Smith Nick: Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSmith Nick: Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 03 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13163. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister of Housing): Let us firstly get some facts about housing affordability on the record at the beginning of this Committee stage debate. The first thing we know is that during Labour’s 9 years house prices went up by 100 percent and incomes went up by 40 percent. So housing affordability went backwards by 60 percent under Labour’s reign.Phil Twyford: Five long years.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Let us look at the figures under our 5 years. Under our 5 years average house prices in New Zealand have gone up by 14 percent and household incomes have gone up by 19 percent. So I say to Labour members and challenge them at the very beginning: when are we going to hear an apology from the likes of Phil Goff and Phil Twyford for their appalling record on housing affordability during their 9 years in office—Hon Annette King: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I rise to correct the Minister’s pronunciation. It is Phil Twyford not “Triffid”.The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson): Thank you for that. I think that is most appropriate. The Minister will make sure that in future he tries to use the correct pronunciation for the member’s name. All members are honourable.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The second point I want to make is that the member Phil Twyford highlighted the case of cold damp homes causing disease. How many homes has this Government gone in and insulated? The answer is 326000—326000. How many times more is that the number than what the previous Labour Government did? It is 10 times the number—10 times the number. So I am not going to take a lecture from Labour members on the issue of home insulation and making our homes safer drier and warmer.The Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill is about addressing the issue of land supply but never has this Government said that the issue of land supply alone is a solution to housing affordability. We have announced initiatives around getting the development costs which went up by threefold during Labour’s time under control. Wehave announced initiatives around materials costs around apprenticeships around expanding KiwiSaver first-home deposit grants around Welcome Home Loans. We have announced initiatives around keeping interest rates low—all are factors.Phil Twyford: Tinkering—it’s tinkering.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The member has just said that it is tinkering. Well I will check the record. What did Labour do during its 9 years? How many bills did we have before this Parliament that would make houses more affordable? The answer is absolutely zero diddly squat zip.Then let us look at the substance of this bill. This bill is about increasing land supply and doing so quickly. Who confirms that we need to do that? The Productivity Commission. What did the Labour Party say when the Productivity Commission report came out? It said that it was an ideological burp and it opposed it—an ideological burp and it opposed it. On people like MurraySherwin one of our most respected public servants the Labour Party says: “Forget it. We don’t believe it.” When the IMF says it when the OECD says it and when the Reserve Bank says it Labour rejects it all. The reality is that increasing land supply is critical to housing affordability and unless we address it nobody in this Parliament can pretend they are serious about dealing with the issues of housing affordability. That is why this afternoon is an afternoon of shame for the Labour Party—shame—shame that it has gone out and pretended that it was about housing affordability and then wasted the time of this Parliament by opposing the very bill and the very agreement with the Auckland Council that will actually make progress.The last point I wish to make is this. The member mentioned the issue of affordability. Affordability is specifically addressed in the accord and specifically addressed in the bill. It is specifically addressed in both. You cannot address affordability unless you address land supply. What we know—Dr Rajen Prasad: Oh!Hon Dr NICK SMITH: —for the members who reject it—is this. The average price of a section in Auckland has gone up from $100000 to the latest average of $325000. So my challenge to members of Labour is this. They say they are going to build 10000 homes at $300000 each. What sort of home is it going to be when the section costs $325000? I tell you what it is. It is a hole.