O'Rourke DenisDENIS O'ROURKE (NZ First): I also wish to begin by thanking the Minister for Building and Housing for the opportunity of a 17-hour debate to show the superb alternatives that are available to the failed Government policies that the other side has failed to turn up and defend tonight. Each of the three Opposition parties has been able to demonstrate the quality of its various proposals in the alternative to the Government's policies and I have a lot of respect for each and every one of the parties' proposals. I hope the public has now understood that there really are alternatives to housing failure and the National Government. I want to thank the Labour Party for its excellent suggestions most of which New Zealand First supported. I want to thank the Greens for doing the same. I want to thank the Māori Party members for changing their minds. I want to thank them for changing their minds after supporting urgency and then voting against the Government by voting for all of the Opposition parties' amendments. It seems a little bit strange but I think they deserve some congratulation on their willingness to change their minds in that way.Su'a William Sio: Don't overdo it.DENIS O'ROURKE: No I am not because I am a little bit disappointed that they did not actually show up to debate. Not once—17 hours not a word. That is a bit of a disappointment. Is it because they are simply not keeping up with the situation? Surely it cannot be that they do not really care about policies such as offer-back and the impact it would have on the people they claim to represent. But I am not going to spend too much time on that because it really does not matter. What I do want to say is: is this about the Minister for Homelessness"? He did not mention in his last speech the fact that this week Auckland house prices for an ordinary two-bedroom house have now reached the magic but tragic $1 million. Most New Zealanders are still in disbelief over that and you can understand why. That if anything is absolute evidence of the failure of Government policy—right there.The Minister also did not mention the failure of the special housing areas (SHAs) that are the subject of this bill. The truth is that over the last 3 years only 1300 houses have been built as a result of that policy and the need as I have previously said in my speeches is actually something like 20000 houses per year over the next 7 years in Auckland alone. Yet this is the pathetic result that we get from this Government. That is also evidence of total failure of Government policy. What the Minister did say showed a total lack of empathy for people who cannot afford that $1 million for an ordinary home and who cannot afford the rent increases which are now skyrocketing out of reach of most people. A lot of them have to move continually chasing lower and lower rentals so that they can just find a place to live. I think it is simply because the National Government really does not care. It does not care about that and what it does care about is that its supporters will be happy about the increase in value of their homes. What it does care about is that the private developers who no doubt give donations to the National Party will be able to make greater profits but it does not really care about the people who are affected. This bill is mostly about extending the SHAs by another 3 years so we are entitled to ask whether that will work. In that context let us have a look first of all at what the Minister has said just this week. Firstly he said: "Auckland house prices are out of control." That is the only thing he has been right about this week—the only thing. He also said this week: "I won't rest until that house price inflation rate gets down to single figures." Let us just think about that. With the average house price in Auckland now $1 million and with single-figure inflation that would still mean another $100000 at least per year on the price of a home. Worse than that an extra $20000 would need to be found for a deposit. That actually shows how out of touch the Minister is about this. I want to also quote Shamubeel Eaqub who said this: "Based on my calculations the typical Auckland house now would take 71 years to buy—20 years of savings for the deposit and 51 years of repayment to clear the debt." So you would actually have to live 71 years just to get rid of—well you would actually have to live longer than that because you would not be able to start getting a loan until you were about 20. So there you go—91 years before you would have a mortgage-free home. But it is worse than that. It is worse than that because what the message is to first-home seekers is this: the Kiwi dream of getting your own house is now just a dream of getting a house deposit nothing more or renting for the rest of your life. Nick Smith wants to bring house prices back to four times household incomes without reducing house prices. Household incomes would therefore need to increase to at least $250000 per year in order to do that. How many people are going to fall into that category? Well we know that most people by far will get nowhere near that kind of income. So in answer to my question as to whether it will work the only reasonable conclusion is that the Government's housing policy is an abject failure. The SHAs will have absolutely no hope of delivering the outcome that is claimed for them and the reason for that is that the Government refuses to actually invest directly as well as doing these SHAs and it actually thinks that just relying on private investment will be enough. Well it never will be. Without direct Government investment it never will be. Finally all this is exacerbated by other things. The truth is that with open-door immigration and a net 70000 people a year coming into New Zealand especially to Auckland there is no hope that any Government policy however bad or good it may be will be able to succeed. New Zealand First is the only party that has constantly said that without controlling immigration a solution to the housing crisis will never be found. It is not the only thing that needs to be done but that also needs to be done and we are the only party that has been saying it and will continue to do so. In addition the situation is exacerbated by the failure of the Government to provide any controls on overseas buyers. Again New Zealand First has been pushing for that for years. Other parties have caught up a bit with us but New Zealand First is the party that has been pushing for that for years. The truth is that those buyers have the cash to outbid Kiwis for homes in Auckland especially and they have the intent to engage in capital gains farming speculation and land banking and all of those things are causes of the housing crisis that this Government simply will not address. This Government has been sitting on its hands and fiddling with failed policies while other parties have been coming up with genuine and effective alternatives which this Government refuses to consider. Government members blame local government. They do nothing to stop land banking. They do not care about first-home seekers. They ride roughshod over people's offer-back rights. They are an utterly hopeless failure and the sooner they go the better."