Little Andrew: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLittle Andrew: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 27 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:4022. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]2.ANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does he have confidence in the Minister for Building and Housing given that the Minister is considering building houses in Auckland on the site of an electrical substation?Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): Yes and I can assure the member that no houses will be built on a substation. But I do agree with this comment supporting the Government’s policy to free up Crown-owned land for new housing: “it is a no brainer to develop vacant government land in Auckland.” That of course was from Phil Twyford after the Budget was so well received by Labour I thought on Thursday. I thank Labour for the support.Andrew Little: Did anyone in his Government bother to check with Transpower about why it has a buffer of land around its substation and high-voltage power pylons before Nick Smith said he can jam some houses in there?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I may be incorrect but I do not actually think it was Dr Smith who raised that particular piece of land in question—I think it was Mr Twyford. Actually as we can see in this photograph there is lots of land—and oh! What are those? They are houses. So I guess if you are building there—Hon Gerry Brownlee: Are they next door?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Yes they are right next door. They are just there you see? If you can build them there I guess you can build them on the other side I suppose. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! It is hard enough to conduct question time today when the microphones are not working. I have called for silence to assist Andrew Little with his supplementary question.Andrew Little: Has he been advised that an explosion and fire at the substation in question cut power to much of west Auckland with one nearby resident saying: “there was a really loud arcing sound and a second after that there was a huge explosion.”? Do Bill English’s reassuring words that “I presume it’s not always exploding.” relate to the substation or to Nick Smith’s portfolio?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I am sure Mr English is right. I am sure it is not always exploding. Otherwise all of the neighbours here in this photo would be concerned. But let us just get something in perspective here. What the Minister has said is that he thinks—and that is the best advice I have had—there will be around about 430 hectares of land. Is that a shock? Well no because the Government actually owns 150000 hectares of Crown land in Auckland and I am sure we will eke 430 out from all of that.Andrew Little: Can he categorically deny that the Māngere Lawn Cemetery is on any of the lists including the initial list of sites identified by the Government as residential land that it could build houses on?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I do not have the list from the Minister but I am happy to accept it is quite a good idea to build houses on Crown land. Why do I think that is a good idea? I know because in 2008 Helen Clark actually announced it. And believe or not the programme Home Ownership on the Public Estate was called “HOPE”. Back then Labour Party members had hope for housing in Auckland. Now they have hope that the Labour Party will just survive. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! When I am on my feet members will be quiet.Andrew Little: How can anyone trust Nick Smith’s denials about his list when that Minister flatly denied any substations on his land on Monday only to discover a substation on his land on Tuesday?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The member is just making it up. There is a thorough process that the Minister is going through to identify what is the best estimate from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment of about 430 hectares out of 150000. Here is a bit of logic for you. If it is such a hard idea to identify 430 hectares answer this question: how on earth was Labour going to build 100000 houses on Crown land? Oh that is right. If it is Labour’s idea—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The question has been answered.Andrew Little: Does he agree with Nick Smith’s assessment of his 500 hectares for affordable housing in Auckland that any house sold no matter the price “will be affordable to somebody”; if not how on earth can he justify leaving him in charge of affordable housing?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: By definition that is correct. [Interruption] Well it is just technically correct. But the aim of what we are going to do on this approximate 430 hectares of land is to do what we did in Weymouth and other places. I go back to the point I was making earlier. If Labour believes it could build 100000 houses on Crown land surely it must be possible for National in Government to build a smaller subset than that. We cannot both be right or wrong in this particular instance. Either the land is there or not and it is there.Andrew Little: Will he guarantee to every New Zealander that the houses built on the Crown land that he and his Minister are talking about will all be affordable houses for Aucklanders?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The member has just defeated his own question because he said—by definition every house is affordable to somebody.Andrew Little: Given that his housing announcement can now be summarised as a speculator tax that will be lucky to catch a thousand speculators a year requirements on foreign buyers that are so weak they are a joke and the building of unaffordable houses among Auckland’s power plants and gravestones when will he admit that he and his Government have no answers to Auckland’s housing crisis?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I can see where the “live in hope” policy came from. Let us just get a few facts on the table. House prices doubled under Labour and went up faster in Auckland than they have under National. Secondly if the member thinks it is soft when it comes to foreigners actually having to give us an Inland Revenue Department number to have a New Zealand bank account and to actually have any profits withheld for tax I would hate to think what he thinks difficult is. If you look at the activity happening in Auckland under a National-led Government and the policies that we have adopted Aucklanders can see real progress. What they saw under Labour was no progress.