This afternoon, Hon Peter Dunne announced his resignation from Parliament after serving 33 years for the Ōhāriu Electorate. This move came shortly
after the One News Colmar Brunton poll released just last week putting Labour’s Greg O’Connor well ahead of the polls. National has since announced
that it will be throwing its full support behind its own candidate, Brett Hudson, in the lead-up to the 2017 General Election.
 
On the surface, Mr Dunne’s resignation seems no cause for alarm. How many of us regularly bat an eyelid at the comings and goings of Parliament before
the trickle-down effects of policies are felt in our day-to-day lives? But the likely election of Greg O’Connor this September is significant for
landlords and needs to be addressed.
 
Like his Labour colleagues, Mr O’Connor will most certainly vote for Andrew Little’s Healthy Homes Bill No. 2 tipping the 59-60 balance at the bill’s
second reading just late last month. If passed into law, the HHB will have a significant implication on cost-bearing of landlords without achieving
equivalency in health outcome of tenants.
 
What is the HHB?
Simply put, the HHB will make current rental minimum standards look like a walk on the beach. It requires minimum standards to be set on heating, insulation,
ventilation, and drainage in homes before they can legally be rented out.
 
At first glance, the HHB is most certainly noble in cause. Branded as an act of absolute protectionism for the less advantaged, the Bill is successfully
at getting most New Zealander’s buy-in. After all, it takes a special kind of cold-heartedness to not respond to the needs of sick and vulnerable
children. While the emotional premise of the Bill is absolutely irrefutable,...