Street Maryan: Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeStreet Maryan: Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 16 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10083. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour): Age before beauty—age before beauty. If the Government wanted to reinvent the wheel why does it not choose to reinvent the wheel properly? What it has done in this the first time it has mentioned housing affordability in five Budgets is choose to send it to a truncated select committee process. Why is it doing that when that is one of the things that offends people the most—not having access to due process around submissions and being able to be heard. We have heard from Government members tonight that this is a complex issue. Then why truncate the process? Why make sure that as few people as possible can get to submit on this? If the Government is going to reinvent the wheel because it has scrapped and repealed every constructive piece of effort made by the previous Labour Government to address housing affordability because we knew it was a problem in 2007 and now it is 36 percent worse—36 percent worse—under the National Government’s watch then why is it not allowing a decent run at submissions for submitters on this bill the Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill?All I can conclude is that the Minister in whose name this bill is the Hon Dr Nick Smith likes urgency. He likes to look as if there is a lot of activity happening. We have seen him almost destroy ACC in that process and now it has to correct that—now it has to correct that. But time is needed because this legislation is half-baked.I will quote John Armstrong in theNew Zealand Heraldwhen he was talking about National’s housing affordability package: “Package? What package? No wonder National avoided over-selling the contents of their plan to make housing more affordable. The plan looks more like a rough first draft.” A rough first draft. So if the Government is going to take this rough first draft to the Social Services Committee the very least it could do is allow a decent period of time for the select committee to polish it to turn it into something halfway useful instead of this limp-wristed lily-livered piece of nonsense that allows the Government to talk with local authorities—Auckland in particular—and other territorial authorities as they choose by Order in Council. It has not worked out what it means. It has not worked out whether or not Auckland Wellington Christchurch Nelson and Queenstown are still the most expensive places in the country to buy a house which is why the shared equity programme was put into Nelson and Queenstown and those three major centres under my watch but which was axed by the incoming Government. It cannot conceive of housing affordability despite Maggie Barry’s protestations about it being a critical issue in more places around thecountry than just Auckland. It is a critical issue. The Minister of Housing who does not know that there was a woman with five children living in a garage in his own electorate wants to rush this bill through the select committee. Surely he could pay people the courtesy of making sure that they have the opportunity to submit properly.I come back to the point I made before in the earlier debate and that is around the Resource Management Act provisions. It is around consenting and it is around the processes that councils have to engage in in order to ensure that affordable houses that are built are fit for purpose are sound are of good quality and will work on the sections that they are intended to be built upon. So in order to make those things happen there may be some room to speed up processes but let us have a proper look at it. Let us have people come to the select committee and represent the concerns that they might have under closer scrutiny. It is typical of this Minister I have to say that things under his watch do not get close scrutiny. When he had the local government portfolio he blew up the figures in that portfolio as well so he had to be shifted out of that. I already mentioned ACC to my colleagues. I already mentioned that every portfolio he touches he seems to cause some kind of explosion in it that requires him to be relieved of it. This one is of the same ilk. If the Minister does not even know what is going on in terms of homelessness in his own electorate how can he be trusted to set down legislation—set down legislation—that is to provide affordable housing hopefully in more places than just Auckland? I ask why not Wellington Christchurch Nelson and Queenstown—and Tauranga which has now been added to the list of the most expensive places in the country to buy a house.People who are renting properties in Nelson are renting at exorbitant rates because the property prices are so high. The rental market is linked in with that. If the Minister is going to address housing affordability let him do it comprehensively and not with this limp-wristed piece of nonsense which is not only—Hon Dr Nick Smith: Why did you vote for it?Hon MARYAN STREET: If the Minister had been in the House earlier he would have heard that we are voting for it because we actually care about housing affordability. We would like to take a sow’s ear and turn it into a silk purse so if we can improve on the legislation it would be good to be able to do that. In the 2-month period that this legislation is going to a select committee it is as John Armstrong said so much “a rough first draft” that most of the drafting of the legislation is going to have to happen in the select committee. It is going to have to happen in the select committee and therefore it requires more time. We will get a bodgie job of housing affordability made by a Minister who has this ripping-and-busting approach to everything he touches and that is not appropriate—not appropriate—when we are looking at one of the most critical crises in our country.Mike Sabin was right earlier: buying one’s own home is part of the Kiwi dream. It is part of the Kiwi dream. He was absolutely right about that. We all agree with that. We all know except perhaps for some that there is a housing crisis. Two months is insufficient time to do justice to this critical issue. Thank you.