Twyford Phil: Social Housing Reform (Flexible Purchasing and Remedial Matters) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTwyford Phil: Social Housing Reform (Flexible Purchasing and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3664. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū): This bill I think instead of being called the Social Housing Reform (Flexible Purchasing and Remedial Matters) Bill should actually be called the “Flog Off State Housing to the National Party’s Property Developer Mates Bill”. That would be a far more accurate representation of what this bill is about. It is on the surface some little sort of vanilla kind of enabling legislation allowing more flexible purchasing contracts. But actually what this bill is designed to do is to give the Minister extraordinary discretionary powers to do sweetheart deals with property developers. Instead of simply as the current law allows being allowed to extend income-related rent subsidies to the people who buy these State houses from the Government this bill gives the Minister wide-ranging powers to do any kind of deal—to crank up the subsidies crank them down or to do away with the subsidies and just agree on direct payments. It gives amazing freedom and discretion to the Minister to do those sweetheart deals.The reason that the National Government is giving itself these powers is that it cannot give these houses away at the moment. It spent months saying that the Salvation Army was going to take them and that ended in tears when the Salvation Army said: “Sorry not us.” Paula Bennett Nick Smith and Bill English have been travelling up and down the country basically trying to hock off these houses to anyone who will take them and they are not getting any takers. This bill is about giving the Minister the freedom to do sweetheart deals or anything it takes to basically offload billions of dollars’ worth of publicly owned State houses.It could be called the “Cabinet Club Housing Policy Bill” because what is really going on here at the heart of this policy—when you strip away Paula Bennett’s mealy-mouthed platitudes about social housing—is a massive transfer of wealth from the public to private landlords and property developers. The Government is looking at divesting and flicking off billions of dollars’ worth of State houses that have been paid for by generations of taxpayers and State house tenants—flicking them off at knock-down prices to anybody who will take them. Those houses will then go on to the open market and people will make a killing on those houses. I guarantee that they will end up eventually just simply being rented back to the same people who need a decent roof over their heads but this time they will be paying higher rents and the taxpayers will make up the difference with a hefty subsidy directly into the pockets of landlords. That is the model that Bill English is pursuing. It is a huge transfer of wealth from the public to private landlords and property developers—that is fundamentally what is going on here.We saw recently in the New Zealand Herald reports of how the National Party funded its election campaign last year. The big cheques were made out by property developers. This policy is the big payback—it is the big pay-off. That is what the Cabinet club is all about. It is about giving big business—in this case property developers and big landlords—the opportunity to put their hands in the public pocket and benefit from billions of dollars’ worth of State housing that generations of New Zealanders have paid for. State housing is not intended to line the pockets of private landlords as this National Government wants to do but to put a decent roof over the heads of the most vulnerable New Zealanders. Nothing rankles more with New Zealanders than that basic idea that the reason we have a Government is to make sure that things work for everybody—that every kid in this country gets a decent start in life.Chris Bishop: Well we’re raising benefit levels.PHIL TWYFORD: That is why Chris Bishop we invented State housing in the first place. And I know that your party has never had any truck with State housing. You do not like it you do not believe in it and you do not want to have anything to do with the people who live in State housing because it makes you profoundly uncomfortable. The social and economic system that you stand for does not care what happens to the bottom 20 percent. You do not give a damn about it and you are quite happy—Tim Macindoe: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): There is a point of order. [Interruption] Sit down when I am on my feet.Tim Macindoe: This member is repeatedly bring you into the debate—[Interruption]The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): There is a point of order. There is a point of order and it will be heard in silence. And you can sit there and point and say that he knows he should be sitting down and so did you but you did not and he did not and you know—what do you think this does for the reputation of this House? For goodness’ sake! Now I have a point of order from the Government chief whip.Tim Macindoe: This member is repeatedly bringing you into this debate in manners that are completely inappropriate.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): Carry on.PHIL TWYFORD: As I was saying there is one thing that rankles more than anything else with New Zealanders and that is when the Government dismantles the very systems of social support that are designed to guarantee that every child growing up in this country gets a decent start in life.