Another incompetently drafted bill by Labour

Nick Smith released:

Labour's so-called Healthy Homes Bill is lacking in detail, slow in timing and unworkable in practise, Building and Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith says.

“The surprising flaw in Mr Little's Bill is that it has a timetable four years slower for insulating than the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill. Mr Little's Bill provides for 12 months before it comes into effect, six months for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) to develop an insulating standard and then five years for compliance.

“Assuming the Bill went through a normal select committee process of six months, this works out at July 2023. The Government requires compliance by July 2019.”

“Mr Little's Bill is little on detail. It simply requires MBIE to develop an insulation standard but is silent on whether it applies to walls, ceiling or underfloor or to what standard. It is dishonest for Labour to claim it provides a higher insulation standard when no insulation standard is specified in the Bill.

Labour seem to specialise in these cheap shoddy badly drafted bills. They had one bill on adoption that merely said the Law Commission should write the law for them and have the Government introduce it. This bill is barely better, saying MBIE should decide on an insulation standard.

Why with all their taxpayer funded staff members, are they unable to write a coherent bill that actually sets out the specific actions they want, so it can be considered on its merits.

Having just had a house insulated, I know first hand the big difference between ceiling, walls and underfloor. In some places you can't do all of them.

“This Bill is unworkable in requiring a landlord to maintain all rental property at a specified minimum indoor temperature – although it does not actually state what the temperature is. The temperature in a home is affected not just by design but by how tenants use a property, including using heating devices, pulling curtains and managing ventilation. In attempting to specify indoor temperatures in rental property, Labour is showing it has learnt nothing from its excessive nanny state policies in government.”

That is just nuts. Stating a set temperature by law is a bit like King Canute. We have central heating, but even with that sometimes we can't get the temperature up to the desired temperature because it is just too damn cold outside.

“This Bill is unworkable in requiring a landlord to maintain all rental property at a specified minimum indoor temperature – although it does not actually state what the temperature is. The temperature in a home is affected not just by design but by how tenants use a property, including using heating devices, pulling curtains and managing ventilation. In attempting to specify indoor temperatures in rental property, Labour is showing it has learnt nothing from its excessive nanny state policies in government.”

As I said, Labour often do this, with bills that are more about platitudes than actual workable policies.

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