Twyford Phil: Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill (No 2) — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTwyford Phil: Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill (No 2) — First Reading[Sitting date: 04 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10815. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū): This morning’s New Zealand Herald commented in its editorial that Nick Smith’s bill—which is the counterpart to the bill that we are debating tonight—the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill was a grudging half measure and introduced as a sop to public opinion. Tonight Parliament has the opportunity to do the job properly. New Zealand is ready to bring our rental housing into the 21st century. It is no longer good enough in this country of ours that there are 42000—in fact the latest figures indicate 50000—preventable hospitalisations of children with respiratory and infectious diseases. Most of those are directly attributable to poverty and cold damp and mouldy housing.I want to start by quoting the Children’s Commissioner Dr Russell Wills who told Parliament that National’s bill is “shameful” and a “wasted opportunity a broken promise to our children” that will “do little for children living in cold damp mouldy housing.” The Minister should be paying attention to the fact that the Child Poverty Action Group which has been one of the most dedicated and tireless groups campaigning on this issue has come out enthusiastically in support of Andrew Little’s bill.Nick Smith has been going around the country saying that Andrew Little’s bill will add unsupportable costs to landlords and drive up rents. That is absolute rubbish. A heat pump which Nick Smith’s bill will not require in rental housing but Andrew Little’s bill will will cost the landlord $2000. That cost will last a lifetime of let us say 15 years for an asset that will generate hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue for that landlord. But more importantly Dr Smith for that small investment it will save lives and prevent unnecessary hospitalisations. The Minister knows that when we are talking about a cost-benefit analysis $1 invested in retrofitting rental properties will save the taxpayer $6 in public health expenditure.Andrew Little’s bill is comprehensive. It includes heating. Nick Smith’s bill does not. It only includes insulation and smoke alarms. Everybody knows except the Minister that if you insulate a cold house it is still a cold house. Andrew Little’s bill will require under the standards that will be promulgated under regulations a modern affordable and fixed heating source. The other deficiency in Nick Smith’s bill which Andrew Little’s bill fixed is that it will mandate legislation standards to the state of the modern building code. Nick Smith’s bill will allow houses that are retrofitted that are already insulated to the 1978 standard which is this standard—Hon Dr Nick Smith: That’s a lie.PHIL TWYFORD: Nick Smith’s bill will allow hundreds of—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! The member will resume his seat. Nick Smith will stand withdraw and apologise.Hon Dr Nick Smith: I stand withdraw and apologise.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): The member will now leave the House. It is the second time. He knows how to withdraw properly. He will leave the House.Hon Dr Nick Smith: Sorry what did I do wrong?The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): The member knows he makes no further comment and he did.Hon Dr Nick Smith: I apologise.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Dr Smith just come back. If it was a genuine mistake on your part and you give me that assurance the member may stay.Hon Dr Nick Smith: I genuinely apologise.PHIL TWYFORD: Andrew Little’s bill is comprehensive. It does not include the giant loophole that Nick Smith’s bill does. Andrew Little’s bill will require modern insulation standards set to the 2002 standard in the building code. Nick Smith’s bill will allow houses that are insulated to the old 1978 standard to continue with this old standard and not have to be upgraded to this newer standard. That is why Andrew Little’s bill is a better bill.Nick Smith says that his bill will be implemented faster than Andrew Little’s bill. That is rubbish. Andrew Little’s bill has a 12-month grace period for landlords. But when every tenancy turns over it requires the landlord to sign up to the new standards and guarantee that it meets the standards in Andrew Little’s bill. Nick Smith’s bill will allow landlords to have a phase in period of 4 years—Nick Smith allows a 4-year grace period in meeting the insulation standards. So he is quite wrong when he says that his bill will be implemented faster.Weare leaving the children of this country with a terrible legacy. Children who grow up in cold damp mouldy homes—many of them end up with permanent lung damage called bronchiectasis. It consigns them to a lifetime of respiratory infections and premature death. Andrew Little’s bill will guarantee that every rental property in this country is warm and dry and that kids growing up in those houses get a decent start in life. We have diseases in this country that have not been seen in Europe since the Second World War. It has to stop. Andrew Little’s bill will enact the most important public health reform that this country has seen in decades.