Turei Metiria: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Turei Metiria: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:669;Page:15725] 
2. 
METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green) 
 to the  
Minister of Finance 
: Does he stand by his statement that “the Government is playing its part by spending billions on infrastructure which is underpinning the employment of thousands of skilled and unskilled people”? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance) 
: 
 Yes I do. I understand that recent estimates are that for instance the programme of building roads of national significance is employing around 8000 people. A large construction firm told me recently that over 90 percent of its work was Government-funded. I do not think there is any doubt at all that the Government’s multibillion-dollar infrastructure spending programme is well-timed and is employing thousands of people who in a recession would otherwise lose their job. 
Metiria Turei 
: Does the Minister accept that the estimated 20000 people living in caravans camping grounds garages and boarding houses consider housing to be critical infrastructure? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Yes they do and at the beginning of this year the Government put together a group of New Zealanders who are experts in housing to deal with the legacy that was left to this Government which is a very expensive and inefficient social housing sector that is not helping nearly as many New Zealanders as it should. I am pleased to say that everyone who is interested in social housing broadly supports the Government’s new direction and we will proceed to implement it in the new year. 
Metiria Turei 
: How much money is the Government spending on building enough homes for the 20000 people in extreme housing need and how many jobs will be created by that spend? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: For the benefit of the member I point out that the Government owns $15 billion worth of houses. In our view not enough New Zealanders are being assisted because of the inefficient management of those houses. The Housing Shareholders’ Advisory Group tells us that about 30 percent of those 67000 houses are the wrong size and in the wrong place or have the wrong people in them. If we can make a 30 percent improvement it will easily be enough to help most of the people who have serious housing need and we are keen to achieve that. 
Metiria Turei 
: Does the Minister agree that with the current level of Government spending for the proposed 1500 new State homes over 4 years the Government could expect to fill the current deficit of 70000 homes in New Zealand in about 200 years’ time? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: We are moving from targeting a fixed number of houses which was the method of the last 10 years to targeting needy New Zealanders. That means we will not be focusing as much on some magic number of houses because as I said 30 percent of them are the wrong size and in the wrong place. We believe that we should focus on people rather than houses and as we do that we will be able to help more people with the 67000 houses that we have. 
Metiria Turei 
: Does the Minister accept that the 375000 children who live in cold damp housing at present which causes them severe illness—at great cost to the health system—could benefit a great deal not from the 1500 houses over 4 years that his Government proposes but from the 6000 State homes over 3 years creating 28000 new jobs that the Green Party has proposed in its Mind the Gap package? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: What we do agree on is that insulating houses is a good thing. The Government has allocated $700 million for subsidies to assist houses across New Zealand to be insulated and I think we might have got to 100000 houses. We are aiming to ensure that almost all of the State housing stock is properly insulated. I have to say that we were disturbed when we came into Government to find just what bad shape that State housing stock was in but we are spending considerable money upgrading it and making sure that those children can benefit from warm dry houses which will help their health.