Lee Melissa: Social Housing Reform (Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Amendment) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLee Melissa: Social Housing Reform (Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Amendment) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 16 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10103. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MELISSA LEE (National): It is a pleasure to rise in support of the first reading of this Social Housing Reform (Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Amendment) Bill.I have to say I am appalled by that last speaker Holly Walker. I did not realise that people moving off a benefit was such a bad thing in this country. I did not realise that people becoming independent of Government support was such a bad thing that that member opposes support from the Government for people to become better and to live much more independent lives away from Government support. I did not even realise that Miss Annette King thinks that we are closing down Housing New Zealand. Why should we be spending $3 billion on Housing New Zealand if we wanted to close it down?This is about the Opposition becoming very frightened that we are getting into the territory that it claims is its domain: helping the people who are poor in this country. But what did the Labour Government do in the 9 years that it had the Treasury benches? I would like to ask that question. Obviously nothing. It was the slum landlord that had people living in cold homes that we had to warm up. We are warming up houses up and down the country and we are very proud of that record.This bill ensures that the housing we provide is the right size in the right place in the right condition for those who need it the most. Our social housing package is a key part of our promise to deliver a better public service. We want to provide the right environment to grow the community housing sector.There are many community housing providers—organisations such as churches NGOs charities that provide support for vulnerable people—and they do a great job. There is no reason why a family in need should receive less support just because the bricks and mortar of their house is owned by a community provider rather than the Government. So we are actually saying that we are providing the same support. We should remember that the important thing is to provide the support that people require not bicker about who owns the bricks and mortar in this instance.Often community housing providers can provide better support to people in need as they are already providing integrated support for those people in a holistic manner whether they are providing counselling whether they are providing support for people who are trying to come off drugs or alcohol or maybe they are in a situation where there is domestic violence. They provide holistic support and this support that the Government will be providing will be even better for the job that they already do. That is why this bill provides for income-related rent subsidies to be extended to the community housing providers. This will mean that community housing providers canhouse more people without the worry of where they are going to find the funds. They will be funded on the same basis as Housing New Zealand.The other aspect of the bill is the assessment of people’s housing needs being shifted from Housing New Zealand to the Ministry of Social Development. Currently people are assessed by Housing New Zealand for housing support and assessed by the Ministry of Social Development for social and income support. The shift in responsibility to the Ministry of Social Development will mean that the process will be fairer and will facilitate a more holistic view of people’s needs alongside other social and income support. The shift will also mean that people’s housing needs - assessments will be made independently of housing providers. It will be done by people who best understand their need for income and social support.As I said earlier the Government is making a record investment of $2.9 billion in Housing New Zealand over 3 years. That is definitely not a signal that we are giving up on Housing New Zealand. We are supporting it to provide a better service for New Zealanders.Also Opposition members have previously talked about the reviewable tenancies and why they disagreed with it. Many members in this House have actually come across situations where people are living in Housing New Zealand homes where their families have grown up and moved on but because they were already given the house—often very big houses to house bigger families—they refused to move out of these homes. There are many other families who actually need the bigger homes and they cannot move in. What we are saying is that reviewable tenancies which we make these people sign is not a case of evicting people out of their homes. The Minister never said anything about evictions. This is about providing the right housing for the needs of the people—the housing for the right need for the right people. We are not evicting people but are providing a better housing service for people in this country. This is a great bill. I commend it to the House and look forward to the submissions in the select committee consideration.