Turei Metiria: Social Housing Reform (Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Amendment) Bill — Second ReadingText is subject to correctionTurei Metiria: Social Housing Reform (Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Amendment) Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 07 November 2013. Volume:694;Page:14514. Text is subject to correction.]METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green): The Green Party will maintain its opposition to this legislation the Social Housing Reform (Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Amendment) Bill. I want to acknowledge the work of Holly Walker who is currently on maternity leave the Green Party MP who holds our housing portfolio for her work on the Social Services Committee and particularly for the drafting of the minority report that is attached to the bill.I just want to go through some of the provisions and issues that she has raised in that minority report and also to remind the country that just earlier this year less than 12 months ago the Green Party released a significant housing policy that was designed expressly to deal with the issues of affordability. It is not a build programme; it is a programme of support and affordability to increase and improve the affordability for families to purchase their own home to improve the quality of New Zealand’s homes and to improve the security of tenure for New Zealanders living in homes. That proposal calledHome for Life included three provisions.One of them was the progressive ownership policy which is very similar to a UK Government - sponsored scheme over there. The Minister of Housing referred to UK examples of housing in his speech on this legislation. Progressive ownership is a shared-equity scheme where the Government in partnership with other organisations—iwi community organisations and social housing organisations—build homes and continue with a persistent and consistent home-building programme in New Zealand. Some of those homes are set aside for State housing some of those homes are set aside for management in social housing and some of them for example under Labour’s scheme might be sold directly to New Zealanders but a proportion would also be set aside for the progressive ownership scheme where people could slowly over time buy their own home. They would enter into an agreement with the Government agency that manages that. They would pay a small amount—effectively pay a rent—to pay for the cost of the capital for the building of that home and every week pay a little bit extra. So every week they are paying a little bit extra to purchase a home.It is kind of like the old Department of Māori Affairs home loans and State Advances Corporation loans. Many of us were raised in homes where our parents bought those homes by capitalising on the family benefit. It is very much that kind of scheme where the Government is building an investment. It is investing in families and it is passing on to New Zealand families its own low costs of borrowing so that all New Zealanders can have access to that. It is a way for people to build their own homes. In the UK those homes continue through the affordability scheme. They are re-used for families just like those first families if they eventually want to move on.These are the kinds of policy ideas that need to be incorporated into New Zealand’s housing law and regulations but they are completely ignored by this Government because the Government’s sole intention and it is represented here in this bill is toremove itself from social housing. It is not to facilitate social housing and it is not to increase social housing or improve social housing. The Government’s sole intention is to retreat from social housing and it is doing so in a way that is full of spin.This legislation that we are discussing today sets up a system whereby State housing which the State currently manages will be slowly moved over into the community sector. Instead of building a collaborative relationship between Government and the community sector or Government and iwi—a collaborative relationship between all of the players—where more affordable housing is built the Government is building a competitive environment where organisations will have to compete with each other for access to resources to improve housing affordability and build more houses.This is at a time when we have a housing crisis. We know that there are at least 90000 too few homes for the population in this country and that number is getting bigger as the population grows and fewer homes are being built. We know that more and more New Zealanders are unable to buy their homes. Actually do you know what? Those New Zealanders tend to be the middle class. The poor have always had real difficulty owning their own homes but the homeownership rates for the middle class are plummeting and they are plummeting because supply is so restricted.Instead of building a collaborative relationship between the State and community and iwi this Government is building a competitive one so that it can get out of the market because the Government does not believe it has any responsibility for this core piece of infrastructure. The Green Party believes that housing is core infrastructure. It is no less core infrastructure than the roads we drive on the telephone wires we use to communicate and the water pipes that bring us clean fresh water. Housing is a human right. A decent society a wealthy society like our own a First World society like our own should have as one of its core principles that every single family in this country will be decently safely warmly and affordably housed. That is not an outrageous principle to have.Dr Rajen Prasad: Fat chance with this lot.METIRIA TUREI: I am afraid so Mr Prasad. I am very disappointed that that is the case—that such a basic principle that every family in this country is entitled to be decently warmly and safely housed is somehow a principle that the National Government will not accept. It does not believe in this principle. That is why the Government is retreating from social housing why it is through this legislation removing from Housing New Zealand Corporation all social responsibility for housing why it is building a competitive model for affordable house-building and why it is refusing to deal with the core issues that most affect housing affordability in this country and housing supply. A capital gains tax is one of those issues that this Government has absolutely refused to consider even though it knows that it is one part of an economic tool that needs to be put in place if we are to improve housing affordability for New Zealanders.One of the major issues in this legislation is the reviewable tenancies. A few years ago the Government put in place reviewable tenancies where new State housing tenants would be subject to a 3-yearly review of their tenancy. It has not yet been 3 years. It has not yet been tested to see whether the renewable tenancy programme already in place is making any beneficial difference to those families who are the most vulnerable and the most in need of social housing. Yet despite the complete lack of evidence about this and the effect of it—whether it is good or whether it is bad—the Government is intending to roll it out to all State house tenants across the country. What this does is it creates fundamental instability for the housing of families.I have a case myself at the moment of a family who are in very vulnerable circumstances where he suffers from a serious illness that will eventually kill him shehas been working but just recently lost her job—she was made redundant—and they have a Child Youth and Family child whom they care for and two children of their own one of whom has a severe disability. These are the families that we should be prioritising. They are vulnerable families and they are doing their very best. We are very hopeful that with some intervention we may be able to make sure that she has a decent house. But why should she have to rely on the intervention of a member of Parliament to get what she is entitled to—decent housing—as a member of our community and as a member of our family? She should not have to struggle. But if she gets a State house in 3 years’ time she is going to have her tenancy reviewed. She will have no security that she will have a home to live in to raise her kids and to take care of her husband for the time that she needs it. Why should she not have that? Why should she not be entitled to that security and that decency? The Government wants to spend all its money on building motorways not homes.We will continue to oppose this legislation. There are serious reforms that could be made to improve housing affordability for New Zealanders particularly for our most vulnerable families. This legislation will drive more and more of those families into the ground and more and more of those families into poverty and insecurity. We are opposed to this bill. Thank you.