Wall Louisa: Social Housing Reform (Flexible Purchasing and Remedial Matters) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWall Louisa: Social Housing Reform (Flexible Purchasing and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3634. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]LOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): Thank you very much for the opportunity to contribute to this debate. Actually I want to start by quoting from the Prime Minister’s press release titled “Supporting children in hardship focus of Budget”. What I want to highlight is that currently we have 4808 families on a Housing New Zealand waiting list. These are families who have been through the Ministry of Social Development process. They have been identified as those most in need. In fact priority A is defined as people who are at risk and includes families with a severe and persistent housing need that must be addressed immediately. We are actually talking about 10000 children who currently do not have a home. I think the question everybody should be asking is: how does this piece of legislation contribute to housing those children? The Minister for Social Housing is here. I would love to hear from her about how this piece of legislation will help the 10000 New Zealand children who currently do not have a home and who have been through the Ministry of Social Development process and have been deemed to be in severe and persistent need of housing. How does this piece of legislation prioritised by this Government meet the needs of those children?When I look at where this piece of legislation came from it came from a Government-commissioned report called Home and Housed: A Vision for Social Housing in New Zealand. It was commissioned in 2010. The central proposition of this commissioned research was No. 1 that private sector organisations could provide social housing to those most in needmore creatively than the Government. The second proposition was that there needed to be a plan to move people from renting to owning their own home. Again I ask the question: how does this piece of legislation contribute to those I guess two crucial outcomes from that commissioned report?What we know from the social housing provider - sector is that actually social housing providers do not want the transfer of houses because for them the transfer of Housing New Zealand houses is a transfer of responsibility. I want to quote Major Campbell Roberts who said that he does not believe “the lives of tenants would be sufficiently improved by such a transfer.” And why is that? It is because to take responsibility for a home means to make sure that that home is warm and dry and is going to contribute to the health and well-being of the family that is living in it. The reality of a lot of the houses is that they are not fit for purpose and actually this Government which is supposed to provide for those most in need should ensure that the houses that are being provided for those most in need are fit for purpose. So the private sector organisations that this Government wanted to transfer that responsibility to actually at the end of the day said no thank you.We think it is a core Government responsibility to provide housing for those most in need and to ensure that the 10000 New Zealand children who are waiting with their families on priority A and B housing lists which the Ministry of Social Development has determined for itself get the home that they need. Why is it important for our children to have a home? Well actually it is relevant to their education. If children do not have a home how are they supposed to have continuous education? How are they supposed to go to an early childhood education provider which we all know is the basis for getting a good education in our country? How are they then supposed to go to a primary school and reap the benefits of our public education system? How are they then supposed to belong to a family where mum and dad have security of tenure in the home that they want to build for their children so that they can go and get further education themselves or possibly go to work? How is that supposed to happen when we have a Government at the moment that wants to abdicate responsibility for providing houses and homes for those most in need?I am an MP in South Auckland and actually across the South Auckland area of the 2537 families waiting on the Housing New Zealand and Ministry of Social Development waiting list we have 1070 families and over 2500 South Auckland children who do not have a home. Forty percent of the people on this waiting list are Māori. So how is this piece of legislation ensuring that our Māori children have a home and are able to get quality early childhood education and are able to go to school? Pacific children and families account for 19 percent of the families and children on the Housing New Zealand and Ministry of Social Development waiting list. How is this bill going to contribute to meeting the Better Public Services target? We know we have got big issues with Māori and Pacific children. This Government wants to focus on participation.