12. Question No. 12—Prime MinisterCHLÖE SWARBRICK (Green—Auckland Central) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 12—Prime Minister12. CHLÖE SWARBRICK (Green—Auckland Central) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by his Government's statements and actions?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON (Prime Minister): Yes in the context they were delivered.Chlöe Swarbrick: Does he agree with Christopher Luxon who said—and I quote—there's no point building back houses if we don't have flood protection in place." and if so is he concerned that more than 1400 homes have been consented in Auckland flood plains since the Auckland Anniversary floods?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: That is exactly what I believe and what we need to work hard on is making sure that we can move through property categorisation in a much quicker way. I've asked for a weekly update on that so that we can make sure that that job's getting done across the cyclone-affected regions.Chlöe Swarbrick: Why then did his Government roll back under urgency no less the last Government's Resource Management Act reforms which Victoria University economics of disasters and climate change chair Ilan Noy said were "way better" than the status quo he's returned us to?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Because it stultified New Zealand and stopped investment in infrastructure happening and it wouldn't have helped this problem.Chlöe Swarbrick: Is urban sprawl good or bad for climate mitigation and adaptation?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: We need both city densification and we need to open up new greenfields and new green spaces too.Chlöe Swarbrick: Mr Speaker if I may point of order.SPEAKER: Well are you going to call one?Chlöe Swarbrick: A point of order Mr Speaker. The question was relatively straightforward: is urban sprawl good or bad for climate adaptation mitigation? The Prime Minister did not answer that question.SPEAKER: The member will know that you can't ask for definitive yes/no or good/bad answers. You can simply get an answer and the answer was—the way I heard it they're both good and bad.Chlöe Swarbrick: All right Mr Speaker. It'll stand on its own then. Supplementary.SPEAKER: No no don't make those comments; just ask your supplementary.Chlöe Swarbrick: Will the Government's policy decisions increase or decrease urban sprawl?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: We want to make sure that people who can get houses have access to houses. We have a major problem in our housing market here in New Zealand. It's linked by the fact that if you can't own a house you end up having to rent a house; if you can't rent one you end up on a social house wait-list; and if you can't get on a social house wait-list you end up in emergency housing. We are determined to solve housing in New Zealand; we're going to do that job.Chlöe Swarbrick: Does the Prime Minister agree with Christopher Luxon who said that climate adaptation is going to require "bipartisan support" and if so will he commit to restarting cross-party work as started under the former Government on climate adaptation within this parliamentary sitting block?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Yes. Our climate change Minister agrees with me that we want to be able to make sure we can work in a bipartisan way to make sure we deal with climate adaptation which has impacts over multiple generations with landowners local government central government insurers and banks involved. So we're very comfortable moving forward in the same manner as the previous Minister of Climate Change did."