Ball Darroch: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBall Darroch: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 03 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10717. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DARROCH BALL (NZ First): If we were to listen just to the Minister and to the Government benches about what was going on in social services and Housing New Zealand then the public of New Zealand would be led to believe that everything was hunky-dory and tickety-boo. But as we all know that is not the case.I just want to concentrate on one topic which is Housing New Zealand and the State houses and the state that they are in at the moment. At the moment we are actually entering crisis point and we are going to epidemic levels in regard to the P contamination of State houses. The main fact is that this Government has done nothing since it has been in Government since 2008 and it is still continuing to do nothing about the P contamination of State houses. In the 2013-14 financial year there were 28 State houses found to be contaminated with P. In 2014-15 that jumped up to 230 houses found to be contaminated with P. And in just the first 6 months of this financial year alone that number is 280. That is in just the first 6 months of this financial year alone. That is epidemic levels. That is crisis point but this Government is not even acknowledging that there is a problem with P contamination of Housing New Zealand State houses.Not only that add the fact that a quarter of all new State houses that were built in Christchurch have already been contaminated. In 2014 of the 196 houses that were tested 101 tested positive and like I said before already 280 in the first 6 months of this financial year have tested positive. If you compare that with the hundreds of people on the waiting list because of these State houses being empty because of the contamination then you can see where we are with the issues with the waiting lists adding to that fact.But how does that translate into costs for the taxpayer? Well luckily enough we have got a poster here. In 2013-14 it cost $700000 to the taxpayer in 2014-15 it cost just over $2 million and just for the first 6 months alone of this financial year it cost almost $6 million. That is what you call an exponential curve—that is what you call an exponential curve. There are two questions that fall out of this poster. Firstly what is going to happen next year 2016-17 if this Government continues to do nothing? The answer is that it will continue to exponentially increase.The second question is this: why is there data only to 2013-14? That is because this Government did not even bother to collate the information prior to 2013-14. Even though it knew that the evidence was there that this was going to be a problem that it was a problem since 2008-09 yet it chose to still do nothing about it.In 2008 to 2012 prior to Housing New Zealand even collating the data about P contaminated State houses there were no fewer than 16 major stories and articles about P contaminated State houses: from “P labs” to “Scientists telling of P house shock” “P lab findings” “Taxpayers carry can for P lab State house tenants” and “P homes clean-up costly”. That was in 2012. If we talk about official documents that Ministers were given there were no fewer than five official documents that Ministers were given between 2008 and 2015—the official reports stating the concerns with the P contaminated State houses.So the Government has known. But what has been done? What has been done—nothing. It is zero. The only thing that the Government brought in in 2011 was a stand-down period of up to 12 months for a State house tenant who was caught using or manufacturing P in a State house. Bill English has already said in this Chamber that that is not a firm enough measure and that they are looking at things that are firmer. But nothing has been done.Just out of some written questions—in fact what I will go to as I have got only a short time left is looking at the responsibilities that Housing New Zealand actually has as the country’s largest landlord. The Government’s own tenancy services state that if landlords rent out property that is contaminated by P they are breaching their obligations under the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 as well as other legislation such as the Building Act and the Health Act. This Government has let this crisis occur; it has known it was going to occur since 2008. The only thing it is planning on doing is selling off these houses.