Rurawhe Adrian: Third Readings —Text is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRurawhe Adrian: Third Readings —[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3691. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ADRIAN RURAWHE (Labour—Te Tai Hauāuru): Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te W’are otirā tēnā tātau katoa.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker of the House and indeed to us all.]It gives me great pleasure—in a way—to have the opportunity to speak to this. I think it is really important that I again acknowledge all of those families who are sitting in their State homes today wondering about the future of their occupancy of the houses that they live in—their homes. I also want to acknowledge those families who have applied for a State house and have been declined. They have been declined because the rules around who qualifies for a State house and who does not have changed. That has not lowered the number of people wanting social housing; it means that the Government has just written them off. So I want to acknowledge those families as well because this legislation does nothing for them—nothing at all. This legislation has got nothing to do with what the Government benches say that it has although we have not heard a lot from them especially today. We have heard as my colleague said interjections that have lasted longer than their speeches and in a democratic society that is actually not good enough. It is not good enough for the speeches from the Government benches that we have heard today—very few of them—that when they are given the opportunity to actually speak to those issues you get a 1-minute speech in response. As my colleague the Hon Annette King pointed out the Government benches are actually not doing their job properly.I go to the bills that have come out of the Social Housing Reform (Flexible Purchasing and Remedial Matters) Bill. Let us talk about the flexible purchasing or as I mentioned during the Committee stage the flexible sales because that is what it really is. These bills provide the mechanism for the Government to sell State assets. That is what they do. No one can deny that. In fact if that was not right why have we not heard from the Government benches about that particular issue? The sale of these State assets also transfers the responsibility to provide social housing. That is actually not good enough. It is an obligation on the Government to provide those houses. If it is not then the Government should say so. The Government should tell the country—come clean. Tell the community that the Government does not want to be in that business any more—that it does not want to provide social housing for New Zealand. That is what this legislation is effectively saying. It wants to transfer the responsibility to community organisations and others: property developers—we do not know because new section 137A of the Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Act inserted by this legislation gives the power to the Minister for Social Housing to make those decisions. The Minister can make the decisions around transferring those assets to from my reading anyone the Minister chooses. And without any rules around that we do not know how long those houses have to stay as social housing. Is it 1 year 2 years 10 years? Maybe after 2 years they can be transferred or sold on the open market no doubt for a large profit and then no longer will those homes be affordable no longer will those homes be social houses.The big question in debating this particular legislation is whether there will be one single social house more in New Zealand when this legislation takes effect and the answer is no—not one single one; nothing. How then can members opposite claim that this legislation will provide more social housing? It does not. It does not. I think I am bound to say that the public should have had the opportunity to have input into this legislation. New Zealanders ordinary Kiwis out there have been denied the opportunity that our democratic system offers. They have not had the opportunity to give evidence. We have heard in the contribution from the Hon Annette King that one organisation was able to get out a press release in time to give its thoughts on it. Imagine what other organisations might have been able to contribute. There is nothing in this legislation as I started to allude to in one of my earlier contributions around the Government’s Treaty of Waitangi obligations. It talks a lot about providing Māori housing and yet in this legislation there is no mention under the enabling clause of the Minister giving any recognition whatsoever to the Government’s Treaty partners—none whatsoever—so that may or may not happen but there is no obligation on the Government to do that. I call on the members opposite who have one more call. Maybe they can answer some of those concerns that more than just I have.As I mentioned earlier those families who are sitting at home wondering about the future of the occupancy of their homes will be very concerned that they have not had the opportunity too to make a contribution and give evidence on this legislation. Actually we have not heard any compelling evidence or any compelling contribution from the members opposite about exactly why this legislation is so important that it has to go through under urgency. I have not seen or heard any contribution from them addressing that issue. There is no urgency in this. It is a matter of the Government deciding that it wants to get this legislation through under the urgency of the Budget so that the general public will miss the fact—or may miss the fact—that this is about the flexible sale of State assets. It is not flexible about the purchasing because when you have purchasing you also have someone who is selling and that is the Government on behalf of all New Zealanders selling its stake in social housing in New Zealand and transferring the responsibility that it has to organisations and others to carry out that function. That is just not good enough.Ā nō reira ka tuku atu i taku kōrero ki aku iwi katoa. Kia kaha ki te āta titiro i ēnei pire. Kaua e pōturi ki te tuku atu i ō koutou kōrero ki a rātau mā te Kāwanatanga. Nō reira Mr Assistant Speaker tēnā koe.[Therefore my advice to all my Māori people: be robust and scrutinise these bills very carefully. Do not be slow in submitting your findings to that lot the Government. So thank you Mr Assistant Speaker.]