Faafoi Kris: Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFaafoi Kris: Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 16 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10089. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana): A “proper job” is an old Cornish saying and I fear that this House is not doing a proper job of giving the Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill the scrutiny that it needs when the Government has asked for the time frame for the consideration of this bill by the Social Services Committee to be truncated from 4 months to around 2 months. This House and we as members of Parliament have a duty to make sure that for a piece of legislation that the Government thinks is significant to bring into the House under urgency—it is one of the major pieces of legislation in this year’s Budget—we give the public and those stakeholders around New Zealand a fair chance and a good period of time to let their feelings be known.My colleague Andrew Little made a very good point in his contribution that the select committee process—and I am sure all members of Parliament right around this House would agree—gives the opportunity for people to come in and make submissions and to improve a bill. Reducing the amount of time that this bill is going to be considered in the select committee to 71 days really does rob the opportunity for many many people to come to Parliament or to visit the select committee to make their views heard.This is a significant piece of legislation as the Minister of Housing said. Before we got to this truncation debate 104 members of this Parliament voted for it. We do realise that housing affordability is a major issue for New Zealanders. It is a bit of a pity that the National Government is about 4 years too late with that. But it has come to a piece of legislation within this bill that needs a good hearing and needs very close securityand as I said the Government needs to give the opportunity for people out in New Zealand to have their say and possibly improve this bill. To reduce it to a 10-week hearing of submissions as opposed to the usual 16 really is not giving people out there enough of a chance to have their voices and their views heard on this bill.We do have concern that this is the second time in 1 week that the Government has come to this House and asked for the select committee consideration of a bill to be truncated under urgency. Another piece of legislation debated last week around the security of telecommunications was brought before this House and we had to do something very similar to what we are doing now. We ask what the rationale is of a significant piece of legislation being brought into this House and ask why if it is so important we are limiting the opportunity for people who think this is a very very important issue to come and have their say in Parliament. We do believe that the select committee consideration is very important in order for the public to have scrutiny around pieces of legislation especially significant pieces of legislation such as this.This is a complex issue. That is why I think the Government has decided to take some action after a very long time of inaction and to take some action in this Budget announcement and to bring this bill to Parliament. Because it is a complex issue we do believe that the public should get that other 6 weeks that they are being robbed of in terms of being able to make submissions to the select committee as has already been stated. It also gives a bit more time for members of Parliament to consider some of the submissions that are made at the select committee to offer up amendments at the select committee consideration and to talk through some of the complexities that are certainly going to be brought up around the complex issue of housing supply and housing affordability.In the explanatory note on the bill the Government says this bill “provides a mechanism for central government to work together with territorial authorities to address housing supply and affordability issues”. By taking time away from a number of local councils and district councils which I am sure will be very interested in this piece of legislation and by taking away 6 weeks from that select committee process I think it robs them of many many opportunities to make submissions and to scrutinise this bill.As I said this is the second time in a week this has happened. This time it is at the behest of the housing Minister Nick Smith—Darien Fenton: Bad habits.KRIS FAAFOI: —who does have a bit of a bad habit around due process. To truncate this select committee process from roughly 16 weeks down to 10 weeks suggests that he does have a bit of form. I am suggesting around the sacking of the Environment Canterbury council—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order!KRIS FAAFOI: Apologies Mr Assistant Speaker. So we need to make sure that we are not creating a pattern of behaviour in terms of due process in this House because it is very very important that this Parliament have credibility that we make sure that in the eyes of the public we are doing things properly and that we do follow due process. We have got major concerns when as I say we have got two pieces of legislation in 1 week that Ministers have asked to have the time frame for the submissions to the select committee truncated. The Minister has asked for this to be reported back on 26 July which gives 71 days for the public to have their chance to have a say on this rather significant—Andrew Little: That’s shorter than Aaron Gilmore’s term in Parliament.KRIS FAAFOI: It is just a little bit short of Mr Aaron Gilmore’s term in Parliament. But there are 71 days for individuals for companies for organisations and forimportantly those local bodies that will have a huge interest in trying to make sure that people within their communities have a better supply of housing and have much more affordable housing. I am not sure whether 71 days is enough to be able to give these issues that are going to be traversed within this bill enough air time and enough opportunity for every one of those stakeholders who think they can make a good contribution to the process to be able to make their voices heard.This is a serious issue of due process. We are here as parliamentarians. The select committee process is a very important part of the process in terms of making sure the public can have scrutiny and have their say.But truncating this period to just 71 days does not give them the significant opportunity to be able to make a contribution to that. Housing affordability is an issue that is on the radar now because the Labour Party put it on the radar. Credit where credit is due the Government has done something but that is not to say that when you do something you run roughshod over the parliamentary process and truncate the time period in which New Zealanders right around the country will be able to make a contribution to the select committee process. So we would ask that the House not support this motion to shorten the time period for the select committee process. We would ask that this Parliament give that opportunity to the people of New Zealand—all those around New Zealand who have opinions who have views about housing affordability and housing supply. It is a very important issue for Kiwis at the moment. It is going to be a defining issue at the election campaign next year. Those people around the country because this issue is such a big issue need to be given the opportunity to speak their minds to give their opinions to look through some of the details and the data around housing affordability. To be able to do that they are going to need more than 71 days—more than the 10 weeks that the Government is asking for.The views of New Zealanders need to be listened to. The views of New Zealanders need to be listened to. The Government does not necessarily like that—as I say two pieces of legislation in just the 1 week—but the views of New Zealanders should be listened to. They should get their full opportunity to make their views heard on housing affordability. This is a Government that does not like due process. We have seen two examples of it in the last week—Tim Macindoe: You’ve said that five times.KRIS FAAFOI: Pardon?Tim Macindoe: You’ve said that five times.KRIS FAAFOI: Well what do you want? Do you want me to speak about something else and then you raise a point of order? This is a very important issue. The views of New Zealanders around the country need to be listened to and this Government wants to shut the debate down.