Nash StuartHon STUART NASH (Minister of Police): I have got a couple of questions for the Minister but first of all I want to look at Subpart 2—Other enactments". I think this bill is historical in the sense that it actually repeals the Housing Corporation Act of 1974. Now this is a 35-year-old Act so it's about time it was updated but this was a really innovative piece of legislation when it came in because what it did—the Housing Corporation New Zealand—Hon Dr David Clark: 45 years isn't it? Hon STUART NASH: Well maybe my maths is wrong—45 you're dead right Mr Clark—45-year-old piece of legislation therefore it really is overdue. But what the housing corporation did is it brought the State Advances Corporation and the housing division of the Ministry of Works together to form the housing corporation. The housing corporation was sort of synonymous with State housing so you know some people talked about growing up in a State house others talked about growing up in a housing corporation house and this piece of legislation repeals the Housing Corporation Act of 1974. I suppose if you look at the history of State house innovation in this country you had the first Labour Government obviously with the massive State house programme that went on under Michael Joseph Savage and Peter Fraser you had the second massive State house building programme under Norman Kirk and then you had the sixth Labour Government with Phil Twyford under the Ardern Government. So this really is a very innovative piece of legislation that is driving change in a way that is needed after 45 years of sort of tinkering around the edges. So I do congratulate you Minister on the fact that the bill that you have brought to the House is so important. It is repealing what is an iconic piece of legislation. In fact if you look at Wikipedia it actually says one of the major initiatives of the Kirk Government was the formation of the housing corporation. I'd also like to commend the Minister because there are a couple of other titles of pieces of legislation or regulations that have changed and the fact that these regulations—they used to be the public housing management appeals regulations—are now the public and community. So we're recognising that it's not just about the public it's not just about the State it's about our communities. This is where decisions are made; it is at community levels because it's only through creating health and wellbeing in our communities that we will grow a decent and prosperous society. So well done on that Minister in terms of getting the nuances right. There are a couple of questions I have. I do note as the Minister himself has highlighted that initially the Government policy statement (GPS) was to report back in October this year but it has been pushed out a year. But I also note that the Environment Committee made a change where—the policy statement had to be updated at least every 10 years but that's moved back to three years. I know this is obviously a significant piece of work or else the select committee would not have allowed you an extra year to develop a Government policy statement but with such a statement I wonder why in fact it has moved from a 10-year update to a compulsory three-year update when it's actually got—in the legislation it actually says "The Minister may review the [Government policy statement] at any time". So if it was 10 years the Minister still had the ability to review it. But I wondered if in fact the select committee felt that it must be reviewed every three years or what the reason was behind that?The other thing I note clause 28—it talks about the availability of the GPS and this is where we bring in a level of transparency because what it says is that "(1) … the Ministers must—(a) present a copy of the GPS to the House of Representatives;" but it says "As soon as practicable". Whenever I see those words—I mean I support this don't get me wrong please don't get me wrong but what does "As soon as practicable" mean? Are we talking about a six-month time frame before the Government policy statement is actually being presented and delivered or are we talking about the next sitting week? Now there is an element here because what we don't want to have happen is in 15 years' time we have a National Government obfuscate—Angie Warren-Clark: 20 years.Hon STUART NASH: —because they don't think—or 20 years—that the Government policy statement will pass the sniff test so they'll just say "Oh it's 'As soon as practicable'. We're not going to deliver this.". So we want to ensure that "As soon as practicable" actually has a pretty well-defined time frame from a Minister's perspective. I would suggest that once it's been delivered and presented and all the objectives are met it's probably I don't know the next sitting week? That would be my expectation but maybe the Minister has an expectation because it also says here: "The chief executive must make the GPS publicly available as soon as practicable.". I'm assuming it's possibly the same time it's presented to the House but if there isn't there may be a reason. But that's all Minister. A couple of simple questions there and I'm sure he'll have answers. I just want to reiterate: congratulations on replacing the Housing Corporation Act this is pivotal."