Little AndrewANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition): I do not know whether that member Nick Smith deserves the award for the greatest level of cynicism or the greatest level of irony but whatever he said it was not about a plan that is actually fixing any problem that the rest of the country can see happening today. He talked about compluting" the building programme; I am glad he "compluted" his speech because it is time to get on to something that actually talks about the issue. The reality is this: to the extent that the National Party has a housing policy—and I hesitate to call it a plan because there quite evidently is not one—it is a comprehensive joke. Those members cannot bring themselves to admit that there is a crisis—something that everybody else knows. They have been in absolute denial about it. They cannot bring themselves to say that there is one—except for Paula Bennett to her credit who admitted that there was a crisis and the next day said that there was not; it was something else. Then there was Bill English who said that we have some pressures—not a housing crisis; some housing pressures. The Prime Minister said that we have a housing challenge—a bit like The Block or you know The Bachelor New Zealand or something. Those members have got a challenge that they are trying to fix for reality TV. The reality is that when there are 42000 homeless New Zealanders there is a crisis. When 4000 of them do not even have a roof over their heads there is a crisis. When the rest of them are jammed into overcrowded housing there is a crisis. When house prices in Auckland double over the course of this Government—more than double—there is a crisis. When house prices in Auckland increase by 25 percent in a single year there is a crisis. When house prices in the rest of the country increase five or six times the value of inflation there is a crisis. When somebody in Auckland earning $120000 a year who has saved and saved and saved cannot afford a deposit on a reasonable house there is a crisis. When a two-bedroom prefab on a section in Papakura with no embellishments at all goes on the market for $549000 there is a crisis—there is a crisis. What are the Government's solutions? Well let us go through them—shall I count the ways? Special housing areas—remember 39000 homes which is more or less the current shortage in Auckland. It sounds pretty good; what a fantastic idea! What have we had in the 3 years since? One thousand homes—1000 homes built if we are lucky. That is counting the ones that are still under construction because that is what those members count. Dr Smith accused us of being in the paddock—I wish he would find a paddock that the Government could build some houses on because the next solution was his Crown land policy. Remember the Crown land plan—500 hectares of Crown land: paddocks galore he could stand in and build houses. How many hectares did he find? He found 13—13 hectares out of 500. Then Paula Bennett promised more funding for emergency housing because you know when you have got so many people who cannot get into their own home and so many people living in cars and garages—she promised more money for emergency housing. Then what happened? We then discovered that she is actually just funding what the emergency housing providers are already doing—nothing new not a single new bed and not a single new roof over anybody's head. Then we have—because those members were getting really serious and really concerned about the homelessness crisis—"We will set up the flying squads." Hooray! The flying squads will fly around and they will find people and put them in houses! But they did not exist. For 2 weeks they went to the Auckland City Mission—for 2 weeks they went there and did not help a soul. That is the Government's comprehensive housing plan: desperate panicked with no answer to anything; giving the appearance of doing something but doing nothing. Well watch out for Sunday—watch out for Sunday and see what a real and comprehensive plan looks like."