Hipkins Chris: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHipkins Chris: General Debate[Sitting date: 01 July 2015. Volume:706;Page:4988. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. It says everything about the National Government’s priorities that in a week when it has been hocking off State houses up and down the country it is wanting to find $11 million to buy a luxury apartment in New York for the diplomats working over there—hocking off State houses that everyday New Zealanders live in although it can find $11 million for a luxury condo for the diplomats living in New York.I want to know why Murray McCully does not replace Nick Smith and Paula Bennett in the housing portfolio because then we may actually get some action on improving the state of State housing in New Zealand. If Murray McCully can bring peace to the Middle East as we are now being told why can he not sort out the New Zealand housing crisis? That is what we want to know.If the Government cannot find money for the cold and mouldy school buildings up and down the country why can it find millions of dollars for charter schools which miraculously goes unaccounted for and no one can explain where it has been spent? If the Government cannot find money for teachers nurses the police and the myriad of other public servants who basically have had their wages frozen for the last decade or so how is it that it can find money for a wage explosion at the highest levels of the Public Service where the managers are getting massive pay rises? If the Government cannot find the money to keep its promises to the people of Northland to build them 10 more bridges why can it find $26 million for that great vanity exercise for the Prime Minister that is the referendum on the flag which New Zealanders have said they do not want?This is a Government full of self-importance that has become so arrogant and out of touch with New Zealanders that it seems to think there is one set of rules for the Government and another set of rules for anybody else. We have got Te Ururoa Flavell who thinks that he can interfere in the programming decisions of Māori Television when there is coverage unfavourable to him and to the Government; we have got John Key who sends the police in to raid media outlets when they behave in ways that are unfavourable to the Prime Minister; and we have absolute contempt from Government members when it comes to them doing their job which involves releasing information. They ignore the Official Information Act they ignore parliamentary questions and they simply do whatever they want with absolute contempt for the people of New Zealand who deserve better.Let us return to where I began with the fire sale of State houses. John Key promised New Zealanders before the last election—and it was a promise in National’s campaign—that there would be no more asset sales if the National Government was re-elected. Nobody saw the fine print—except for the millions and millions and millions of dollars’ worth of State houses that it is going to hock off in a fire sale. First of all it said it was going to be to the community and voluntary sector because it was closer to the communities that those houses are there for.That was the first promise. But oh no the community and voluntary sector did not want them and could not run them so now the Government is talking about hocking them off to the Aussies. Hocking them off to the Aussies is what we have come to under this National Government. We are not going to own anything if this current Government continues in office for very much longer.The Government’s State house sell-off has been a boon for private property developers who are picking up ex-State houses demolished State houses and vacant State house land at fire-sale prices or in some cases they are even being given them and they are making huge returns on the redevelopment process. What of course does the Government end up getting out of it and what does the taxpayer end up getting out of it? More private houses but not more houses for people who cannot afford to buy their own home.Let us not mention the surplus. Let us not mention that surplus which was the cornerstone—Dr Megan Woods: Don’t mention the surplus!CHRIS HIPKINS: Do not mention the surplus the cornerstone of the National Government’s re-election campaign. The Government did not say it was going to deliver a surplus; it said it had already delivered a surplus. The surplus has not arrived it has not eventuated and it is not even on the horizon.This is a Government that has completely lost its way. It has its priorities all wrong. It is not a Government that is there for ordinary everyday working New Zealanders who are trying hard to get ahead. It is a Government that is interested only in the top 2 percent. It is not interested in all the New Zealanders who cannot afford to live in luxury New York apartments or the New Zealanders who do not earn massive managerial salaries in the State sector—salaries that have blown out under this Government. No it is not interested in those New Zealanders. It is time we had a Government for all New Zealanders and not just those in the top 2 percent.