Walker Holly: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Walker Holly: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 20 March 2012. Volume:678;Page:1067. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
10. 
HOLLY WALKER (Green) 
 to the  
Minister of Housing 
: Is he concerned that poor quality and overcrowded housing is contributing to high rates of infectious and respiratory diseases among Maori children? 
Hon PHIL HEATLEY (Minister of Housing) 
: 
 Yes. That is why this Government has over the last 4 years invested in more than 55000 upgrades of State houses including more than 32500 upgrades relating to insulation energy efficiency and heating. The Government is also committing to the insulation of all State houses where practical by the end of 2012-13. 
Holly Walker 
: What specific steps is he undertaking to reduce household crowding given that the incidence of rheumatic fever—an entirely preventable disease for which household crowding is a major risk factor—has increased rapidly under his Government’s watch especially amongst Maori children? 
Hon PHIL HEATLEY 
: When we took over the housing portfolio we discovered that a third of the State houses across New Zealand were in the wrong place of the wrong size or in a serious state of disrepair. We are currently going through a reconfiguration of State houses meaning that where there are larges houses with one or two people in them those tenants are being offered smaller houses so we can shift larger families in. We have discovered that at every turn though every time we try to shift one person out of a large house or redevelop a quarter-acre or half-acre section other parties in this Parliament oppose it. 
Katrina Shanks 
: What other initiatives has the Government implemented to help increase the quality of people’s housing? 
Hon PHIL HEATLEY 
: The Government has also introduced the very successful Warm Up New Zealand campaign to assist renters not in State houses and homeowners with insulation and clean heating. My very close colleague the Minister of Energy and Resources informs me that this has resulted in the retrofitting and insulation of 140000 homes of which 77000 belong to people on low incomes. I would like to congratulate that Minister and also acknowledge the help that he has had from Hekia Parata and Gerry Brownlee. 
Holly Walker 
: Does he consider that housing availability is at crisis point in Auckland and now Christchurch with families reporting doubling up in houses sleeping with whole families in single rooms and housing family members in cars and garages due to a lack of affordable State and private rental housing? 
Hon PHIL HEATLEY 
: Yes we recognise that there are pressure points particularly in those two cities. In Auckland we have announced that we will be increasing the number of State houses there but of course there are other areas of the country where we do not require State houses. Unfortunately other parties in this Parliament oppose our selling State houses in areas of low need and rebuilding houses in areas of high need. They oppose our shifting people out of large houses and even when vandals and gang members abuse their neighbours the other parties oppose us in this Parliament. We are looking at the problem. We want to house the right number of people in the right-sized house and that is what we are doing. 
Holly Walker 
: Why will his Government not address this housing availability crisis reduce the incidence of infectious diseases save millions of dollars in health care costs and create up to 9000 new jobs by adopting the Green Party’s plan to build 2000 new State and community houses by 2014? 
Hon PHIL HEATLEY 
: I think I made it clear that we are going to insulate where practical every single State house in this country—up and down this country—by the end of 2012-13. Furthermore we are reconfiguring the State housing stock so that we do not have single people rattling around in four bedrooms and other families crowded into two. The Green Party opposes every single practical move that other New Zealanders see as sensible including redeveloping half-acre and quarter-acre sections. That is what we are doing. The Green Party opposes it and I cannot do anything about that. 
Kevin Hague 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. My colleague’s question was specifically about whether or not the Government would take up the suggestion of building 2000 more State houses. The Minister’s answer was an interesting one to another question about what the Government was going to be doing instead of that. He did not actually address the question. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: It is something of a shame that the member’s colleague did not leave the question at that point instead of inviting the Minister to comment on Green Party policy. It is a dangerous move for members asking questions to invite comment on their own party’s policy. The Minister clearly in answer to the first part of the question—he had better correct me if I am wrong—said that no the Government’s strategy was to do other things than build a whole lot more State houses. If that is not a correct response to the first part of the question then the Minister had better correct that. But on the second part he was simply offering his views as invited on the Green Party policy. 
Holly Walker 
: I seek leave to table the key findings of a University of Otago report on the health of Maori children and young people which shows that Maori children are 23 times more likely to contract rheumatic fever than non-Maori children. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is no objection. 









Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.