Whaitiri Meka: Third Readings —Text is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWhaitiri Meka: Third Readings —[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3690. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Tēnā tātou katoa. State housing has a proud history in New Zealand. It is how we make sure that every child gets at least a decent roof over their head. No matter how hard mum and dad are struggling financially it is how we make sure every child gets a decent start in life.It is my privilege to stand and take a call on the third reading of this important legislation. I came to this House at 9 a.m. and sat in the Committee for 4½ hours to try to get a call on this particular legislation so I am pleased to finally get 5 minutes to talk and share my experience of the impact that it is going to have on the people and constituents whom I represent in this House—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti. There have been some communities that have been identified in terms of how this legislation will not address their needs. Can I make it really clear for the House that there are real social and emergency housing needs throughout Ikaroa-Rāwhiti. There are real housing needs. A couple of suburbs were mentioned by colleagues on this side of the House—Flaxmere—but one suburb that I particularly want to mention is Maraenui. Since coming into this House I have the privilege of visiting Maraenui often when I am back in the Hawke’s Bay—Napier. I can say without a word of a lie that 80 to 90 percent of the cases that I deal with on a daily basis when I am in the electorate are to do with housing issues. That is why I am saying that legislation like this is not going to address the real social and emergency housing needs of the constituents I represent.One of the issues raised in the passing of this legislation under urgency is why we are doing this urgently because that was not answered by the Minister for Social Housing when she was in the chair. What is the urgency that is prevalent in this bill that requires us to have that time and why were the people who are going to be affected by the legislation not given the opportunity to present? They are not here. Their voices cannot be heard but this side of the House is bringing the very real issues that we confront as electoral MPs to the House. This legislation falls short in terms of supplying or being able to give the number of social housing homes that are going to replace those that have been sold off.As I mentioned Maraenui is a place of many many social and State houses that have recently been sold or are currently vacant. We have just under a hundred on the waiting list in Hawke’s Bay yet we have these homes that are either vacant or have been turned down. So much has the Government dropped the ball in Maraenui that recently I met with the Maraenui revitalisation committee and who is heading that committee? The Napier City Council. Napier City Council along with all the Government agencies property developers and Te Puni Kōkiri have got round the table. When my colleague Stuart Nash and I visited them 2 weeks ago we asked the question: “Why are you doing what you’re doing? There must be a Government plan to deal with housing issues in Maraenui.” Do you know what they told us both? There is no plan. They—the people around the table—said to both of us that there was no housing plan for Maraenui. There is clearly a gap in that part of my electorate. There is no housing plan so the people of Napier have taken the ball to address the real issues.But for the time I have got left on my feet in bringing forward those issues of the people of Maraenui I also want to mention what this legislation is actually doing. As a former public servant I understand what important and really robust policy looks like and I also know what robust and good policy does not look like. In this particular legislation it talks about removing from Housing New Zealand Corporation the deliverer of housing in this country the role of giving advice to the Minister. I read that and I fear for all the public servants that we are talking about here in Housing New Zealand. That means who is next on the block. Which other departments and officials that work tirelessly on behalf of our community are also going to get the chop? This is one of the failings of this legislation. It is not just about not delivering; it is also downplaying the Public Service which has a proud record in this country and therefore I cannot support this legislation. Kia ora tātou.