Delahunty Catherine: Social Housing Reform (Transaction Mandate) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDelahunty Catherine: Social Housing Reform (Transaction Mandate) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 17 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:9092. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green):Tēnā koe Mr Chair. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. I would just like to take a short call as a non-housing expert because this is not an issue just about housing; it is an issue about our society our community our history and where we are going as a country.Part 1 is very much about an interesting development in the transfer of powers. The clauses in Part 1 give two Ministers far more direct control over housing than we have seen in the past. What it reminds me of actually is when the Department of Conservation decision making around mining was handed over to two Ministers: instead of just the Minister of Conservation you then had any other Minister in Cabinet—i.e. the Minister of Energy and Resources having that decision-making power. There is a pattern here and this Government’s pattern is to transfer power to centralise power in the hands of the Government more and more—and not merely for the fun of it but to drive through a certain agenda.The agenda with housing is to privatise the housing stock because ideologically it believes that we will all be better off if we are all competing over everything. From the beginning of the day to the dark of the night it has all got to be the market. In housing this is clearly laid out in Part 1 and what it does not do is acknowledge what has actually happened to Housing New Zealand and what the impact will be of handing the power over to the Ministers.Housing New Zealand was never the perfect institution—or maybe it was in the 1930s. For a long time it has been in need of reform but the kind of reform that is being introduced here is a disturbing ideological breakup of community. It is all described in two words: Glen Innes. With the police dragging people out of their houses they broke a community because of a plan that is being driven by Ministers rather than being driven by communities—let alone the meat in the sandwich which is Housing New Zealand. I was an advocate for people in Tai Rāwhiti dealing with housing under the previous Government. It was not perfect: there were long lists then there was overcrowding then. But what we have now is a proposal to so-called “reform” this in a way that will prevent the very desperate and the very needy having access to housing. All the rhetoric about social housing is not what the social housing groups mean; it is what the Government means. This bill is particularly disturbing because in Part 1 it entrenches the idea that the Government understands what social housing is. It does not it did not and it will not because all it thinks it is about is making a profit out of people who need homes and that is not what social housing is about. It is not about the market; it is about meeting an incredibly important need.As someone who has lived in social housing at a time in my life when I needed social housing I really appreciated the State house I lived in. It is long gone. It was on Wellington Street in Freemans Bay—all gone. All of that housing actually—as I think a previous speaker Jacinda Ardern described it—was a mixed community. It was a diverse and mixed community but those communities are not on the agenda with this change to the Housing Act and to Housing New Zealand.The regulatory impact statement says that “More fundamentally this option changes the relationship between the Crown and HNZC from one at ‘arms-length’ to one where the Crown has direct control over HNZC’s stock.” As a former advocate for people who needed housing I have to be very afraid because it will be based on efficiency. It will be based on phrases like “What is the most efficient way to manage these units?”—i.e. human beings—and whether or not they will get the housing they need at an affordable rent will not be the main priority. The regulatory impact statement also says that “Ring fencing and limiting Ministers’ mandate will mitigate the impact of the provisions on HNZC and provide greater transparency of Ministers’ actions”. I find that a little difficult to believe. That is not our experience of Ministers having more power—that therefore suddenly there is more transparency and the public and the people in need of housing will get more out of that model. Housing New Zealand was created by our money for the public good. Public service may not be real to this Government but it is real to the rest of us. The public good and public housing for people who need it are core values of a society that has changed a great deal.We in the Greens would love to see Housing New Zealand reformed to a genuine progressive public servant that actually knows how to listen and work with not the people who will have the ability to develop sites—