O'Connor Simon: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Connor Simon: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 11 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:11020. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SIMON O’CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): I am not even sure where to start with that talk. I am almost tempted not to bother. I will just challenge that particular member Carmel Sepuloni: I am more than happy to double down on my experience in the social and community service with hers any day in actually working and serving—Carmel Sepuloni: Oh really? Yeah?SIMON O’CONNOR: Absolutely—absolutely. It does not matter whether it has been homeless shelters or drug addiction the military vocational training centres prisons. Where else could we—homeless shelters. I think I have mentioned those. Hospitals and just working with the people on the street particularly around Hopetoun Street and actually the homeless community within the likes of Auckland and Brooklyn New York. We might even mention Fiji.Why I mention all of that is because we get constant accusations on this side that we do not care. Even worse are the accusations that we do not know what we are talking about. I somewhat take offence at that because actually as someone who has worked hard in this area I know two things. One is that I actually have experience and from that experience including in areas like this I know that there is still stuff that I can learn from. I am not presumptuous enough or arrogant enough to start preaching in this House that we know better. Furthermore to fall into the sort of fallacious argument that all we have to do is more—“Oh well you know it is great that we have got insulation but then if we had even more fluff it would just make the biggest difference. Oh if we just put more smoke alarms in and if we spent more money it will all fix things.” Actually that is not the core of the argument.The Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill is a good bill. It is a step in completely the right direction. It fits perfectly with National policy which is to actually balance the range of needs. You know having worked in the social sector I know that if you all of a sudden impose a whole lot of extra costs on landlords there are going to be consequences for the very people you want to help. So all of a sudden all this talk about all this other extra stuff we should do will actually do far more harm. But we know and I know from my own electorate work where constituents do come in that actually the idea of having insulation—up to New Zealand standards importantly—will make a difference and one of the great things has already been illustrated by the work that the Government has done with State homes.The other thing is around smoke alarms. I mean it is so basic. It is tragic in a way that we have not done that already but it is great that it is now being addressed. It makes a lot of sense and I am sure we will hear from other colleagues—you know 75 percent of deaths in homes could have been prevented by the use of smoke alarms.So this is a good bill. It is a proportionate bill. I do not think that having barbs and insults being hurled across the House that neither side knows what it is talking about is of much help at all. I think this is a bill that should be rightly supported by all sides of the House. I have certainly heard that Labour is going to do so so kudos that those members are doing that and I will be interested to hear later on what the other parties are doing. This is a good bill. It is a responsible bill. It is the proportionate thinking that is good for all New Zealanders and in particular for those who are renting. Thanks very much.