Henare Peeni: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHenare Peeni: Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 24 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11128. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PEENI HENARE (Labour—Tāmaki Makaurau): Ka pai Mr Chairman. Thank you very much for allowing me this opportunity. I rise to make a brief contribution to this debate and I want to speak specifically to clause 37 in respect of the installation of smoke alarms. Minister Nick Smith has just mentioned to us that we are underestimating the cost that it has to be economically viable and sustainable and all of this choice jargon. I received a text message from one of my constituents who is actually watching right now in one of the libraries in South Auckland. Let me explain what is “economically viable” for that constituent—and it is a matter of dollars and cents just as the Minister has already mentioned. In this particular clause there will be an onus placed upon the tenant to replace flat batteries in the alarms. I understand the reasons around safety because we do see a heck of a lot of unnecessary house fires in communities whether they are rural or in the city but this particular constituent of mine said that after his expenses go out for rent and for those urgent expenses that are required to maintain life for him and his family he is left with $15—$15—to make sure he can put kai on the table for his family.Although this might seem just a silly little bit in the bill when you place an expectation on a tenant who struggles on $15 per week to feed their family you place on them an expectation to buy say in a standard three-bedroom home three smoke alarms. You have one in the lounge or open living area—it usually covers the dining room as well—one near the kitchen which makes sense and generally one in the hallway which will cover the bedrooms. I am afraid that the price of those batteries is just beyond the reach of some of our families. I know that sounds petty and minuscule to some in the Committee here but I can tell you that if it is a matter of dollars and cents for those who come through into my offices then they struggle to meet those costs. They struggle to meet emergency situations—a flat tyre for example—where costs are really high. Even the smallest of price increases in their weekly budget which they must factor into their budgeting throughout the week or throughout the month—however they might be paid—just those small things are a real challenge for those people.While continuing on this point I want to consider the current crisis. I want in relation to smoke alarms think about the emergency housing situation. I also want to think about the emergency housing situation that is being met right now by the likes of Te Puea Marae. Some of the compliance requirements for those emergency houses—I know this legislation says “private rentals”—I wonder how we can then boost these kinds of protections for those who are providing these necessary services. Some of those people were mentioned by my colleague Su’a William Sio who talked about garages and the need for those to be insulated and have a fire alarm placed inside them. That is even more important in my constituency when I consider a particular house I recently visited. Will there be compliance requirements for that private rental property? The garage is also being rented out by the person who owns that property so essentially there are two dwellings on the property where separate families are living. I wonder whether these particular amendments to the bill will require those other dwellings like a garage—and like a carport as we have seen very recently—to meet any particular standard that will provide a warm safe dry and healthy home for those families and those resident in those homes; and safe by way of fire alarms.I consider Supplementary Order Paper 172 presented to the Committee by Metiria Turei and I think it is probably a fair reflection of what is not being done by this Government. Why? Because if you look at the Supplementary Order Paper you will see a heck of a lot of recommendations—[Bell rung] Mr Chair?The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): Peeni Henare.PEENI HENARE: Excellent Mr Chair thank you very much. You will see quite a large number of amendments being proposed in this Supplementary Order Paper in the hope that we can actually fix the problem—fix the problem not tinker around the edges. This is because what this particular bill that we are debating at the moment proposes is a “steady as she goes” approach—that there is actually not a crisis. We will turn a few knobs here pull a few strings there in the hope that longer term we will have a solution to some of the issues. That is literally tinkering around the edges and not doing enough.Now to Metiria Turei’s fantastic Supplementary Order Paper which details what I consider to be some pretty standard human rights—some of them are as simple as adequate cooking facilities. I wonder whether there are kitchens in the sheds in South Auckland? Probably not. I wonder whether there are places where there is a bath a shower or a toilet with proper sewage disposal in a lot of those sheds that are being rented out as a second dwelling on one property? Probably not. So I want to support Metiria Turei’s Supplementary Order Paper to the Committee today and once again emphasise the fact that this bill just does not go quite far enough.Just going back to clause 37: I know there are small technical things in bills such as this but the word “may” keeps coming up. I consider that the word should be “must”. It should be “must” in many cases and in particular this one where it actually forces the landlords who own these properties to comply and to make sure that smoke alarms go into houses. It sounds like a small word but it is an important word in the scheme of things. I wonder whether Minister Smith or some of the other members from the other side of the Chamber can just address some of those things because they are questions that we all have. They are questions around the safety of our families and they are questions that must be answered in order to fix this housing crisis.I end by saying once again that this bill is just not good enough and it is not big enough. OK we will be supporting it but we do have huge reservations and we also have some other views that we hope to express. Kia ora.