Lee Melissa: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLee Melissa: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 31 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:12155. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MELISSA LEE (National):It is a pleasure to rise to contribute in this estimates debate. I would like to begin by saying that it is very rich for that member Phil Twyford to actually comment about this Government’s housing policy. When National came into Government back in 2008 the previous 9 years of Labour Government were known as the slum landlords’ years for the condition of the houses that people were living in. They were run down they were in the wrong place they were cold and people were getting sick. We know that good housing is important for the health and well-being of families. We know that and we had to put money into it—$347 million was spent on home insulation because those homes were run down. Labour mismanaged.The National Government is legislating right now to build more houses because we know for a fact that the single biggest influence on housing affordability is the lack of supply of new houses. Local councils actually play a big role in freeing up available land for housing across New Zealand. I think earlier some member talked about how we are legislating to consent 39000 new homes. They thought that was a bad thing and they were actually opposing it. Currently we consent only about 3600 homes. I would have thought that making more new houses available in order to reduce the cost was a good thing for new-home buyers—that having more available would actually create a situation where they might possibly pay less. The Labour Party in the meantime came out with that notion that cashed-up foreign buyers coming to New Zealand to buy our properties are bumping up prices. How very original—let us blame the foreigners! This is the kind of divisive politics where Labour really shows that it is in fact desperate. How pathetic and how offensive. I do really find that offensive because I often get mistaken for a foreigner because of the way I look. I think it is awful that Labour is playing these politics.There is very little evidence that shows that foreign buyers are the cause of house prices being bid higher. History has shown that we are pretty good at doing that ourselves actually. A BNZ survey shows that only around 3 or 4 percent of house sales are to foreign buyers. Unlike what Mr Phil Twyford tried to say overseas buyers couldalso get round Labour’s policy simply by finding someone else to buy the house for them and hold it in trust. It is absolutely ridiculous to blame foreign buyers when the biggest chunk of overseas buyers are actually Australians—but wait hang on they are exempt from the Labour policy. That is right. I could go on and on but I will stop by saying that Labour’s policy would also possibly clash with a number of free-trade agreements. Considering that Labour actually supports free-trade agreements I think that is ridiculous.The National Government is focusing on making a real difference to house prices. Take a look at Auckland for example. I know that Phil Twyford talked aboutKiwiBuild—“Phil Twyford Build”—saying that it can provide 100000 homes under $300000. I mean that is ridiculous considering that the average land price in Auckland is more than $350000. If you look at Auckland for example the housing market needs about 300 percent more new houses than we currently have which means that over 12000 new homes a year need to be built. The new Auckland Housing Accord will see 39000 new homes and that will go a long way in addressing that lack of housing supply.We are streamlining the Resource Management Act to reduce the red tape around building new homes introducing a 6-month consenting limit for medium projects and we have launched an inquiry into building material costs which often go towards the higher cost of building and higher price of homes. We want to keep interest rates low making savings for Kiwi families especially those moving into their first home. At the moment this Government has made sure that our interest rates are very very low. Comparing the rate that I currently pay which is the average price now with the rate that I paid when I first bought a house going back quite a long time ago—