Williams Poto: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliams Poto: General Debate[Sitting date: 05 November 2014. Volume:701;Page:659. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]POTO WILLIAMS (Labour—Christchurch East):This Government is embarking upon the most significant change in State and social housing that this country has seen in 80 years. It is going to be a disaster. It is going to be an absolute disaster. When we look at the housing issues in this country the spectrum of need goes from homelessness—people living in cars garages and tents—right through to the other end where only those with the most wealth can actually afford a home these days. It is shameful what this Government is attempting to do to those most vulnerable those most in need of housing.We are talking about State housing—our housing; housing that is owned by the New Zealand taxpayer housing that we are proud of that we should be proud of and that we should continue to invest in. It is State housing which this Government wants to morph into the terminology of social housing. Let us get it right. State housing is housing that we own as a nation. It supports our beneficiaries supports our low-income families supports people who are unwell supports young parents supports our older people and supports our community organisations. When I ran a refuge I had the privilege of having community support through State housing to support women and children who were trying to escape violence. That is what State housing is about. It serves people who cannot access affordable housing through the private rental market.Let us look at what the Minister of Finance Bill English said today about the Government’s changes to State housing—the proposed sell-off of some of the State houses. Some of them will go to social housing providers but not all. Some of them will be retained by Housing New Zealand and others—the rest of them—will be sold. Who to? To private landlords that is who. What will they do with them? There are two pathways of thought around this. What is the justification for selling State houses? The Minister Bill English said that they needed to be fit for purpose so they needed to be the right type in the right place in the right condition and of the right size. OK so he is probably talking about three-bedroom homes which are not the right size for families in need and for some people in need.There are 6000 people on the Housing New Zealand priority A waiting list. About 1400 to 2000 of those people are waiting for transfers from one type of house to another. There would be more than 4000—nearly 4500—people alone waiting for a type of house. There are some real difficulties that I have with reviewable tenancies which will move people from their current State houses and into other types of housing. It means that we are putting vulnerable people out into the private housing market and letting them drift. We are divesting ourselves of housing with no plans to invest that funding back into the housing market. If the Government does have plans tell us about them. Where is the transparency? What are your plans? What are you going to do? What is the Government planning to do?My second area of concern is around the accommodation supplement. There has not been a lot of discussion about what is going to happen around the accommodation supplement. There has been really limited discussion around this. Who does the accommodation supplement support? It supports the private landlords—the private landlords—who are likely to pick up some of these State houses that we are selling. Will the Government actually tell us what it is budgeting what it is committing to in terms of the accommodation supplement? Minister English said today that the changes to social housing State housing was going to provide more money to be available for people and their housing needs—not more housing; more money. This signals to me that there is going to be more money available for private landlords for the accommodation supplement and that is a shame. It is a tragedy. We need to build houses not provide more money for private landlords—Hon Ruth Dyson: To put rents up.POTO WILLIAMS: —to put rents up to live off the poor low-income folk who actually want decent housing and deserve decent housing.What has this Government committed to pay directly into the pockets of private landlords?The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.