Salesa Jenny: Third Readings —Text is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSalesa Jenny: Third Readings —[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3689. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JENNY SALESA (Labour—Manukau East): Thank you for this opportunity to speak on the social housing reform legislation. Today is a sad day to be debating this legislation in this House. Michael Joseph Savage a former Labour Prime Minister in the 1930s left the legacy of building State houses to house vulnerable families. He stated that the Government has a collective responsibility to care for each other—all of us here in the House of Representatives have a collective responsibility to care for each other and for our constituents—although the social housing reform legislation is the total opposite of a caring piece of legislation.I have heard a few members particularly from the other side of the House stating that this legislation is about serving families—that it is about serving families better. How in the world is it possible that we would serve families better by selling the houses that they live in from under them and by evicting them from the houses that they live in right now?We have a housing crisis in Auckland already. Almost every day I see this with my own eyes. Families who come into my office are families who come in minivans and that is the home that they live in. There are families who live in garages. There are two and sometimes three families sharing a house because that is the only way that they can make ends meet. There are families who cannot afford to put a roof over their own heads by themselves.I would like to state that unfortunately there is not much in Budget 2015 including this social housing reform legislation to relieve the 7 long—very long—hard and painful years that have been suffered by the people in my electorate of Manukau East in South Auckland. These are people in Ōtara Ōtāhuhu and Papatoetoe alongside thousands of other ordinary Kiwis across New Zealand.Housing and decent jobs are major issues for my constituents in Manukau East. Housing and employment are the basic building blocks for a decent life. Having the ability to work being able to afford a roof over your family’s head and being able to afford to buy food for your children and your family—nothing fancy; just the basic necessities of life. These basic necessities continue to be increasingly difficult for working families to maintain. This in spite of many years of tantalising promises that we are on the cusp of something special and that we should just wait a little while longer and there will be more jobs there will be increased incomes and there was also the promise of affordable housing by this Budget. Somehow affordable housing we will hope to see in the very unknown future—who knows?There is undeniably a major housing crisis in Aotearoa New Zealand. This Government has failed to confront the housing crisis head on. It has been content with tiptoeing around the edges. In last year’s Budget National promised that housing would be made more affordable but it is plain for all to see that housing is not more affordable today; housing is in actual fact much more expensive each and every day. Housing in Auckland—$809000 for an average house. That is most definitely not affordable.The very first piece of legislation this Government is ramming through the House is to hold a fire sale of State houses for its developer mates. This social housing reform legislation is not compassionate conservatism as we heard yesterday; it is Cabinet club conservatism—flicking off the State houses to developer mates at knock-down prices.Brett Hudson: Tired old lines—didn’t work last year.JENNY SALESA: It is not lies. In this Government’s special housing areas in Auckland which are touted to actually relieve the situation in Auckland 170 houses have been built in a year and a half—170 houses. Under National the shortfall has not been addressed. This Government has failed to ensure that housing is affordable as it promised. This Government has failed to provide housing which is a basic human right for people. I and the Labour Party strongly oppose this bill.