Faafoi Kris: Social Housing Reform (Flexible Purchasing and Remedial Matters) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFaafoi Kris: Social Housing Reform (Flexible Purchasing and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3661. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana): Thank you very much for the chance to speak on the title and commencement clauses of the Social Housing Reform (Flexible Purchasing and Remedial Matters) Bill. This is one of those points in the Committee stage when we get to proffer some alternative titles for the piece of legislation. I have got a pretty simply one—just one: it is that we change the title to “Social Housing Reform (State House Sell-off) Bill” because in all reality that is what this is about. There has been a programme over time since this Government took office to slowly move back from taking any responsibility for social housing in New Zealand. I would challenge any member on the other side of the Chamber to take a 5-minute call—none of these 30-second calls that they have been taking—to try to say why this is not a State house sell-off bill because that is exactly what this is.Part 2 of this bill looks at some of the policy advice that Housing New Zealand will no longer be offering to the Government. It has offered over time lots of advice to the Government. Just some of the advice that Housing New Zealand has offered to the Government is about one cul-de-sac in Porirua. It is not about whether the Government should upgrade those houses or look at making sure that we do more for those communities. It is about Quotable Value. It is about getting those houses ready for sale. There is no plan or advice from Housing New Zealand to replace those houses.If anyone in this House wants to come to Calliope Crescent in Cannons Creek they will see that there is a big swathe of land there that has been empty for about 5 years. When those houses were taken away the Government promised that it would replace them and that that community would flourish again. But nothing has happened. Kids now use the land for games of touch because there is a park there now. This Government should have stuck to its word and should have replaced the homes that it bowled over. It should have put houses there for that community to flourish. But no there is nothing.There is only one side of this equation that the Government is interested in and that is getting rid of State homes. It is not interested in replacing them at all and that is the cold hard reality of this Government.Andrew Bayly: We’ve still got 65000 of them.KRIS FAAFOI: I can hear some interjections. Those interjections are longer—longer—than the speeches that members on that side have given. So I challenge the member who is interjecting to get to his feet. If you are so proud of this piece of legislation get up and take a call—get up and take a call. I will make another invitation. Come to my area and spend just half a day looking around and see how proud you are of the last 7 years of wrecking the Housing New Zealand sector in this country.As I said in my speech on Part 1 I came to this Parliament in order to protect and build on some of the opportunities that I was given as a child to make sure that I got to the privileged position I am in today. But on the other side of the Chamber they want to keep the privileged position that they have got today for them and their privileged friends. They do not care about the most vulnerable people in our country who are struggling to make ends meet. They have the most simple of rights in this country and that is to have a good safe warm home—a roof over their heads. That is too much for this Government to ask. The Government is glossing it up in the language of flexibility and it is taking a fair bit of flexibility with the truth. That is the reality of what this Government is doing. For 7 years it has been slowly winding back its responsibilities for social housing. So I do think that this bill should have its title changed to the “Social Housing Reform (State House Sell-off) Bill” because that is all it enables this Government to do.At the very beginning of this plan this Government said that the likes of the Salvation Army would be interested in purchasing these homes in working in our communities and in making the lives of these people better. Uh-uh it is not interested. The Salvation Army does not want a bar of it. I have spoken to a local iwi that also has experience in this area. Iwi members say it does not make sense for them to do it. So if the market does not work for them and if the market is not working for these vulnerable people then on whom does the responsibility fall to make sure that people get a decent home in New Zealand? It should fall on the Government. This piece of legislation sees this Government washing its hands of this responsibility. Come to Cannons Creek come to Ascot Park and come to Titahi Bay where there are vacant Housing New Zealand homes and people desperate to get into them. Government members will not because they do not care.