Paul TamathaTAMATHA PAUL (Green—Wellington Central): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. I will try my best to keep it mellow because we have had a very big week on housing this week. So we will keep it mellow.I'm taking this call to speak on the past and the future of housing in Aotearoa in regards to the long-term briefings. I want to begin with this quote by New Zealand author Rebecca Macfie who said In a single generation New Zealand has transformed itself from a home-owning democracy into a society fractured by property wealth — between those who have it and those who do not." In Treasury's He Tirohanga Mokopuna 2021 report they said that sharp increases in house prices have exacerbated the challenges of housing affordability especially for those seeking to purchase their first home. This reflects the reality for many young people in Aotearoa who are choosing to move overseas where they can earn incomes that allow them to save up for a deposit and to service those regular mortgage payments.The reality in New Zealand is that if you don't have intergenerational wealth if you don't come from a rich family then it's going to be extremely hard to be able to scrape together the money for a deposit. I think this contributes even more to an ageing population which is heavily touched on in this report. People aren't having babies. That's why our ageing population is increasing—because it's too expensive and too unstable to raise a family under these conditions and that's the sort of country that we live in where there is very little class mobility where a huge chunk of our country's wealth is concentrated in housing and where our system is built around favouring those who are lucky enough to own their own homes. You used to be able to work really hard and save up enough for a home in Aotearoa and now all of your wages are taken by supermarkets and the steep cost of living. It's a massive shame to see our country's brightest and best moving overseas.But it's not just those at the beginning of their lives who are struggling; it's our kaumātua our seniors in our communities who bear the brunt. This is a key theme throughout this long-term briefing around how our kaumātua are living in this day and age. Imagine spending your whole life contributing to the country that you live in hoping to retire and be able to chill out but your pension is calculated on the assumption that you own your home so you're living in poverty because your pension doesn't even cover your rent and it doesn't keep up with the rising cost of living.I had a message from a family supporting their grandfather that really encapsulates the reality behind this briefing. It says "My elderly grandfather lived under other people's homes or in tiny beds on the North Shore of Tāmaki. He was in his 80s. He paid way too much for these dark little places. He was kicked out each year for three years in a row from three places. It was such an ordeal moving him. He wasn't eligible for funding for a place in a rest home and didn't have the money to pay for one despite being a successful businessman for many years. It was so sad seeing him shuffled along every year." This is why we continue to advocate especially for multigenerational housing—I think that's something we don't have in our housing stock is that diversity.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): It's more about what the report said than what you're advocating actually Ms Paul.TAMATHA PAUL: Yeah so one of the key themes in this report is about increasing the diversity functionality and accessibility of our housing stock and allowing for planning rules that allow for larger houses that are accessible and that are universally designed so that babies and kaumātua can live in the same house as an essential part of that.The other point that I want to touch on is: housing trends for Māori and Pacific populations—another one of the four key points in this briefing. In particular there is a really great resource called Homeless and landless in two generations – Averting the Māori housing disaster. That report by academics completely backs up what this briefing says about declining homeownership rates and increasing renting within Māori populations.I want to use the last bit of my time to talk about the accessibility of our housing stock. Considering the amount of people who live with a disability in our society our housing stock does not reflect the needs of our community. We can improve that by having higher standards for our public housing our council housing to meet universal design standards. That is going to go a long way to addressing stable homes for seniors and people with disabilities. Kia ora."