Upston Louise: Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Financial Assistance Package) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Upston Louise: Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Financial Assistance Package) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
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LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupo) 
: 
 I am pleased to stand in support of this third reading of the Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Financial Assistance Package) Amendment Bill. This is a bill that will give some people some certainty and these are very vulnerable people. I am sure that every one of us in the House will have faced one or many more of them over the years. It is very important that the Government steps up with an assistance package that helps people not only rebuild their homes but more important rebuild their lives. This bill is another example of the Government getting on and getting the job done. That is what people want; they want some certainty. 
Others speakers in the House today have referred to leaky homes as a disaster and it is fair to say that the issue is a disaster of significant proportions. In the fullness of time this may end up to be larger or smaller than the Canterbury earthquake but it is a disaster none the less. I am pleased that the speaker before me Rick Barker chose to take an optimistic view in terms of apportioning blame. It is one looking forward to the future and looking at this financial assistance package as a good solution where the Government shares responsibility for the cost with local government—the Government being responsible for 25 percent of the cost and local government for 25 percent of the cost. That is a fair and equitable solution in terms of how we are able to go forward and to make sure that people are able to rebuild their homes. 
I want to touch just for a moment on the human cost of this. Often in this debate we have talked about the financial cost and whether it is $1 billion or $11 billion but more important for me is the human cost which we are unable to measure entirely ever. That is why in terms of the contribution of this bill it provides people whether an individual or a family with the certainty to get on to move forwards and to rebuild. Yes there is a time frame and other speakers before me have talked about the fact that the drawing of a line will have an impact on some people but in the hearing of the Local Government and Environment Committee it was clear given the submissions that came in there was general support for the bill. People accepted that this bill was a fair and equitable solution to a fairly devastating issue. 
It was really good to see the strong support from local authorities. As the Minister for Building and Construction said we have also had the signalling of support and agreement by the banks. They are an important part of this puzzle so that people who wish to borrow to complete their repairs and maintenance are able to do that. Getting the banks on board was an important part of the solution and I know that the Minister has done an enormous amount of work to make sure that this is a package they could buy into. So I congratulate the Minister on doing that. 
I say in closing that each one of us has heard the stories of the agony for homeowners and of how much litigation and legal wrangling has gone on for them in trying to solve this problem of leaky homes so it is really great to see that this bill is focused on fixing and rebuilding homes rather than lengthy litigation and legal wrangling. That is why I am proud to support this bill. 
Bill read a third time.