these are the sorts of protections that people will need—just working through the bill the various aspects of it—as I say going back particularly about the long-term plans. The other thing—and again one of the earlier speakers talked about how it has been some time since we did discuss this bill here. Since we did so of course we've now had COVID we've all learnt how easy remote access can be evidenced by the mere fact here we are standing doing a virtual Parliament or a hybrid Parliament something that was inconceivable—actually wouldn't be conceived; some people wouldn't conceive it last year but actually it was inconceivable at all before 2020. So for the bill which we are in we are concerned about the proxy part of the bill—proxy farming. I think anyone who's been involved in many of these organisations and they often are amateurs know that some hopefully well-meaning individuals who can take over who have probably got time on their hands can take over the running of these things can get proxy votes from those who either deliberately or just through ignorance are quite happy to have their vote going to individuals who may or may not have their own best long-term interests at heart. So again when one looks at this bill and says "Why are we digging so deep into this"? it is an incredibly important part of ensuring that we do give the protection to what is really going to be the next generation. What I'm finding in my own Ōhāriu electorate is that some of the developers up there who probably experimentally started building what we'd call side-by-sides or tenement buildings they felt that they probably wouldn't really be selling suddenly found there was a huge demand for the types of buildings they built as something of an experiment and now they can't build enough of them. So what we are seeing is that we have got a generation coming through that probably doesn't necessarily need or want the maintenance of a back lawn which on the surface of it looks nice but don't get a nice growing spring making one bored enough either from reading Hansard of the previous speakers' speeches or watching grass grow which are probably about the same. But some people actually don't necessarily want that type of property and will end up very happy to be living downtown or living in a city where they can walk to the type of things that perhaps the next generation is more keen on.So there was a lot of work to do on this bill. It was certainly a learning experience for many of us I know on the committee and I think that we have got it into something of a workable bill and of course I do have to at this stage congratulate those who have been part of getting it to this part of the process. So I'm happy to commend it to the House."