Shearer DavidDAVID SHEARER (Labour—Mt Albert): There is a housing crisis. There is a housing crisis. There is a housing crisis. I say it three times because this Government says there is no housing crisis yet it has allocated three Ministers to this housing crisis and the way it is going it will need to allocate another three because it is going badly—it is going really badly. Today we had the really embarrassing spectacle of Paula Bennett having to apologise about a smear campaign out of her office against Hurimoana Dennis in Te Puea Marae a man who has led the charge on homelessness. Paula Bennett after 3 weeks of this marae functioning fled through the other day—fled through went through barely stopping to meet anybody. She should be thanking Te Puea Marae not trying to put those people in their place and smear them. That was a long list of problems. Yesterday as well Paula Bennett got asked about the housing problem and some of the temporary mobile housing that is coming up the prefabs. She said she knew nothing about it. They said: But Mr Key just talked about it." "Oh" she said "Oh yes yes that is right—they will be ready in April." This Government is all over the place—all over the place. It is sending people down to the provinces with $5000 in their pockets because it cannot put them into houses in Auckland. It is putting people in motels and then asking them for the money for it. These are beneficiaries who have done nothing wrong except failed under this Government's policy and they are being put in motels and asked to pay that money back. It is a disgrace. That is only one housing Minister. The second housing Minister is Nick Smith and do you believe him—do you believe him? Homelessness he says is a figment of people's imaginations. Do you believe this? He tells us about consents but everybody knows that consents do not keep out the rain. You cannot shelter under a consent—you want a home. He also says that houses are more affordable under National. The average house has gone up by $500000 under Nick Smith—$500000—and Auckland is heading towards a million-dollar average. Who can get into a million-dollar house—who can get into a million-dollar house? It has decimated the dream of young New Zealanders wanting to buy a house. It is disgraceful. He is a mistake of a Minister. It is an appalling legacy that this Minister is leaving for the people of New Zealand. Housing Minister No. 3 Bill English is the so-called economic guru of New Zealand. His credentials are taking a dive. He is saying that speculators are no problem yet we know that 46 percent of all houses bought and sold in Auckland are done through speculators. We have now racked up a level of half a trillion—half a trillion—dollars of debt in New Zealand. Half a trillion dollars—that is beyond anything we have ever seen before. Fifty years ago under Muldoon—my God! That was nothing compared with this. We have got $90 billion of debt under this Government and we are now being fuelled by credit. Just to tell you how out of touch this Government is we have the banks finally saying: "No. We're not going to lend to foreigners." This is Labour Party policy I will have you know. We should not be lending to foreigners. But that Government has never had the intestinal fortitude to even be able to stop foreigners from treating our housing market like they do the New York Stock Exchange. Selling pork bellies on the New York Stock Exchange is exactly what it is doing here in New Zealand with our housing market. It is a disgrace. This Government has had three housing Ministers to do the job and none of them—none of them—have been able to do anything that can give us any hope."