Bryn Jenkins went to Parliament expecting a fight. But when he got there, he was pleasantly surprised.
Mr Jenkins is the elected student welfare officer for the Otago University Students' Association this year and was in Wellington this week with campaigns officer Sean Gamble.
They were there to talk to the social services select committee about a proposed Bill on tenancy regulations, and found the committee members were open to what they had to say - even National Party members.
"We were actually somewhat surprised, because obviously, [since it concerned] a Government Bill, we thought the National MPs would be hostile towards us,'' he said.
"But they were very welcoming and very encouraging towards our point.
"As we know, the flats in Dunedin aren't the greatest,'' Mr Jenkins said.
He has had experience with poor student housing. He lived on Harbour Tce, paying $100 a week in rent to live in a mouldy flat.
"We had a great landlord - very receptive, very easy to talk to - but we still had problems with our flat.
"We had two bedrooms which were facing one side of the house and by the end of the year, large parts of the wall, large parts of the windowsill were all covered in mould.
"We kept it well-ventilated, we cleaned as well as we could,'' he said.
Mr Jenkins said other students had it a lot worse.
His was not a "horror story'', he said.
But in Parliament, he did not want to tell MPs anecdotes, no matter how horrifying, he said.
Politicians knew how bad the situation was, he said.
They needed to hear suggestions on how to fix it.
"Student organisations ... often come across as quite complaining and quite wanting to ask the world of the Government and people around them, and that means the general public don't often have the best image of students,'' he said.
"And we've found, in our own experience, most students aren't like that.
"It's just being careful in how you word things.''
Mr Jenkins and Mr Gamble told the committee the law needed to be clearer on landlords' obligations to keep a flat well-ventilated to prevent mould, Mr Jenkins said.
All properties in the South Island and Central North Island should have to comply with modern insulation standards - under the proposed Bill, some properties only had to meet the 1978 standards, which were more lax.
There should be a uniform standard for heating, Mr Jenkins said.
One of the questions the committee asked was whether the proposed changes would increase the cost of renting, Mr Jenkins said.
He told MPs that would not be a problem.
"If you're in a better insulated, drier home, you're going to be paying less for heating; you're going to be paying less for health costs; you're going to be getting better results at uni; you're just going to have a better quality of life,'' Mr Jenkins said.
"And we feel students will be willing to pay an extra $10 a week, if need be, to accommodate that.''
That, too, Mr Jenkins had experienced firsthand.
This year, he has moved out of his mouldy, $100/week flat into one where there have been no such problems thus far.
His rent is $110/week.
