Williams PotoHon POTO WILLIAMS (Minister for Building and Construction): I stand on the presumption that we are able to speak on clause 3 which is Schedules 1 through 8. I'd like to speak directly to changes to the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) as noted in Schedule 5 and just talk a little bit about the reason that we are here in this debate tonight.Firstly can I mihi to all of our colleagues our whānau and friends in Auckland and the Waikato knowing that you are doing the hard mahi for all of us that it is particularly difficult for you considering the lockdown level that you're experiencing at this time and my gratitude to you all for the work that you're doing.The changes that I'm signalling under Schedule 5 to the RTA have come about because of the experience that we had during the last major lockdown that we had where the whole country was locked down and the experience of those people who were transitioning out of their rental residential properties and were unable to do so because of the public health restrictions that were imposed under level 3. What I'm proposing is the ability for tenancies to be put on hold when the country is at an alert level 4 which means that those people who are required to stay in place because of the public health order can do so knowing that at the end of the alert level 4 when it drops down to level 3 or lower that the period of their termination notice is then topped up by 28 days which allows them the opportunity to seek to view and to move into a property should they need to. Also part of the changes we are seeking to make make it possible that tenancies that need to be terminated particularly for antisocial behaviour can continue to occur and in the case of boarding houses that the usual period for notification and the application of that termination has been reduced to 48 hours. Those people who are in a residential tenancy agreement who are wanting to continue with their termination are able to do so. They do not need the 28-day top-up if that's not required if they're able to move into their property on the resumption of alert level 3 or lower. The COVID termination order is able to be turned on or off by the Minister and the notification for the order coming to an end is given within seven days of that order finishing. The other aspect of this is the changes to Schedule 5 also include the ability for the Tenancy Tribunal to continue to conduct hearings on the papers for 12 months after the bill is enacted. When we were first discussing the changes to the RTA we were actually in the process of transitioning from level 4 to level 3. So the application for this particular part of the COVID measures will become apparent should the country go into alert level 4 again and it is a mechanism that is a backstop for future process should that be needed to go in place. So while it is currently not applicable—Heaven forbid we have to enact it—it may be available for those who need it in the future. It's one of the things that we put into place during the last time we made some emergency measures. This time it was slightly different from the last iteration and we're hopeful that we don't have to use it but it's a provision that's in place should we need to. Along with the other measures that this Government is taking it's clear that COVID has thrown up some interesting scenarios for us and as a Government we have to be responsive to those—responsive at the time that they occur but also anticipating what may occur into the future. Thank you Mr Chair.