Davidson MaramaMARAMA DAVIDSON (Co-Leader—Green): The Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill is vital to help to rebalance the power imbalance that has stood its ground for far too long in this country that has seen harm for far too many people. Everyone should be able to live a life of dignity whether they rent or own a home. Choosing to rent and having to rent should not mean that we create a whole entire second-class citizen community in our country simply because those people are at the whim of a ramped-up housing market which has seen unaffordable house prices which has seen insecurity; people having to move from their communities move their children from school several times over a few years if not during the year; people not having any sense of security whether they are going to be able to live in their home for very long or not; people not being able to put down roots in their community form relationships and networks in their very own neighbourhoods. That imbalance has created that impact on thousands and thousands of people in fact for generations and decades.We believe that housing is primarily a home for people to live in and put down roots. We recognise the benefits of cohesive and connected communities of healthier quality lives for everyone and this means treating housing as a fundamental human right and a public good and not just as a way for the rich to get richer while we have thousands of people who can't even find a home to live in at all. So this is an essential and important necessary step to rebalancing that power to moving us away from a country that has let rampant speculation harm the lives of thousands and thousands of people who are already struggling in our communities. So yes I'm very proud to stand here in support of those people. And that does not mean creating the false divide that the previous speaker was also alluding to. That side of the House likes to create these false divides likes to drum up the hating this bill and hating that bill when in fact they are the only people the only group of MPs in here who are drumming up that divide. This is about supporting communities not hating on other communities. This is about recognising that we have got some work and some fixing up to do that. We all should surely understand and have that social contract amongst ourselves that we can indeed be a country that supports people to live in affordable and secure homes that sees the benefit of families being able to feel and breathe out a sigh of relief that they can plan their lives and can at least rely on the home that they are living in whether they rent or own it. So this bill is absolutely part of and an essential first step in the solution to rebalance that.I understand that we had 1436 submissions on the bill from 1246 submitters and I appreciate the work of the select committee during lockdown to allow the hearings and the oral submissions to continue to be heard. I wanted to acknowledge that this is the second reading of this the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill. After having come through the Social Services and Community Committee some amendments were made to improve the bill to make sure that yes we are making sure renters people who rent have a fairer go have an actual decent shot at living a decent life as well as balancing the requirements for property owners to be able to maintain a reasonable security for themselves in the property that they own.So what the bill actually does—some of what the bill actually does—that is positive for everyone is increase the security of tenure for tenants who are meeting their obligations—I will repeat that: who are meeting their obligations—by removing a landlord's right to use no-cause terminations to end a periodic tenancy agreement. That is one of the most substantial changes that we should have been working through in this House decades ago. So I'm celebrating that we have arrived at this place. We want to prohibit the solicitation of rental bids by landlords. There are too many stories about how that has been pushing rentals up rental prices up where families knowing they can't even afford to pay any rent that might be advertised but knowing that they're at the back of the line—who are the families who have been most harmed by rental bidding? It is the very families who know that they will be the last choice whether it is a mother with young children whether it is a person with a disability whether it is simply because they know that they are at the whim of whatever race favour that landlord might prefer—and by goodness yes that has absolutely also been happening. So those families who feel that they will not get to the front of any rental line will be protected by outlawing that rental-bidding ability in our current law. We are limiting rent increases to once every 12 months to give again some certainty for people who rent who know they won't be whopped more regularly by an increase in rent. I want to make one particular thing very clear. Alongside this Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill which is helping to make things fairer for people who rent—that's it. That's what this bill is doing. It's not hating on property owners; it is making things fairer. We cannot defend the power imbalance that we have let lie for far too long. That is indefensible. So we are wanting to support people who rent more—a good thing.Alongside that and to help prevent—so there's a couple of things. Alongside this bill we absolutely do need to and have been ramping up the provision of public housing. In this not even three years yet in this term alone of Government we have built more public and State homes than any term of Government has since the 1970s and that is what will help to mitigate the availability and the incentive for property owners to move on and to get out of owning property for rental purposes.Now another thing is that actually we do as a country need to move away from our massive reliance on homes as a tradable commodity. There are far more productive uses for people to be able to invest their funds in. It has not been good for social cohesion to allow homes and houses to be used as that nest egg. There are far better progressive causes that are going to equip us for a modern economy that we need to be moving our country and our investors towards. We cannot continue to rely on housing and investment speculation for that cause because housing is a fundamental human right. Once we get that sorted yes then people may want to continue to invest and use housing as a tradable commodity. But we've got to get the provision right first so people can just live a decent life. That's what this bill is about. I will pick up—last little bit—and salute the Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing) who I believe is going to bring forward an improvement again regarding domestic violence and making sure that people who are living with violence are able to end and leave their tenancies quickly and more urgently than they would otherwise under an ordinary contract arrangement. Now that is incredible and I am so pleased to see that we will be making that amendment. All homes should be safe. All families should be able to live free from violence. And where we can support people to be able to transition from violence and into safety we absolutely should be doing everything that we can. So I applaud the Minister for bringing that to us and I look forward to supporting that clause and that amendment officially.What else did I want to—oh look it's nearly finished. I think I'm just going to say again that we cannot be a country that defends the power imbalance that has dominated the way we treat housing for generations. That power imbalance has harmed people. That is a reason for us to be able to correct that power imbalance. And that is what this legislation is about—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): The member's time has expired.