Lotu-Iiga Sam: Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLotu-Iiga Sam: Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 03 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13175. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie): It is an honour to speak in this debate this afternoon. We have heard so much misinformation from across the aisle that we have got to set the record straight. Members opposite ask “How many affordable homes?” and they have not yet defined what “affordable” means. What does “affordable” mean? Miss King what does it mean? Tell us right now what “affordable” means. No answer—no answer.Hon Annette King: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. Do I get another call to answer that? He is asking me a question.Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: That is not a point of order. [Interruption]The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy): Order! I think we will put that down as a rhetorical question.Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: I ask Miss King what does “affordable” mean because in the 10 minutes that she stood up—Hon Annette King: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. It cannot be rhetorical when he is saying it for the fourth time. It has to be a serious question.The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy): I have ruled it a rhetorical question.Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: Cannot handle the truth—cannot handle the truth. Let me give some facts. On TradeMe this afternoon the biggest property website in the country there are 4699 homes that are $500000 or less—4699 homes I say to members opposite. What I do not understand is how they can come in here and say that every new home should be affordable. Well when I grew up in South Auckland people went into old homes. They did not go to new homes. They went into flats in Mount Wellington. So I say to members opposite that in Mount Wellington in my electorate there are 34 homes under $500000. In Onehunga there are 26. In One Tree Hill there are eight. I can go right across my electorate and say that there are numbers of affordable homes in my electorate.But what the Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill does is breach the problem of housing supply in Auckland as well as around the country. Over the next 3 years 39000 homes are required to meet demand—39000. How many sections are available for development right now? I ask members opposite how many. Silence—silence. Well I have got 1900. That is not going to quite cut the mustard is it? So land supply as has been recognised by the Minister as has been recognised by Treasury and as has been recognised by the Productivity Commission—Phil Twyford: And me.Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: —is one of the biggest factors in bringing about—no not you—a solution to some of the issues around affordable homes in Auckland. But what is Labour’s solution? Mr Twyford says: “What about me? What about me?”. Well I will tell you what they want to do. They want to ban foreigners from purchasing homes in New Zealand. What are the facts around that? The facts say that foreigners are only 4 percent of those purchasing homes. So they want to attack 4 percent. But in Auckland—Dr Rajen Prasad: Four percent is a lot.Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: Mr Prasad you should know as well as I know that 40 percent of Aucklanders were born overseas like me. So when I go to an auction under the Labour regime they are going to ask me for a passport. The xenophobic tendencies of that Labour Opposition sadly have come to the fore. Because when it comes to winning votes they will play the race card. I and 40 percent of other Aucklanders who look like foreigners might turn up to an auction and we will be asked for passports. So I ask members opposite how they are going to implement that. Mr Jones is saying one thing—Phil Twyford: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I am worried that Sam Lotu-Iiga believes that he would be affected by the proposed ban on overseas speculators.The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy): What is the point of order? That is a debating point.Phil Twyford: If he is a non-resident he cannot be a member of Parliament.The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy): Order! That is hardly a point of order. I am not the Electoral Commission. We have had some reasonably florid examples from either side and that is a debating point.Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: I will take it as a badge of honour that there have been three points of order. They are attacking me because they do not know the truth. Coming back I say that members opposite do not understand. They should talk to developers talk to those on the front line talk to nurses talk to educators but in the housing sphere talk to those who actually do the building. When I spoke to two developers who want to build affordable homes in Manukau and inMāngere and—Hon Annette King: You said we don’t need them.Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: —I asked them: “What are the issues?”—Miss King should come and I will introduce her to them. They said to me that the delays around the Resource Management Act and the costs of council around delays are factors in terms of getting more houses built. These are not small developments. One is a 1500 house development inMāngere. I challenge members opposite to come and have a look at these developments.What I object to as well is that we heard the former Minister of Housing and the list MP in Nelson Annette King talk about freeing up of Crown land.Hon Dr Nick Smith: She’s not from Nelson.Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: Well she lives in Nelson but she is a list MP down there. She is freeing up land. Well I ask her because she was the Minister who came toTāmaki and I thought she understood at the time what that development was about. It was about using Crown land and getting in more social housing as well as community housing and private development. It is about leveraging the Crown land that we have in our possession. I ask members opposite what is going on at Maria Street and Yates Street in Onehunga. That is another development where there is pepper-potting of mixed housing of social housing of community housing and private developments. So when the member opposite asks the question: “What are we doing with Crown land?” I say that we are developing it in order to house more people.I seriously object to the notion that those homes are not warm and dry. As the Minister has quite clearly laid out over 300000 homes have been insulated by this Government. That is one of the proudest achievements that we have done as a Government and there have been many by my own admission but that is one of our proudest achievements. I am proud that people particularly in my community whom I have seen across Maungakiekie are now living in warmer drier homes. For that they are thankful and for that I am thankful for what the Government has done.But the Minister also said that one of the biggest costs when purchasing a home is interest rates. Unlike under the Labour Government when tax and spend policies led to some of the highest interest rates in the Western World and one of the highest interest rates in New Zealand’s history—9 percent—now the interest rates are at around 5 percent for a mortgage. What does that equate to? I think the people of New Zealand want to know what that equates to.Phil Twyford:LVRs have just gone up.Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: For Mr Twyford that equates to $300 a week on a $400000 mortgage—$300 a week on a $400000 mortgage.Hon Annette King: That’s if you’ve got a house.Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: Sadly Opposition members scoff at it. Mr Twyford laughs and Miss King jokes around about those people who do not have houses. Well I empathise with those people.Hon Annette King: You talk rubbish.Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: I side with those people Miss King. You might laugh at those people but I actually want to see those people in homes. I come back to the bill. This is about one of the measures that this Government is putting in place to bring about more affordable housing in this country. It is about opening up land supply because we know that the evidence the research supports the fact that land supply is one of the critical things when going about addressing the housing shortage in our country. For that I think New Zealanders are happy that we are making these moves.It saddens me today that members opposite right across this Chamber choose not to house more Aucklanders and more New Zealanders because across the Chamber it is about political ideologies. I commend the Minister. I commend those in our Government who are prepared to reach out to our local councils to work together to unite and to bring about solutions that are going to be workable for New Zealanders in the future. This bill is certainly to be commended.