Barclay Todd: Taxation (KiwiSaver HomeStart and Remedial Matters) Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBarclay Todd: Taxation (KiwiSaver HomeStart and Remedial Matters) Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 24 March 2015. Volume:704;Page:2536. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TODD BARCLAY (National—Clutha-Southland): It is a privilege to speak on the Taxation (KiwiSaver HomeStart and Remedial Matters) Bill in its second reading because of this Government’s proposal to address the issues of housing affordability around allowing first-home buyers to choose where they live. I am going to touch on what our policies are in a second.I just want to acknowledge another party’s policies in this regard. The reason I want to acknowledge those is that in National’s approach we are putting the saying “Actions speak louder than words.” into practice. I just want to reflect on the New Zealand First policy which is being driven by Denis O’Rourke. Whereas we are focused on New Zealanders building more houses Mr O’Rourke is focused on building more letterboxes for the same number of houses. While we are wanting to build more houses for more people the New Zealand First Party is building more letterboxes for the same number of houses and the same number of people.I want to get back on to the Taxation (KiwiSaver HomeStart and Remedial Matters) Bill. What we are doing is doubling the support for first-home buyers—in the same way that Mr O’Rourke is doubling the number of letterboxes for his property—to tens of thousands of first-home buyers who will benefit from this and getting more young Kiwis into homeownership and building more affordable houses.I want to use a Queenstown example—from my own area. If you drive between Frankton and Arrowtown for the 20-minute drive everywhere you look on the right-hand side of the road there are new houses and subdivisions being built. There are hundreds if not thousands of new houses being built over the next couple of years. During the election campaign as we were talking about these policy proposals with a group of local developers and the council Phil Twyford came down and enunciated the Labour Party’s policies. He was almost laughed out of the room if not laughed out of town because the developers agreed with the National Party’s approach which is around allowing flexibility for developers and homeowners to build where they want to build and to live where they want to live. So it was a bit of a wasted trip for Mr Twyford given that he was almost laughed out of town.Getting back to this bill we propose to allow first-homebuyers to withdraw their KiwiSaver membership tax credits when purchasing their first home up to a value of $521 per year. This is in addition to their and their employer’s contribution to the KiwiSaver scheme. Although some members have previously mentioned that $500 per year is not very much I can assure you that for any first-home buyer $500 is better than nothing. It is a lot better than having a Government trying to tell you where you should live and where you should build your home if you are in a position to be building. That is why it is confusing at times as well.I am not too sure exactly what Mr Twyford’s position is on this bill and whether it is in support of the Government’s policy or in support of his own party’s policy given he has been reported as saying recently that we need larger-scale urban development—check; that is exactly what we are doing. He said that the Labour Party backs private sector developers—check; that is exactly what we are doing as well. He wants community housing organisations to be involved—check; that is exactly what we are doing. So I am not entirely sure exactly whether Mr Twyford was coming down to Queenstown to talk about what was happening in the Labour Party’s policies or coming down to endorse what the National Party’s policies are doing in this space.We are roughly doubling the number of people who are receiving Government grants to buy their first homes from 10000 up to 20000 people. We are doubling the Government grant they are eligible to receive when they are buying newly built homes. The price limits for the KiwiSaver HomeStart grants and Welcome Home Loans will be as we know $550000 in Auckland $450000 in a number of cities including Hamilton Wellington and Queenstown—in my electorate—and $350000 for the rest of the country which includes Gore Balclutha Dipton and Ōwaka. I can assure you that you can get a very very stylish house for $350000 in Gore. In fact you could probably get a couple.These schemes here are helping people get into their first homes and ensuring that they have the choice to decide where they want to live and how they want to bring up their families—if it is the case that they have new families—and how they want to succeed in life. By the sound of Mr Twyford’s glowing endorsement of our party’s policies he thinks so too and we thank Labour for its support. Thank you.Bill read a second time.