Twyford Phil: Social Housing Reform (Transaction Mandate) Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTwyford Phil: Social Housing Reform (Transaction Mandate) Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 11 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:8963. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū): This will be a change of styles after the soothing tones of Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga. I am very disappointed that we do not have the pleasure of the Hon Paula Bennett to contribute the Minister for Social Housing’s perspective in this debate—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! I think the member knows that he is skirting with trouble.PHIL TWYFORD: Why do we oppose this bill? Because we do oppose this bill with every bone in our body. The first reason is that it enables a policy that we utterly oppose and disagree with the State house sell-off. It will be part of John Key and Bill English’s legacy: the dismantling of a system of housing that for generations has put a decent roof over the heads of struggling Kiwis. Dismantling the very system that gave him a taxpayer-supported start in life in Christchurch in the 1960s will be part of John Key’s legacy—a legacy of shame. It is the wrong policy at the wrong time. It is a bad policy because of the effects that it will have.Secondly the other reason that we oppose this bill is that it opens the door to corruption and I am going to have plenty more to say about the concerns we have about the extraordinary unfettered powers that this legislation will give to Paula Bennett and Bill English to flog off billions of dollars of publicly owned land and housing around this country—land and housing that was paid for by generations of New Zealanders who believed in the Kiwi Dream that if you worked and saved and played by the rules in this country then you could get a roof over your head. If you could afford it you would be able to buy and own your own home with all the security and the benefits that that implies but if you could not make that and you were struggling part of the social contract in this country going back 100 years has been that the State the community the taxpayer will ensure that you and your kids get a decent roof over your heads.This bill is enabling the dismantling of that very system and it is doing it in a way that really puts a question mark over the propriety of the process. By giving unfettered powers to those two Ministers by sweeping away all the legislative safeguards that would normally apply in a situation like this and by allowing Paula Bennett and Bill English all the freedom in the world to do whatever deal they like to keep their sordid policy alive it is a charter for corruption. It should worry all New Zealanders that New Zealand under this National Government is slipping down the international rankings by Transparency International—slipping down because of Oravida because of the Saudi sheep scandal because of Skycity and because of this Government’s congenital secrecy and its inability to maintain a clear line between private profit and public good.We saw that today in the House actually in question time where it was very clear that the Government members could see nothing wrong with the fact that Amy Adams had appointed Bill Francis the chief executive officer of the private Radio Broadcasters Association to the board of Radio New Zealand its chief competitor. They cannot see the problem with breaking down the line between private profit and public good and what this bill does by giving the Ministers carte blanche absolute freedom to negotiate whatever deals they like with whomever they like with no legislative safeguards and accountability—it is a charter for corruption.Why is this the wrong policy at the wrong time? Because we have an acute housing shortage in this country. If people listened to Radio New Zealand the other day and listened to the heartrending report about working families with young children and babies left homeless sleeping in their cars and being turned away by the Ministry of Social Development—they cannot even under this National Government get on the waiting list for a State house. It is an absolute disgrace and what did Paula Bennett the Minister who is responsible for this bill say when asked by Radio New Zealand about families with babies and young children sleeping in their cars? What did she say? This is a classic of this Minister: she said that “There’s recently been a review of the housing register but … in some cases the fault lies with the families themselves.” What a classic. We have got a waiting list of nearly 5000 families in New Zealand who cannot get a State house we have got unprecedented levels of homelessness and families with babies and young children living in cars and the responsible Minister in this National Government Paula Bennett says it is the fault of the families themselves.Another sign of how bad the current housing crisis is which will be made worse by the passage of this bill: today on TradeMe someone is advertising the bottom bunk in an Auckland apartment a 40 square metre apartment in Auckland. It is $170 a week to rent the bottom bunk of an apartment. Is it any wonder that the New Zealand Heraldreports over the summer that students are selling sex in order to try to put a roof over their heads? To find housing that they can afford they are selling themselves for sex. That is what it has come to. That is what National’s housing crisis has done to our country.But the Government’s idea of a solution to the housing crisis is to sell off the very houses that should be used to house our most vulnerable citizens. It does everything—everything but the obvious thing you do in a housing shortage and that is build more houses. So it is the wrong policy at the wrong time. But worse than that this policy will actually make things worse. It is undermining and weakening and dismantling the system of social and State housing put in place over generations to ensure that no matter how your parents might be struggling financially our country will put a roof over your head and make sure that every child in this country at least gets a decent roof over their head. But that is an alien ethos; it is another language which the National Party does not understand.The Kiwi Dream has been part of this country’s culture. It is part of the fabric it is part of our history it goes to the heart of who we are as New Zealanders and it is about ensuring that every kid gets a decent start in life. As I said if you work hard and play by the rules you can if not own your own house at least have decent affordable and accessible housing.But what this policy will do—this policy is about enabling the breakup and the dismantling of State housing. It will weaken that whole system of social support that has been so critical over the decades. Paula Bennett and Bill English have tried to frame this policy as being about improving and modernising the system of State housing and they originally promised that non-profit organisations would be the beneficiaries of this policy because they wanted to grow the community housing sector. But as soon as the Salvation Army came out and said: “We don’t want to buy these houses because we don’t think it’s a good policy.” they immediately opened the door to merchant bankers and property investors. They said that State and social housing would be better administered by local groups who understand their communities better.But we know they are negotiating and talking with Horizon Housing from Australia and any number of other interests that are willing to buy these houses. They held a workshop towards the end of last year and who attended it? The Plenary Group the international infrastructure business John Laing from the UK public-private partnership firm every merchant banker you can imagine—the whole meeting was dominated by lawyers banks consultants and developers. This is not about empowering the community housing sector; it is about flicking off billions of dollars of publicly owned land and housing to their Cabinet club mates.All of the objections that we raised in the first reading of this bill have been ignored by the Government. All of the concerns that were raised by submitters at the select committee have been brushed aside by the Government members on the select committee and by the Minister. It is in the National Party’s DNA to blur the boundaries between private profit and public good. That is what this bill does. Submitters came along to the select committee and raised multiple concerns about the unfettered powers given to Ministers to dispose of these publicly owned assets. We think it is extremely unwise to do that. It raises the perception of corruption and impropriety and we will have a lot more to say about that in this debate.