Prasad Rajen: Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePrasad Rajen: Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 05 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13334. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr RAJEN PRASAD (Labour):Namaste Mr Assistant Speaker. There was just so much wrong and inaccurate in that last speech by Melissa Lee that it is hard to know where to begin. For example the member said that no first-home buyer in New Zealand ever starts with a new house. Well I did—I did. It was a long time ago I say to Melissa Lee. It was the norm. It was the norm when we were just starting off in our first jobs to go out and buy group housing for three times our salary. That was the norm in those days. Things have changed I know but to say that that never happened is not true.Then the member said that the Labour Party policy on overseas buyers—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! I am sorry to interrupt the honourable member but I have a debate going on in the Chamber between two members on one side of the House and one on the other. It is not permitted. If you want to interject then there is a speaker addressing Parliament and that is where it should be directed to. Interjections between members who do not have the floor are not permitted. Sorry Dr Prasad.Dr RAJEN PRASAD: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. If the member Melissa Lee is going to cite the policy of this side of the House then I ask her to cite it accurately. Anybody who has a permit to be in New Zealand to migrate to New Zealand or who lives here has no restrictions on buying a place whether they are black brown or brindle. It does not matter where they come from. The bit that we object to is the overseas people who are simply speculating on the New Zealand market and driving—Melissa Lee: How can you tell the difference?Dr RAJEN PRASAD: If the member just zips it for a minute I will tell her how. Zip it and I will tell you how Melissa Lee. None of those contracts would be approved if the lawyers could not guarantee that those people qualified—none of them. It would not happen I say to Melissa Lee. So before calling this side of the House xenophobic I ask that member to interrogate her own sense of understanding of policy.The third point that that member makes in a really insulting way is about the bean counters on this side of the House.Melissa Lee: What have you got against AsiansRaj? You’re an Asian.Dr RAJEN PRASAD: I ask the member to listen—please listen. The member might learn something. That member and many other members on that side have said repeatedly that this side of the House does not know how to do arithmetic. If a piece of land costs $300000 then that member says that it is not possible to build a house and land package for $300000. That member is making one fatal assumption—Hon John Banks: What?Dr RAJEN PRASAD: —and that is that you can build only one house on one piece of land. John Banks should know better. You can go high. You can have multiple units. How many countries have the members seen this in? The whole plan is about going up using—Hon John Banks: How high?Dr RAJEN PRASAD: Six storeys according to this bill. Six storeys according to this bill. John Banks should read the bill because the member has not. So those are just three points that Melissa Lee makes. You know whenever Melissa Lee speaks in the House she does make so many fatal errors that one could make a whole speech based on just those errors—Melissa Lee: Oh that’s harsh.Dr RAJEN PRASAD: —and insulting Melissa Lee—insulting. Please do not do that. If the member stopped doing that then I would not have to retort in this way because it always happens.This particular bill is based on a theory. The theory is that if we made more land available and we addressed planning procedures this would produce two results: more houses and more affordable houses. That is the theory that this particular bill is about. The mechanism that this bill believes will do that is the market. If indeed the market is left to its own devices it will produce affordable housing. This is believed to be the perfect mechanism by members on that side of the House. Well it is a failed model. The market model does not apply comfortably in the housing area which is why the problems have been created.Hon John Banks: Oh don’t be sillyRaj.Dr RAJEN PRASAD: John Banks should know that it is not being silly. It is a fact. If that member is going to argue for the market model in its entirety then that member is in cuckoo-land. He is in cuckoo-land because you would not need any laws to reduce the market to be civil and work properly. That is why we have rules Mr Banks. The market is not a perfect model. If the market worked then why is housing in such a mess today? It does not work as a perfect model. It will not create affordable housing. It did at the time when I bought my first home—which Melissa Lee knows nothing about—but it does not work now which is why it needs to be fixed. But these provisions will not fix it.There are a whole range of things that need