Delahunty CatherineCATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Chair. Tēnā koutou e Te Whare. This is not just a housing crisis; this is a moral crisis. This country is actually in moral crisis as I speak. This amendment to insert new Part 8 is important like all of the amendments because what they do is articulate to the country—and people are watching us here tonight—that some people recognise the crisis and some people recognise that practical affordable and reasonable steps need to be taken to work our way out of this crisis. As the previous speaker Denis O'Rourke said about this part it is disturbing to think about our kids right now outside in the cold. As yet another wintery blast hits the country there are kids outside in the cold. There are parents trying to get them out of the cold. Meanwhile in Parliament there is a bill before the House that will not help that situation at all because it has missed the point. It would be easy to say deliberately; it would be kind to say that the Government just kind of made a mistake—it meant to produce a wonderful housing bill that was going to work it all out. But this part is important because it actually spells out the issue around income-related rents. You cannot separate the word rent" from the word "income"—well if you do you are obviously living in fool's paradise or you are really rich. But the main thing is we were here about a week ago arguing about the minimum wage. We were arguing that there should be a minimum wage for contractors and the Government—The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order!CATHERINE DELAHUNTY: I am about to link it.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): Well it would be very good if the member did so quite quickly because I think you heard the previous ruling. I think it is fair to say that this part was marginal as to its scope and the member is getting a fair way outside speaking directly to it.CATHERINE DELAHUNTY: Thank you Mr Chair. I would like to get directly to the relationship between income-related rent and the minimum wage—i.e. if you are not getting the minimum wage you cannot even pay the rent. I think that is within scope. Proposed new section 72A says: "The joint Ministers must ensure sufficient funding is available for income-related rent places" in Housing New Zealand houses. The good thing about this amendment is that it attributes responsibility to these joint Ministers not only in clause 12 inserting new section 72A but also in new section 98B "Joint Ministers must ensure sufficient places for emergency housing". So what it does is it actually names the Ministers of the Crown as responsible. This is appropriate because the State has a responsibility to look after housing and this is what this bill is about. It is about the role of the State. The joint Ministers must ensure "all people who are homeless have the ability to access accommodation and the services they need." At risk of deviating we have to look at Te Puea Marae. They acted like the joint Ministers; that is what they did. They acted like—maybe we should write into new section 98B: "The joint Ministers as a reflection of the leadership provided by Te Puea Marae will act to provide sufficient places for emergency housing." The leadership came from the people and new section 98B(2) is all about "The joint Ministers must ensure the number of funded places available in emergency housing each year is not less than 8000." I am sure that we would need all of those places. I am sure that what we saw at the marae was about the need for ongoing emergency housing. I personally am aware having visited Whangarei—which is not Auckland—that there is a crisis in emergency housing in Whangarei. There is a crisis in emergency housing—Clare Curran: Dunedin.CATHERINE DELAHUNTY: —in Dunedin. There is a crisis in my own town in Thames. There is always a crisis in emergency housing funding because no one is taking responsibility for the overall picture. The Government is just leaving it to agencies that are desperate and then it has cut the community funding for that. So those joint Ministers—I am not sure who they are but the joint ones—can get together and do something about it and make sure that emergency housing is warm dry and safe. So it is not just that the joint Ministers must ensure that these places exist but that they cannot just say any old dirty boarding house will do. What they have to say is "premises which are warm dry and safe." I think "safe" is a critical word in this new section. It is very good that it is mentioned because if our kids are not safe we are not safe. No one is safe while our kids are not safe. We need to do this. This amendment needs to go ahead."