Genter Julie Anne: Taxation (Land Information and Offshore Persons Information) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGenter Julie Anne: Taxation (Land Information and Offshore Persons Information) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 25 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4813. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green): I rise to speak on behalf of the Green Party. We will be supporting this bill. I think the best way to characterise it is too little too late. It is a move by the Government slightly in the right direction and we are very happy to see that but fundamentally it is not going to be enough to deal with the out-of-control housing crisis in Auckland which is posing great risks to our economy to the stability of our financial sector and also to our ability to ensure that every New Zealander has that fundamental right to have access to a warm healthy dry home and not just any home—not a home in the middle of nowhere—but a home where they can access education jobs and recreation as part of a neighbourhood.I have heard the Government members admit that there is a housing crisis in Auckland and my colleague Dr Russel Norman outlined just how much house prices have increased in recent years under the National Government. I would say that what the situation in Auckland demonstrates is that National has really lost touch with ordinary New Zealanders and that it is failing to lead on the issues that are most important to New Zealand. It is particularly failing to deal with the long-term issues. Its thinking is very much: “How can we please voters in the short term?” but it is absolutely failing to deal with the long-term issues like climate change and inequality both of which are affected by housing policy and tax policy.Government members have mentioned that they would like to hear solutions so I would like to outline the Green Party’s solutions to the housing crisis which would also help reduce the growing wealth inequality in New Zealand and would also reduce climate pollution which is essential if we want to survive and thrive in the future. It is very very simple. Firstly we have to deal with the demand issue. I know that the Government likes to pretend it is entirely an issue of supply but if you listen to the Reserve Bank the OECD Westpac or any number of bank economists they will admit that it is a demand problem—it is not just the Green Party recommending that we deal with the demand problem. We know that it is a demand problem because 41 percent of new house sales in Auckland are to investors not to first-home buyers. So when you have nearly half of your house sales going to investors there is clearly a demand problem and as the Reserve Bank pointed out what we need to do is close the tax loopholes on housing.There is no reason why income from house price increases should not be treated like any other income. People who go out there and earn a pay cheque pay tax on their earnings. If you are very very rich and you can buy and sell houses at your whim and make hundreds and thousands of dollars in short periods of time why should you not pay tax just like the people out there working hard 40-hour weeks for their pay cheques—probably more than 40-hour weeks really? So closing the tax loophole on housing—that is a recommendation from the OECD the Reserve Bank Westpac and the Green Party has been calling for it for a very very long time.My colleague pointed out the impact of capital flowing in from overseas and particularly from Mainland China. Making that statement is not a statement of xenophobia. We are not opposed to immigration; we are just acknowledging that if you have got capital flowing in from overseas and there is no limit on who can purchase property here in New Zealand it has an impact on the value of house prices. Again we know this because in Auckland the ratio of median house price to income is now at eight. There are only about six or seven cities in the world where it is higher than that. The highest is Hong Kong where it is 12:1. Virtually every city where the ratio is higher is one that is seeing massive inflows from China so that would be Sydney London Vancouver and Singapore and all of them have taken steps to try to curb the negative impact of these capital inflows on their housing markets and it is absolutely legitimate to do that. As an immigrant to New Zealand I can say that the Green Party is not against immigration but if you are going to buy a property here in New Zealand you should be a resident or citizen and that is what the Green Party would ensure.There is a lack of protection for renters here in New Zealand and that impacts the demand. One of the reasons why there is such huge pressure to buy homes is that you have no security of tenure and there is no requirement for landlords to ensure that the places they are renting out are actually warm healthy dry and energy efficient. If we fix that problem it affects demands at both sides. It gets out those lazy landlords who are just sitting there waiting for capital gains who are not willing to look after their properties—they get out of the market—and it takes the pressure off people looking to buy houses because they have more security renting.There is a supply issue but of course the Government’s approach of deregulating and reducing environmental protection and planning and greenfields is not going to solve the housing affordability problem; it just means that we are going to end up with a lot of low-value housing far away from jobs which is going to increase pollution and it is going to increase costs to households. The Productivity Commission draft report made a number of recommendations that reduce the barriers to a compact city. The Green Party has been advocating for those measures for a very very long time. The Green Party has the smart innovative solutions that are going to deliver for New Zealand affordable housing action on climate change and a happier healthier lifestyle and it is going to be better for our economy.