Logie JanJAN LOGIE (Green): I am pleased to take a short—[Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Sorry I am going to start the member again. I think that comment was probably directed at the previous speaker but it was pretty rude to the current speaker who was just starting. So we will restart the clock.JAN LOGIE: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. I am pleased to take a short call on behalf of the Green Party on the Riccarton Racecourse Bill and the Riccarton Racecourse Development Enabling Bill.For the Green Party it is critical in terms of its policy to recognise that the design of our towns and cities affects how we live work and play. We believe that warm dry affordable homes set in some smart urban planning can improve the livability of our communities for all New Zealanders. Building location design processes and materials have a major impact on the environment on our transport options on our health and on our quality of life and housing is fundamental to the health and well-being of individuals whānau families and communities. We see this sadly in a negative sense in deaths as a result of poor housing every week and in the hospital admissions in this country. But if we get it right we can support well-being and health.The Green Party believes that all people are entitled to secure tenure of sustainable and affordable housing so it is happy to support this legislation because in so far as it goes it is going to provide land within the city limits of Christchurch to enable the building of 600 homes 180 of which have been designated affordable". We do have a bit of a quibble with the definition of "affordable" being set at $450000 which sadly for many New Zealanders is still well out of the range of affordability—and it is particularly when you think that the average price of housing in Christchurch is $490000. To be setting the level of affordability at only $40000 below that average is I think doing a disservice to the real need of communities and families within Christchurch. But that said it is a start and we certainly know that there is real need.I have heard some of the debate around whether there is still an affordability issue in Christchurch. The member on that side Scott Simpson was saying that affordability has actually improved under this Government in recent years forgetting how massively out of control things got after the earthquake because the Government chose not to intervene and put some controls around rental prices in particular as well as building prices. We definitely know and will acknowledge that there have been a lot of new building consents happening in Christchurch and that some new houses have been built but as we are seeing in Auckland and other parts of country most of those builds are targeted at the higher end of the market and the market is not delivering for most New Zealanders. The market is delivering for speculators and those who want to make a profit off housing and it is leaving families and the vulnerable behind—on the streets in people's garages or sleeping on the floor in family members' houses. There is a clear clear call for the Government to be more interventionist to make the market work.Back to this bill Mr Assistant Speaker as you have so nicely prompted me one of the points that I would like to acknowledge we do have some concern about is from Minister Smith's initial speech on this bill when he spoke about the land in effect as wasted space. There were submissions to the Local Government and Environment Committee from residents living in the area who talked about how much they used the space for recreation. Part of our vision for those sustainable healthy developments is for there to be a good balance between green space transport and homes and that the homes are sustainably built. We are disappointed to see that there is not very much guidance within this bill to ensure that that is the end result for the community of Christchurch. It is a missed opportunity particularly when we know that the Christchurch district plan is still under review. There are a lot of questions about what is going to result. But all in all we are happy to support this small measure in support of the people of Christchurch."