to be brought together to address the housing crisis of New Zealand. This bill brings some of them together I agree. We have acknowledged that. Making more land available is important. But what we argue against—Melissa Lee: Support it.Dr RAJEN PRASAD: It will not work—it will not work—unless all of those other things are also addressed. Some are and some are not—the cost of material access to capital tax treatment of housing speculation and development of the workforce in this particular area to engage in big building. Look at the problems we are having in Christchurch at the moment. The Minister of Housing speaks about how the number of houses that are planned and being built by this Government is so impressive. The bulk of them are in Christchurch. The bulk of them are in Christchurch because they have to be built. They are funded by insurance. There are no other choices. The Government cannot take credit for the earthquake and all of that as well. That just happened to be the case. Any Government would do that.Fundamentally what this side of the House is arguing is that there is a major need for affordable housing and a comprehensive approach would address this.Hon John Banks: Well what is it? What is it?Dr RAJEN PRASAD: Mr Banks it goes like this. What is what?Hon John Banks: What is the comprehensive approach you are proposing this afternoon?Dr RAJEN PRASAD: Well if the member would have been listening the member would know what they are. Clearly the member does not know what they are. All of a sudden this Government has become interested in housing. Up until quite recently it was not.The genesis of this bill really is Labour’sKiwiBuild programme. The Government got a sense that this was really important. The second one Mr Banks—and Mr Banks should know—was Auckland City beginning to look at housing in a different kind ofway and saying: “We have to address this.” All of a sudden the Government realised that it had to do something and this bill was the hurried approach that came out of it.There are some things that are good in this bill but it is not comprehensive. It does not address the whole thing. The Minister said: “We have a comprehensive programme. There are more bills to come.” Well a comprehensive programme brings all of the solutions to a complex problem together and puts a bill up so that we can debate all of them so that we can achieve change. This bill does not do that. What is needed is a bold plan to do that.Hon Maurice Williamson: What is this member actually saying?Dr RAJEN PRASAD: I knew Maurice Williamson would say something. He is an intelligent member. He is a member who knows a lot about this area and he is a member who knows what a comprehensive programme would look like. Mr Williamson knows that this is not a comprehensive programme. Mr Williamson does know a lot more than John Banks does or Melissa Lee does.This Government is disingenuous when it comes to housing. If the Government was really sincere—Tim Macindoe: No no we’re active and on the market.Dr RAJEN PRASAD: I say to my dear friend from Hamilton please do not give me another opportunity to have a go at another one of my friends from the other side of the House.Tim Macindoe: Oh go on.Dr RAJEN PRASAD: The member just did. The member just did. When Hobsonville came up Hobsonville was there—you know the Government takes the credit now. It says: “Look we’re building Hobsonville.” But no the Government is not generous enough to acknowledge that the grunt work for Hobsonville was done by a Labour Government. It was all put in place by a Labour Government. National just happens to be in Government when the time has come for the houses to come on stream. But what was the first thing the Government did? The first thing it did was to make sure there would be no affordable houses there—none. It did not want the average working-class person to go to John Key’s electorate. So what the Government did—and now it regrets it but I wish it would apologise for it. If the Government had allowed Hobsonville as designed to happen it would have produced affordable housing. It would have been a much better programme. But no in its zest to keep people separated or keep the poor where they belong keep the average-wage people in some other place it actually kept them out. Now Hobsonville has got some affordable houses—I think it is seven or eight really small ones. Who is going to live there? Maybe that student whom Melissa Lee was talking about. Here again the programme for affordable housing is not there.The last point I want to make is this. The Minister said in the Committee stage of this bill that affordable housing is now mentioned in the bill. Yes it is. In the amended bill clause 15(2A) does mention it. By Order in Council the Government can do something about this. When we asked the Minister to explain to us in the Committee stage what this meant he did not take one call. He did not want to explain. Something has just been put in there. This is not a bold plan. It will not work. We would have loved to support a housing programme but we will not be supporting this one. Thank you.