Sepuloni Carmel: Housing Amendment Bill Housing Corporation (Social Housing Reform) Amendment Bill (No 2) Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters (Social Housing Reform) Amendment Bill (NO 2) — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSepuloni Carmel: Housing Amendment Bill Housing Corporation (Social Housing Reform) Amendment Bill (No 2) Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters (Social Housing Reform) Amendment Bill (NO 2) — Third Readings[Sitting date: 18 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:9175. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour—Kelston): That National Party MP Todd Muller just asked whether Labour is caught in a paradigm where only the State can own homes. Labour believes that the Government has a major role to play with regard to housing and that we should not be hocking off $20 billion worth of assets that have been built up since that very first State house was built in 1937 at 12 Fife Lane in Miramar. This is not just about Labour; this is about generations of New Zealanders who felt that this was the right place for their Government to invest their money.This legislation is further evidence that the National Government has lost its way. Its members are arrogant they are out of touch and they are ignoring the big issues facing everyday New Zealanders: jobs wages and of course relevant to this legislation the housing crisis. It is a Government of broken promises. Under the National Government the Kiwi Dream is slipping away.We have an economy stacked in favour of a privileged few while everyday Kiwis find it harder to get ahead. Our health care system is stretched to breaking point with services slashed to the tune of $1.7 billion over 6 years denying Kiwis the care they need. We have got an education system drowning our young people in debt. We have got rates of child poverty that are a national disgrace with too many kids going without food living in cold damp houses and relying on charity for basics like a raincoat or a decent pair of shoes. Last but not least we have got a housing market that has become a plaything for speculators locking a generation out of the dream of homeownership.This legislation is only supporting that to happen. It is supporting that lockout of New Zealanders from that Kiwi Dream not only to own their own home but to get into a home and we know there are so many families who are currently not even in a home—living in garages living in cars and couch surfing because they do not even have access to a house.I like many other people in this Parliament have talked about the fact that my family like many New Zealand families started off in a State house. That was the stepping stone to being able to then go on to buy a home. That was the stepping stone for my parents. That was the stepping stone for the parents of many people in this House including the National Party leader the New Zealand Prime Minister John Key.The point of difference is that this side of the House never pulls the ladder up. We do not pull the ladder up on other New Zealanders who need the same opportunity unlike members on that side of the House—and we have seen it done so many times. Time and time again they use their background they use the challenges that their families were faced with as a platform for trying to appeal to New Zealanders and then they turn round and they remove that very same opportunity from the New Zealanders who require the same opportunities.This legislation is an absolute disgrace and one that sums up the Government’s blind obsession with selling off State housing with absolutely no foresight. Government members act like they are the economic gurus of this country like National is the only political party that knows how to manage the finances of this country yet it goes ahead and makes the decision to sell the biggest asset that we own as a country—the $20 billion asset that we own as a country. It made the decision that that is worth hocking off.But of course what we have to keep in mind is that privatisation is just business as usual for the Nats regardless of the consequences regardless of the fact that they are seeing every day—and I am sure they are across the country—increasing levels of homelessness. They are seeing a number of New Zealanders coming through their offices—I am sure they are like we are—who are getting sick because of the damp mould and unhealthy conditions of their homes.They know that there is a shortage of housing. We all see there is a shortage of housing. Not only do we have a massive queue of people on that social housing register but we have thousands of New Zealanders who cannot even get on that social housing register because there is a shortage of housing. Those Government members try to say that selling off these houses is their way of addressing the housing crisis. It does not make sense. They are not increasing the stock of housing available; they are shifting the stock. They are shifting what belongs to New Zealanders and passing it into private hands. We will not support that on this side of the House.I personally—and I know a lot of other people in this House feel the same way—am absolutely shocked that the Māori Party has made the decision to support this legislation. I do not know whether its members have been asleep during this whole process. I do not know whether they have seen the way in which the housing crisis has been affecting their community but it is shocking that the Māori Party has made the decision to support this legislation. The National Government is selling out with regard to this legislation and every political party in this House including the Māori Party has sold out on New Zealanders as well. What is the point of the so-called benefit of being at the table if it does absolutely nothing to stand up to the Government when it matters? This is an issue that the Māori Party should have stood up against the Government on. This is an issue that its members should have stood up for for their people but they did not. They have supported this legislation. That is on record now and it will not be forgotten.This legislation gives Ministers English and Bennett extraordinary and unprecedented powers to take direct personal control of selling State houses exempting Ministers from normal legal requirements and leaving the sale process wide open for corruption. Actually I heard my colleague Stuart Nash last night in the House speaking about the fact that our brand as a country—which is so far removed from corruption because of the fact that people perceive us as not being corrupt—is worth around $20 billion. Well is it not a coincidence that that brand being worth $20 billion is the same amount of money that our State housing stock is worth because I tell this House that that side of the House’s selling out our $20 billion - State housing asset is basically selling out our brand. Those members are selling out New Zealanders they are selling out the country and they are selling out our brand.The National Government wants the power to do dirty deals—flogging off billions of dollars’ worth of land and housing—and it does not want to be bothered with pesky public servants or the rule of law. National members are having secret meetings—and we know this—with merchant bankers with public-private partnership investors and with property developers who want to get their hands on these assets and they refuse to release the names of these organisations. There is no transparency with what this Government is doing.The Government is not accountable for the decision that it is making and actually the legislation reinforces the fact that there is no accountability because of the fact that despite the fact that the Ministers—so Paula Bennett and Bill English—are going to have all decision-making power in respect of these transactions none of the accountability or liability will fall on them if anything goes wrong in the transaction. All of the accountability and liability will fall with Housing New Zealand despite the fact that Housing New Zealand has just had a National Government take all power for decision making off it.How can that be right? How can that be fair? Anyone looking at that legislation when we were going through the Committee stage could see that. This is wrong. This is incredibly wrong and the National Government members should be ashamed of themselves. This legislation is the latest move by a Government desperate to offload State houses and keep its troubled policy afloat.The National Government’s State house sell-off is deeply unpopular and as I said before generations of New Zealanders believed in this investment. They believed that having their taxpayer money go towards State housing was the right thing to do. In the latest poll 75 percent of New Zealanders and 60 percent of National voters opposed the Government’s plan to sell off State houses to overseas companies like Gold Coast - based Horizon.In light of the housing crisis we should be trying to solidify the availability of the number of homes available to low-income persons not take them away. We on this side of the House have been accused of being ideological but I will say we are not ideological. We are responsible actually—we are responsible on behalf of New Zealanders and we are responsible with regard to the asset that has been built up by New Zealanders. There is only one side of this House that has been ideological in this debate in respect of this legislation and that is the National Government. It does not believe that the State should have any role in housing and it has been so quick to make the decision to hock that housing off.We will not be supporting this legislation in the House. I want to make it clear as well that the National Government knows that this is a deeply unpopular policy with the New Zealand public.