Hawkins George: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Hawkins George: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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Hon GEORGE HAWKINS (Labour—Manurewa) 
: 
 I was very pleased to see the Hon Maurice Williamson bring the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill to the House for its first reading tonight. He spoke about another bill this evening. I think this is the most work he has done since he arrived here in 1987. In fact he has probably gone off for a quiet rest now. He has done far more today than he has ever done. 
I am really pleased that this bill is going to the Social Services Committee because Labour will make sure it is well scrutinised. About 44 percent of my friend and colleague Ross Robertson’s constituents live in rental houses. It is over 40 percent in my electorate of Manurewa. When so many people are in residential tenancies of various sorts one needs to be sure that what the Social Services Committee does with this bill will make life better for many New Zealanders. At the moment I do not think it does. However with Moana Mackey on the select committee things will be straightened out somewhat. 
I was interested to hear the last speaker Jo Goodhew say that the average tenancy in New Zealand is only 15 months. That demonstrates why legislation is needed. These people are quite often the ones who are least able to protect themselves. There are some landlords who are not the best. A lot of our landlords are very good but it takes only one or two bad landlords for the whole lot get bad press. We have many people coming to our electorate offices—and I am sure that Ross Robertson’s is the same as mine—about tenancies and bad landlords including unfortunately the Housing New Zealand Corporation. I think that one of the big problems is that some tenants do not know what their commitments are. Yes we sometimes hear that people in State houses do not look after those houses as well as they should. But that is mainly because they do not know what their obligations are or the Housing New Zealand Corporation does not get on with repairs to its houses. 
I was interested to hear what Moana Mackey said about section 35 I think it was. We have mothers with young children come into our electorate offices who are trying to escape from bad partnerships marriages etc. and they want help to get a State house so they can start their life over again. But quite often these people are hounded by gang members who are former partners. Who is going to stand up to a member of the Mongrel Mob and his mates or to a member of Black Power and his mates or any of the other gangs? In the end these people are put under enormous pressure and I think that this is one area that the select committee will need to look at very closely. 
I think there is general agreement that changes need to be made. It is the fine detail in legislation such as this that makes the real difference. When landlords go to hearings they can usually afford to have the best of advice. However a lot of tenants cannot. That means that quite often wealth determines the outcome. I think we also need to remember that when we talk about the obligations of people renting properties we are often talking about the poorest people in New Zealand. Yes many people dream of owning their own home but the reality for many is that that is not an option. If these people fall victim to bad landlords then the whole family suffers. It is interesting to note that people want stable quality housing whether they rent it or own it. If we want good families in New Zealand we have to make sure that there is stable quality housing available for all New Zealanders. 
People want security in their housing. People want stability in their housing. That is why I was somewhat alarmed when the last speaker said that 15 months was the length of the average tenancy. That seems a very very short time. But when one looks at some electorates and sees the turnover in population in areas where there are a large number of rental homes such as in Manukau East Mangere Manurewa and Botany we see so many kids going into schools and coming out of schools. That is something that is often very visible and it means that a family does not have the security and the stability that it needs. Yes it is very easy to talk about bad tenants and bad landlords but both are a minority. We have mainly good tenants and good landlords. This bill will toughen up on some of the actual fines etc. It is sad that we have to go to a system of fines. There are disputes over things such as the cost of water and who pays for it. Landlords can but rarely do impose accounts on tenants for which those tenants are not responsible under their tenancy agreements. 
So it is very important that the bill goes to a select committee. Landlords will come along and make their submissions. Many of the people who live in rental properties will not do that. They possibly will not even know about it. But luckily we have some groups in the community that look out for these people. Usually they are volunteers although on Thursday they will probably find out that they will not have so much money to do that work any more. It is important that these people are heard by the select committee. I hope it will not be a rushed job where if there are lots of submissions people are given only 5 minutes to speak. We saw that with the submissions on the Resource Management Act when people were limited in the amount of time in which they had to put forward their submissions. It is really important that this bill is sent to the Social Services Committee. I will conclude by saying again how good it is to see that the Hon Maurice Williamson who has been here since 1987 had his big day today.