Williams Poto: Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliams Poto: Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 18 March 2015. Volume:704;Page:2415. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]POTO WILLIAMS (Labour—Christchurch East): A few months ago I had my colleague Phil Twyford attend a meeting of people who are interested in housing issues in Christchurch. There were a few very knowledgable who spoke at that meeting. Two of them I have to say quoted John A Lee. Those on this side of the House know John A Lee’s legacy was really around the construction of State homes in the 1930s. His quote is: “It is well to remember that good housing is essential for a good community.” We all know that. The speakers who have spoken already and who will speak after will know the implications of good warm dry and affordable housing. In those days harking back to John A Lee they knew about housing. Housing New Zealand homes were the gold standard. Everybody wanted to have a State house because they were so well constructed. They were the real basis they were the building blocks for our communities.Decent housing does more than just provide a roof over people’s heads; it actually does many things including it is well-known leading to improving or stabilising good health outcomes for our community. But it does something else as well. Sustainable housing is one of the major ways to build strong communities. Families are able to stay in their houses put down roots form connections into the community the kids go to the same school they have friends the parents also are able to get support from the wider community and it is really important that we do everything we can to ensure that people are not only in decent housing but in sustainable housing.Just to quote from something that I was reading today: “Every child deserves to grow up in a warm dry house.” I do not think anybody on either side of the House would argue with that. It is absolutely important to all of us that our families grow up in warm dry houses. But I want to tell you about a visit that I made during winter of last year to a constituent of mine who lives in a Housing New Zealand home. I guess in a sense it challenges what Matt Doocey said about Housing New Zealand and its maintenance programme. This was a mother of either three children or four children. As I recall they were living in a three-bedroom home. The home was not well insulated. They had a heat pump in the lounge and everyone crowded into the lounge. It was the only room that was able to be heated. There was a problem with mould in one of the children’s bedrooms and of course we know mould is a real symptom of a sick house. A sick house a poorly insulated house leads to sick children.We visited during the day—it was about lunchtime. We walked through the house and as we walked through the house the condensation could be seen coming out of our mouths. This was a Housing New Zealand home provided for a family to grow up in. This particular woman was asking for my assistance to help her to transfer out of this house which was absolutely not appropriate for her children to be living in. They were sick. She had an infant as well as some toddlers in the house and it was totally inappropriate.If the Government cannot meet a standard that is fit for our communities how can it tell us that this bill is not appropriate? Landlords in this country should not be allowed to get away with the housing conditions that many of our families currently endure and pay good money for as well. I do not see the point in this Government supporting landlords to behave in this way. They had plenty of opportunity to bring their homes up to standard when the subsidised insulation programme was put in place and they have not taken advantage of it. Now it is time for us to set the standards. I really support this bill to the select committee. Thank you.