Williams PotoPOTO WILLIAMS (Labour—Christchurch East): I just want to perhaps get some assistance. I just want to walk through this a little bit. We are talking about special housing areas where developers are provided with an opportunity to fast track consents. The notion of fast tracking consents would necessarily mean that you could fast track the building of homes—is that right? Am I correct in assuming that the fast tracking of consents by developers means that you can fast track the homes? That is not a difficult assumption to make.So what I would like to know is this. Of these special housing areas—which have been in existence for about 3 years which is why we are in urgency right now to pass legislation so that they do not expire—how many houses have been put through the process where the developers have got the consents and they have actually built the houses?Denis O'Rourke: 1300.POTO WILLIAMS: Wow! That is amazing! How fast is that? So in 3 years with this fast-track process we have built 1300 homes. That is amazing! And do you know what else—Kris Faafoi: Slow down!POTO WILLIAMS: Yeah you are moving too fast! Do you know what else is amazing? What else is amazing is that the Minister the Hon Dr Nick Smith—or whichever way the honorifics go—talks about the affordability issue in Canterbury having been wiped out because the three-headed housing monster over there has been pulling all these levers in Canterbury. I welcome the National Canterbury MPs getting up and challenging this—that the three-headed housing monster has been pulling all these levers in Canterbury and making houses more affordable. The Minister is saying that the Government has intervened in Canterbury and made it more affordable for housing. Well I just have to challenge that because actually it was Rūaumoko who did that. Rūaumoko was the one who intervened in the housing market in Canterbury and made it more affordable because we got all this insurance money. We got all this insurance money to rebuild our homes.So when the Minister talks about the Government and its special housing areas in Canterbury—well we had our leader Andrew Little down there only a few weeks ago looking at one of those special housing areas and what was it?Hon Member: Bare land?POTO WILLIAMS: It was a vacant lot.Carmel Sepuloni: Special.POTO WILLIAMS: It was very special. It was so special that there were ghost houses on it. So when this Government claims that it has intervened in the Canterbury housing market and brought back affordability to the people of Canterbury I say no that is rubbish. It was Rūaumoko who did that and the insurance companies.I ask the Canterbury MPs over there on that side of the Chamber to get up and tell me that that is wrong because that is blatantly not wrong. That is so so not wrong. When this Government claims affordability in Canterbury I have to get up and challenge that member on the other side of the Chamber Alfred Ngaro when he claims all these statistics which are clearly clearly not right.And who has the oversight of these developers? There is an example; I want to quote from my own electorate where developers have been given carte blanche to redevelop Housing New Zealand land. They have taken one property out and they have put five or six or 10 properties in. Because we have fast tracked this because we have given developers a whole lot of power under this legislation who has the oversight of these developers?The example I want to quote in my electorate was where a developer was not given any oversight. He built some homes that sat outside of the boundaries of the recession plane and do you know who discovered that? It was not the council it was not Government officials it was the local people who looked at those buildings and said: Hang on a minute. There's something not right about this. The sun's not getting into my backyard like it used to. This building is clearly clearly outside of the boundaries of this." So we are expecting developers to actually have oversight of their own developments. In this case what happened was that building actually had to be taken down because it sat outside of the council consent process. So we have got a cautionary tale right there in Christchurch East—in Christchurch where this Government claims it has intervened and brought affordability back to our housing market which is clearly not right. So I really challenge this Government to actually live by the affordability."