Halbert ShananSHANAN HALBERT (Labour—Northcote): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's my pleasure this evening to speak on the Housing Infrastructure (GST-sharing) Bill. The points that my colleague Brooke van Velden raised tonight—there are some good ones in there. We all have hope and aspiration for young people to buy their first home. We all acknowledge that there is a housing crisis. The infrastructure crisis is somewhat something else but I acknowledge the point there that there is a dire need for better investment in infrastructure particularly in cities like Auckland.While it's well intentioned this bill this bill is an example of how the only thing that National and ACT delivered in housing between 2008 and 2017—the only thing that they delivered—was a housing crisis. Despite the eye-watering annual cost and price tag this bill would only deliver the wrong types of homes in our city and in our community. And that's only if the funding ends up being spent on infrastructure while this Government is already providing much-needed targeted investment in essential infrastructure like roads and pipes and the $1 billion infrastructure package in the Infrastructure Acceleration Fund. [Interruption]ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Order! Members may not want to actually hear the speech but I would like to be able to hear what the member is saying. Other members will have an opportunity to make their own speeches soon. Thank you.SHANAN HALBERT: Thank you Madam Speaker. It's good to keep us all awake at this time of night. And while our approach under this Government is about investing in essential infrastructure like roads and pipes it's important that as we do such things like this Government with record consents in cities like Auckland the thing that our community does ask for us is alongside that to ensure that we have good infrastructure.I have one of the best housing stories in the country in Northcote—one of the best housing infrastructure stories in Northcote. And I can acknowledge that yes the housing policy of Northcote development did start under Helen Clark and yes I can acknowledge that it was held by Bill English and by John Key for seven years. For anyone that lived in Northcote at that time that project was on hold because what we know—and under that policy we all acknowledge it now and all take certain ownership—is that the story of the Northcote development which in my view is a great housing development is great community design and it has the desperate infrastructure that growth in Auckland desperately needs. But what we know is that that development—1700 new homes for families in Northcote; that's from 315 old tired State houses that were demolished and that have been rebuilt. We're about a third of the way through the development. Alongside that not only have we built 350 new State homes for families in need but we've also built another 250 for first-home buyers on the open market and we've still got hundreds to go. But what my community tells me is yes that infrastructure is important. And it's great that the Opposition is highlighting the importance of better infrastructure for growing places like Auckland. This is one of the conversations of why we're talking about water infrastructure reform. One thing that we all agree about is that we need to invest in the pipes that when we build houses and we go into the hundreds and into the thousands of new homes actually we do need to have good water infrastructure. And that's exactly what the Housing Acceleration Fund has done. I'll use another example in Northcote because it's such a great national story in housing. What we saw in the floods at the start of the year is the sad case of Wairau Valley. Sadly we lost lives because we have poor ageing water infrastructure in Auckland that did not cope with a significant weather event. In the Northcote development thanks to the Government's acceleration fund we have fitted new water infrastructure that within 24 hours the floods had raised the amounts of water in the area and within 24 hours that water had disappeared—that water had disappeared out of the community. That's the difference of great water infrastructure. And just last weekend we opened Te Ara Awataha which is the stream down the middle. It opens up the whole community and the ecological matters that used to be below the ground have now been brought out as the centre of the design of the Northcote housing development. It backs on to new schools that the Government has built: Onepoto Primary $19.5 million; 12 new classrooms for Northcote Intermediate. And on the back of that are new classrooms that come into the beautiful ecological areas of our awa in our backyard. Now I share this story because the things that we do agree on is that we want to build houses. And I'm really proud that our Government is doing that particularly in Northcote. And you'll hear me in this House when people talk about a housing crisis I'll say Come to Northcote come to Northcote come to Northcote." because I am proud that it is one of if not the best housing developments and designs and communities that this country has ever seen. And so the Opposition the Nats can take some acknowledgment that they have contributed to that but the reality is that this Government has not only built houses not only increased the number of consents for houses in Auckland but we've also invested in the pipes in the ground. We've also invested in the schools around it. We've also invested in our awa. We've also invested in playgrounds for our tamariki to play in. That's the level of planning that's required.I acknowledge the good intention of the member that's putting this forward but if we sliced that off—and it's not just about saying "let's build more houses" because we all agree on that but it's about how do we ensure that that infrastructure is allocated to what is needed. And we know when it's privatised that money isn't always used for what is needed. That's one of our biggest fears of water infrastructure reform: that it's privatised. We don't want that to happen. We want to ensure that it's retained in New Zealand ownership. I've rattled on. I have to say once more: the Northcote housing development—and if anyone in this House hasn't been I'm happy to host you. The design elements the infrastructure the forward-thinking the short amount of time that this Government has been able to accelerate the number of houses to be built both for families in need for first-home buyers and for those on the market has been significant. Sadly tonight this isn't quite the bill that we're looking for. I'm confident that we're getting on with building houses. I'm confident that we're getting on with building communities and we need to push on ahead. I do not commend this bill to the House."