Heatley Phil: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Heatley Phil: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:637;Page:7315] 
PHIL HEATLEY (National—Whangarei) 
: 
 I would like to address upfront Martin Gallagher’s challenge to the National Party about State house sales. I put it on the record right now that the National Party will not be selling any State houses to Taito Phillip Field. He has bought enough and the Labour Party has done enough deals with Taito Phillip Field buying State houses that the National Party certainly does not have to help that good Labour member any more. 
Interestingly enough that member Martin Gallagher in his speech tonight did not indicate that Labour has sold State houses—about 100 to 150 each year—in the time it has been in Government. I acknowledge to the Minister Chris Carter that Labour has also bought State houses and leased State houses but that is beside the point. Labour has sold about 100 to 150 State houses each year since it has been in Government. There are reasons for that and many of them are good reasons but I wish that the member Martin Gallagher who is a relatively new member—or should I say a late performer in this Parliament—would do his homework. But I put it on the record this evening that that good Labour Party loyalist Taito Phillip Field will not be purchasing any State houses off the National Party when it is in Government. 
I was intrigued by the good Prime Minister Helen Clark from those Labour Party roots of caring for the poor when over the Christmas break she informed the nation that there was no poverty in New Zealand that there was no underclass and that she had done such a very very good job in this country that she could down tools because there was no underclass or poverty. 
Christopher Finlayson 
: Well that lasted 24 hours. 
PHIL HEATLEY 
: That lasted 24 hours because the scales from her eyes fell off and she recognised that so long had she been speeding in her car so long had she been drawing her $350000 salary and so long had she had 10 or 15 minions doing her dishes for her and cleaning her shoes that she had lost touch with real grassroots New Zealand and had not recognised that there is poverty and an underclass in this country. Not only is there poverty and an underclass in this country but there is a growing underclass. 
I would like to turn the House’s mind to the Housing New Zealand Corporation using State housing as an example. Did members know that 2 years after the Labour Government came into office the waiting list for State housing was about 10000 people? These are the figures the Minister of Housing gave me. 
Hon Chris Carter 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The member has failed to remind the House that his party sold 13000 State houses. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: You should not do that Mr Carter. 
PHIL HEATLEY 
: Two years after this Government came to power there were about 10000 people on the State housing waiting list. Today 7 years after Labour came into Government there are 11500 people on the waiting list. In the time that Labour has been in Government the waiting list has grown by 1500 needy families. The Minister may say that National sold houses in the 1990s but that is irrelevant. In the time that the Minister has been Minister of Housing the waiting list has grown from 10000 to 11500. 
There can be only two explanations for this. Either the Minister is poorly managing the housing stock in New Zealand or—and consider this I say to members—poverty is increasing in New Zealand. 
Hon David Carter 
: Or both. 
PHIL HEATLEY 
: Or both. So which one is it? Clearly if the waiting list has grown by 1500 families in the last 5 or 6 years then poverty need and the underclass are growing in this country. Who has been in Government in that time? No one has been at the wheel. We do know that in the old days the Labour Party traditionally stood up for those who were poorer those who were in need and those who needed housing. In those days Labour would have fixed this problem but it appears from the Minister’s own statistics that Labour has exacerbated the problem. How is it that the waiting list under this Government has grown by 1500 families? 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: The Minister is very quiet. 
PHIL HEATLEY 
: The Minister is very quiet about that. He is content to say what happened in the 1990s but I want to know what has happened in this millennium—in the last 6 years. Why has the waiting list grown? Why also while the waiting list has grown by 1500 are there a couple of hundred State house tenants in this country who have three or more boarders boarding in their houses? Why is that? Why are there about 200 State house tenants who have incomes over $65000 per annum—the average household income? Why are there about 100 State houses worth over half a million dollars? And why are there many many State houses with five bedrooms that are occupied by two people or by a single person and have been so occupied for 20 years? All this can happen—boarders high incomes half-million-dollar and million-dollar State houses and houses not being matched to the number of people in them—while we have 1500 extra people on the waiting list who I presume have become poor over the last 6 years and who are now waiting in line. That is an excellent question for the Minister to answer. 
I would also like to know whether Dr Cullen when he proposed the mortgage tax a couple of days ago consulted the Minister of Housing. The Minister of Housing has been very concerned about housing affordability and about the fact that young people today are locked out of housing ownership—when the Minister is doing up his bach on Waiheke Island and skiting about it on Radio New Zealand. Did the Minister of Finance come to the Minister and say: “You may be concerned about housing affordability but”— 
Hon Member 
: We’re going to make it harder. 
PHIL HEATLEY 
: —“we are going to make it harder because we are going to add an extra 1 percent to everybody’s mortgage.”? I suppose the Minister of Housing said: “Look I will have to go away and think about that.” because I know that that Minister is not interested in releasing more land in order to drive down land prices. I know that that Minister is not interested in tax cuts so that people with young families can take home more money and spend it on housing as they always have. I know that that Minister is not interested in fixing the Resource Management Act in order to clip $20000 off every new home in this country. I know that that Minister is interested in putting an extra 1 percent on every mortgage in this country so that he can pull in more tax drive around in a flasher ministerial car and have more minions answer his questions through press releases than he does in the House today. I am ashamed of the Minister of Housing Chris Carter. Like the Prime Minister he ignores poverty in this country; he does not acknowledge an underclass at all as his forefathers used to. I challenge the Minister to get to his feet and tell us why the State house waiting list is growing and why he did not put to death Michael Cullen’s mortgage levy—his new tax. Why did the Minister of Housing not put that idea to death?