Sepuloni Carmel: Social Housing Reform (Flexible Purchasing and Remedial Matters) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSepuloni Carmel: Social Housing Reform (Flexible Purchasing and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3631. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour—Kelston): This bill gives the Minister the flexibility to flog off billions of dollars’ worth of State housing to the National Party’s friends and developers but what this bill does not do is to take seriously the housing issues that we are faced with in this country. This bill completely ignores and sweeps under the carpet the fact that as a country we are facing a housing crisis.The Government is underplaying the housing crisis and acting like the flogging off of State houses is somehow going to address the issues that we have with housing in this country. It has stated recently that it is managing the Housing New Zealand waiting lists but when I put through an Official Information Act request on the numbers of people who actually applied for Housing New Zealand houses—not the ones who actually got on the waiting list—we saw that of the 1853 applicants who were placed on the social housing list there were 4000 other people who did not even make it on to that waiting list.The Government is ignoring the fact that there is a demand for affordable housing and that there is a need for increased social housing not the flogging off of Housing New Zealand houses to the private sector. There is a need for increased housing. When the Government is asked time and time again whether it is going to expand the amount of social housing that we have it goes silent because it is doing nothing to respond to the issue. What we see from members on that side of the House is that any way they can they will privatise. Any way they can they will find a way to flog off State housing.I want to talk about one example actually in my own electorate. The project that I am going to talk about is the Waterview Connection project where houses were purchased for the purpose of that project. Housing New Zealand houses were purchased for the purpose of that project but when that project was undertaken it was found that a number of the houses were no longer required. You would think that if the Government took seriously the demand for housing that we are facing in New Zealand—in Auckland—it would think: “OK New Zealand Transport Agency let’s put those houses back to Housing New Zealand so we can somehow try to meet the demand for social housing that is out there in Auckland.But what did the Government do? It did not divest it back to the State. Instead it took that opportunity—any way it can it will take the opportunity—to sell those houses that were purchased for the Waterview Connection project to private developers to private owners. The Government could have gone back to the State. It could have met the need that is there for social housing but instead it sold them off privately for a profit of course a monetary profit. But who is not profiting here? The people who are not profiting here are the 4000 people who cannot even get on to the waiting list for social housing. The people who are not profiting here are the people who are on the waiting list but will be on the waiting list for a long time because of the fact that demand is increasing but the stock of social housing is not increasing.I think that members on that side of the Chamber should be ashamed of themselves—ashamed of themselves because they think that if they pretend we do not have a housing crisis if they pretend that people are not in need of housing then the problem no longer exists. But the fact is that New Zealanders know there is a problem. New Zealanders know that housing is unaffordable. New Zealanders know that they cannot access warm healthy homes. The Government is trying to say it is going to do something about it but it has done nothing about it.We are facing the biggest housing crisis as a country that we have ever faced and here we have a Government that ignores it and thinks that the answer the panacea is selling off our Housing New Zealand houses our State houses to their private developer mates. If New Zealanders are not already aware of the fact that that is this Government’s agenda I have no doubt that within the next few weeks or the next few months that agenda will become very very clear to all New Zealanders out there who are looking at this problem.I just want to say that what we have here is a number of New Zealanders out there looking for houses and the Government is doing nothing to respond to the need that is there. We have the National Government determined to sell off billions of dollars of State houses by hook or by crook. Bill English says he does not care whom they get sold to; he just wants them off the Government’s books. The Government initially said they would go to NGOs. NGOs do not even want a bar of this initiative because of the fact that they know it is not going to work.