Lee DeniseDENISE LEE (National—Maungakiekie): Thank you Madam Speaker for the opportunity to speak to the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill in its the first reading here in the House. It is the bill that quite simply piles pressure on landlords. It does not give them strength as the previous speaker Ron Mark just outrageously claimed; it piles pressure on landlords—as simple as that. Like my previous colleague Lawrence Yule I want to give some examples from a local context: Onehunga. Onehunga is a suburb in the electorate that I represent the great Maungakiekie. First in Onehunga we had the KiwiBuild two-bedroom home that was too small for even KiwiBuild's rules. So we had Minister Phil Twyford get that wrong and they had to quickly go back and change the size of that apartment. Then in Onehunga we had just recently a private buyer with a 10 percent deposit down on an apartment and then Housing New Zealand or Kāinga Ora came in and gazumped her and undercut her and turfed her out. So we've had that in Onehunga and now the Government's on to private landlords in that area. How are they doing that? Here's an example. I have had correspondence from someone as a constituent and here's what Richard said to me: This proposed bill"—the one that we're debating right now—"undermines my rights as a property owner and prevents me from controlling who rents my property and how long they can rent it for." And here's the golden line: "It's just about the straw that breaks the camel's back as far as myself continuing to rent out my property."—the straw that breaks the camel's back for someone who wants to continue to rent out their property. Now what's the answer to this? There isn't an answer from the other side of the House. How does any of their programme engender trust in getting housing going in my area and in New Zealand? It doesn't. The programme is unbelievably flawed. This Labour-led Government cannot be trusted to deliver for the housing market for tenants or landlords—full stop. There are failed programmes everywhere we look: KiwiBuild rents going up all over New Zealand and this is nothing short of an attack on property rights for good well-meaning landlords around the country. What we've got here is a bill that will give ability for tenants to modify their houses without permission of the owner to have an indefinite length of tenancy and also have pets without permission. All of these create a cauldron that makes it a lot tougher for landlords to want to stay in the market of renting out their homes. It will definitely encourage some landlords to sell up and create more pressure on the market. Now you wouldn't think that we on this side of the House would need to be this simple but we're about to be this simple. It's a message for the Government: too much too quickly on landlords without any incentives. As Dan Bidois said earlier more stick than carrot without any incentives leaves fewer people wanting to be landlords. That's the simple message: too much too quickly fewer landlords—that's what you will face and you will face that very soon. I'm going to finish back at Onehunga again. Emergency housing grants are up 70 percent—70 percent—in Onehunga. We have now another addition to the perfect storm of bad policy and what we need is much better weather. Bring on 19 September for a good sunny day and a change of Government."