Twyford Phil: Housing Amendment Bill Housing Corporation (Social Housing Reform) Amendment Bill (No 2) Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters (Social Housing Reform) Amendment Bill (NO 2) — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTwyford Phil: Housing Amendment Bill Housing Corporation (Social Housing Reform) Amendment Bill (No 2) Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters (Social Housing Reform) Amendment Bill (NO 2) — Third Readings[Sitting date: 18 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:9172. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū): This legislation is a charter for corruption. Paula Bennett stood here in the House today defending legislation that will give her and Bill English the Deputy Prime Minister absolute carte blanche—unfettered powers—to do any deal they like with whomsoever they like on any terms and conditions. It gives those Ministers the power to sell billions of dollars’ worth of land and public housing in this country to their mates to overseas corporations to public-private partnership companies to merchant bankers to property speculators—whoever—because they have defined “community housing provider” in the most open way possible.Anybody can rock up to the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment and say “I want to register as a community housing provider.” and then they are eligible to buy houses. There is nothing in the legislation to stop a public-private partnership company from the United Kingdom to rock up and register as a community housing provider. There is no requirement for it to be non-profit. There is no requirement for it to have any track record in delivering social services or community housing. Anybody can rock up and say: “I’m a community housing provider. I want to buy these State houses.” The Minister should be ashamed of herself.This legislation clears away all of the normal legislative policy and constitutional safeguards that normally govern the process of privatisation or divestment. Paula Bennett and Bill English on the basis of this legislation will be able to sit down with merchant bankers from the other side of the globe and do any kind of deal they want. That is seriously a worry given this Government’s members’ track record in negotiating. Oh yes they are masters of the universe! When they sit down with Warner Bros with Rio Tinto with Skycity—oh what a proud proud track record this Government has got of selling out this country. Oh and I forgot the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. I forgot the TPP agreement when they somehow overlooked the fact that 80 percent of citizens in this country wanted to protect the right of future Governments in this country to stop non-resident foreigners from buying our houses. But no they did not think that was material and they failed to safeguard the interests of this country and this country’s citizens. They failed to prevent our land and our housing from being bought and sold by non-resident foreigners. They have got a splendid track record in selling out the interests of this country.It was even more of a concern when Transparency International recently dropped New Zealand down its perceptions of corruption index in light of the Oravida affair and in light of the Saudi sheep scandal. This will be the next thing. This will be the next thing that will damage that perception of New Zealand as a country that is free of corruption and that has integrity and probity in the way that we conduct Government and public affairs.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: So back to the legislation.PHIL TWYFORD: Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker.The second reason that the Labour Party opposes this legislation is that it represents the dismantling by John Key as the Prime Minister and Paula Bennett as the Minister for Social Housing of the social system of support that has given New Zealanders young New Zealanders a decent start in life and a roof over their heads no matter how struggling mum and dad might be. It is a quintessential part of the Kiwi Dream that no matter who you are no matter what side of town you come from and no matter where you go to school or what mum and dad do for a living you get a decent start in life. For decades going back to the first Labour Government and in fact going back to the first public housing under Prime Minister Dick Seddon public housing has been the way that we ensure that every kid in this country gets a decent start in life.It is not perfect—no one will stand in this House and argue that it is—but it was good enough in the 1960s for John Key and his mother to get the support of the taxpayer. He got a decent start in life and one of the ways that happened was that the taxpayer supported him through giving him and his mother a State house. But apparently now under National Government rule in the 21st century State house tenants according to the Hon Paula Bennett are bludgers and they game the system. They are fair game for that Minister to vilify them and demonise them at every opportunity she gets. Well we do not stand for that. We stand for the principle that every New Zealander gets a fair go and it is the job of Government to collectively do the things that we do together better rather than just allowing the market to reign.What we object to about this legislation is that it is enabling the dismantling of a critical element of social support in this country and Bill English who is the architect of that policy—Paula Bennett is just the mouthpiece. She is actually just a not very effective human face of this policy. Bill English is the architect and he wants this to be his legacy—this policy to dismantle social housing—because he does not see that there is any need for the Government to either own housing or provide decent social housing for our most vulnerable citizens. He wants the private sector to do it. Only this week he was talking up the idea that international funds the big private equity funds—companies like the retirement village companies and he used Ryman Healthcare and Summerset as his examples—should get into running State housing and make a profit from it. He thinks they could make a really good profit from it. My question for the people of New Zealand is: how can big private companies make a buck off the back of the poorest 5 percent of the New Zealand community? The only way that they can do that is that the National Government is willing to pour unlimited quantities of taxpayer subsidies into their pockets. That is the only way it can work and that is exactly what Bill English has in mind.This policy that the National Government has of privatising billions of dollars of land and housing that has been built up and paid for by generations of taxpayers and State house tenants is the most sordid element of the National Government’s housing crisis which is one of the things that has emerged under this Government that when people look back on John Key’s time in office will come to be seen as one of the hallmarks. It is the Government’s failure to do anything about an out-of-control housing bubble in Auckland that has driven house prices up by 25 percent last year. The average house price is now $930000. That incredible price pressure on housing in Auckland has driven up rents. The average rent went up by $2000 in Auckland last year. How can low-income working families find another $2000? It is also the reason why we have seen a huge surge in families with children living in campgrounds kids living their lives in cars and garages—this is life under the National Government in the 21st century. This is what it means.The Government’s total refusal to do anything meaningful to rein in that housing crisis sits alongside its dismantling of State housing in this country as an act of criminal negligence. Housing is one of the most fundamental human needs. If there is one thing that the Government should do it is to make damned sure that people have access to secure decent and affordable housing. But this Government has been negligent in its omissions and also negligent in its policies some of which have actually made the housing crisis worse. We have seen in recent days in the media on TV radio and newspapers the heart-rending examples of families who are homeless and living in overcrowded and substandard conditions.This Government is very good at rolling out press releases and photo stunts and meaningless cosmetic policies but it will not do the obvious thing—it will not build more houses. It is the simple thing. We have a housing shortage but this Government refuses to build more houses. Instead what does it do? It embarks on a massive privatisation programme selling the inadequate number of houses that it already owns instead of building new ones.This policy is the wrong policy at the wrong time. It will make matters worse for this country’s poor and vulnerable families and we oppose it.