Davidson MaramaMARAMA DAVIDSON (Green): The Green Party will support the Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill (No 2) from my colleague Andrew Little. This bill is to amend the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 because the standards are just not good enough. It is quite clear that this Government which has been in power which has had the tools available to it to fix the current situation did not fix the current situation. The standards have not been good enough for far too long and that is why so many of our rental properties today have been making children sick over and over again and have been responsible for causing annual winter deaths of our people. We need to do better and Andrew Little's bill the Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill (No 2) proposes exactly that.I want to enforce what my colleague Metiria Turei has said. She said: How dare the Government lecture us? How dare the Government lecture us that they are doing a good job to fix things?". It is 2017. You have been in power for 9 years and last year you finally decided to put a bill through Parliament and it is a stink one. You finally decided to put some standards through and the standards—Hon Member: A stink one—what?MARAMA DAVIDSON: Actually it is a stink one because mould in rental properties is stinky and smelly and more rental properties have mould than private properties—surprise surprise. So it is a stink bill that you have put through because the standards that the Minister Nick Smith put through went back to the 1970s. I mean we all like to go back to the 1970s but not when it comes to making sure our homes are healthy. The standards need to be 2017 not 1978.I did come to Parliament on an understanding that we would do everything we can. The standard has to be that our people our children our elderly people our citizens can live in rental properties and their health is not at all compromised and we in Aotearoa New Zealand can afford that. We have enough. We have enough to make sure that our people are adequately housed. We cannot afford to continue with standards that keep making our children sick. We actually cannot afford that. So I do take some offence at the constant raising of the issue from the Government side of the House where members keep saying: "How will we afford it?". We cannot afford the current situation not financially and not morally. Oh gosh there are just too many things. We know what is happening: the admission of 42000 children to hospital with preventable diseases. What country is this? There have been 1600 deaths caused by inadequate housing. What country is this? The Government has had 9 years to fix this—9 years—and last year it put through a shoddy bill.Our standards need to be better and this bill is a good start. Also the standards need better enforcement. I want to go back to one of the submissions—and it does relate to this bill—on the Government's bill where the standards are not good enough. It was for the residential tenancies amendment stuff that the Government put through last year. One of the submissions that will stay with me was from the Sisters of Mercy Wiri from Sister Anne Hurley who was very very clear that the families that she advocates for—when it comes to poor properties and poor rental housing—are afraid of making a noise. They are afraid of taking anything to the Tenancy Tribunal. They are afraid of raising an issue with the landlord. Now do we understand why? Do we here in this privileged House understand why? It is too much living on the edge knowing that you could be kicked out just for raising the issue.We will be supporting this bill. We need to have standards that save lives and stop sickness and we need better enforcement of the standards. Standards are nothing if tenants feel afraid to say anything about the mould that is coming through the wall. Come on Government; come on this House of Representatives—let us represent. Thank you."