Twyford PhilHon PHIL TWYFORD (Minister for Urban Development): Thank you Madam Chair. I want to just make a few comments about Part 2. The main item in Part 2 is really the requirement that Kāinga Ora—Homes and Communities introduce a Government policy statement (GPS). The motivation behind this provision in the bill is a recognition that the housing and urban development sector is one that has really lacked alignment a shared sense of strategy not only from within the Government system but within the broader community: local government social service providers community housing providers and the private sector. This is a desire to see Government really exercising its leadership role and working across all those communities with some common objectives.It's inspired in large part by the success I think of the Government policy statement on land transport which is set out in the Land Transport Management Act. The GPS as it's fondly known is produced on a three-yearly cycle generally in sync with the parliamentary term and the Minister of Transport and the Ministry of Transport produce that Government Policy Statement on Land Transport every three years. They update it it has a 10-year horizon and it sets out the values the vision the long-term goals the strategies and priorities not only in the case of the Ministry of Transport and the Government's delivery agency the New Zealand Transport Agency but it also sends signals to the Government's partners local government and also to the wider transport communities including the private sector. People pay a lot of attention to the transport GPS. It is basically the Bible. It sets the direction and it's a very powerful policy instrument.So that was the inspiration for this provision in this bill to have a GPS on housing and urban development. So it essentially will provide the riding instructions for Kāinga Ora on a three-yearly cycle. Of course it's not the only tool the Government has to do that. There's also the Minister's statement of performance expectations. There are all of the other tools of accountability and direction that Ministers use with Crown agents but the GPS will be one of the most powerful tools. It sets the overall direction and priorities for the sector and it tells Kāinga Ora and other agencies how the Government expects them to operate and how it expects them to meet those expectations. The Government policy statement by Kāinga Ora will be developed in consultation with stakeholders and as is the case with the transport GPS there are months and months of engagement consultation and discussion with stakeholders around the content of the GPS before it's finalised.I want to thank the Environment Committee for the work that they did in this area and there's a few useful improvements that it's worth just pointing to. The committee asked that the housing and urban development GPS incorporate a multi-decade outlook. That's not an unreasonable request given that infrastructure and our urban land markets and the construction markets work on very long cycles and when decisions are made and developments take place they'll often have a 50- to 100-year lifetime. So it's appropriate that we're thinking with that multi-decade horizon. Of course you're going to have shorter-term priorities as well. You're going to have things that you want to happen in the next six months the next 12 months the next two or three years and that can coexist perfectly happily with the requirement for a multi-year time frame.The committee's also added a requirement that the GPS outlines how the Government expects Kāinga Ora to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation and I wanted just to take a moment to reflect on that. In almost everything that Government does these days—there is a call for us to address the need for climate change adaptation and mitigation in almost everything that we do and it's very appropriate that Kāinga Ora does that as well. The future shape of our towns and cities has to take into account the effects of climate change. It's not only low-lying housing on coastal strips by the beach and so on where in some parts of the country insurers are no longer wanting to insure those properties. I was part of a discussion just the other day looking at urban development and planning in the Waikato corridor Hamilton to Auckland and a lot of the existing towns the river communities are built on low-lying land close to a lot of water. They're a long way from the coast but actually under the scenarios for climate change they're likely to be affected by a rising water table. So that's just one example of how our urban planning has to take into account climate change.The other change to the GPS provisions made by the committee which I think was also pretty helpful was to extend the deadline for the first GPS by a year so that it must now be issued in the first case within two years of Kāinga Ora being established. That's to ensure that what will be a pretty important job one that we don't want to rush we want to be able to consult with all the stakeholders in the wider community—that the newly established Kāinga Ora from 1 October doesn't have to rush that really important job; they need to take their time and do it properly. So the committee's helpfully suggested an extra year in that case.I will leave that there but I am very happy to take questions and respond to members' concerns as the debate goes on.