Wall LouisaLOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Tēnā koutou katoa. Well my colleague David Clark used to say Nine long years" but he actually should have said "Nine long years of neglect and underfunding by the then National Government." Neglect—what is neglect? It's a failure to care properly for something. What neglect has been highlighted recently? The neglect of Middlemore Hospital—the neglect of the assets of Counties Manukau District Health Board. It's a shame that I had to hear about the Stachybotrys the black mould that is in KidzFirst from the media. I think it's absolutely abhorrent that the last Government did not know that there were seven buildings within the asset management of Counties Manukau District Health Board that were not fit for purpose. I think it's absolutely outrageous that the Ministry of Health and the previous Minister can say that they had no idea these issues existed. How can you deliver health services when your hospitals are compromised and when actually the state of the asset where we deliver our services can hurt if not kill our people? So I was absolutely horrified to get a ring from Phil Pennington—and I want to acknowledge him and Radio New Zealand actually for following through and finding out that this black mould existed in my buildings my facilities as a member of Parliament in South Auckland. He asked me: am I happy that these things have happened? Am I happy? Of course I'm not happy. None of us should be happy that our district health board (DHB) assets are so not fit for purpose that patients including children and including people at surgical wards and the burns units have been in a building that if one of those walls was exposed they would be at risk. You go to hospital to get better; you do not go to hospital to get sick and I think that typifies the lack of investment by the last Government in the health sector. Congratulations to my colleague the Hon Grant Robertson who progressively and consistently highlighted the underfunding in the health sector. Why has this happened? Because those DHBs' chairs boards and members were held accountable by the Minister for returning surpluses and so they neglected to repair and maintain those buildings because they chose to deliver services to people. Now we all know that people are the most important so the fact that our DHBs chose to focus the money they got from the Government on delivering services is something that we should applaud. But at the same time there were obviously barriers and that National Government through their Minister of Health didn't enable those DHB board representatives to communicate—based on what they've told us—that they had problems with an asset that was not fit for purpose. It's an absolute scandal and I think over a period of time we will know when the Ministry of Health told their Minister about what was happening. I also want to focus on the issue of homelessness. I went to a forum earlier this week hosted by a group called LinkPeople who are part of the Housing First initiative. LinkPeople have been working with homeless people living on the streets. We have this misconception that homeless people like living on the streets. Well can I tell people they don't. Homeless people want homes. Homeless people want to be treated with respect and dignity. When you work alongside people who are living on our streets talk to them and find out the circumstances that have driven them to be on the streets—what you need is a responsive housing sector delivered through Housing New Zealand that can provide those houses to our most vulnerable New Zealanders. At this morning tea the other day I was with Shiloh and Lewis. Shiloh and Lewis have been living on the streets for seven months. They've engaged proactively with Housing First. They've been to the Ministry of Social Development. They've wanted a house and been patient. They got notified that they had a house—fantastic news. But there's over 30 other homeless people in Manurewa and over 250 families in Manurewa waiting for a house to be built and that's the neglect of this National Government in not taking responsibility for providing houses to those most in need. I again think that if we want to measure the success of a Government it's whether or not they can house every single New Zealander who's in a vulnerable situation. Kia ora."