Salesa JennyJENNY SALESA (Labour—Manukau East): Mālō e lelei. Mālō e 'fakakoloa 'a Aotearoa 'aki 'e lea faka-Tonga. Happy Tongan Language Week Mr Assistant Speaker. The theme for this year 2016 is enriching Aotearoa with the Tongan spirit. Thank you so much Mr Assistant Speaker for this opportunity to take a short call on the Housing Legislation Amendment Bill. It is unfortunate that we are discussing this bill under urgency because I believe that housing is such a crucial issue that it should be going through the actual process and we should actually take our time and allow the public to make submissions on this bill. It is legislation being proposed that is the latest string in a fiasco proposed as housing policy under this Minister. Having a roof or a home is a basic human right but unfortunately it is a basic human right that is not afforded to so many to thousands of our people especially to our children. We know from Otago University that in the 2013 census figures there were at least over 41000 who are homeless and we also know from this analysis that 10000 of them are children under the age of 15. I see too many of these families in my office. They come in the cars that they live in. Some of these mothers ring up and say: I don't have a car but I'd like a house to live in. Can you please come and help?". Many of our staff members do not really like to go and do house calls but when you get a phone call and you are talking to a mother with five kids seven kids or sometimes nine kids and they tell you that they do not have a car they do not even have the bus fare to get to your office you get in your car and you go and you help those families out. Just in the weekend I got a call from one of my teachers in Ōtara. This is a teacher who had been looking after five kids. This teacher no longer taught these five kids but the eldest of these kids was now 16 years old and she was attending a school together with her eldest son. This family was homeless. This teacher said that she felt responsible. The son had told her that they had been homeless for quite a while. This family was a working family but they were made homeless because the landlord sold the property. I see too many of these families that have been homeless because the landlords have decided to sell the house and there are not enough State houses to help these families. It is an indictment on our country Aotearoa New Zealand that it takes a family like this to reach out to the member of Parliament then for the member of Parliament to have media involved before a family like this actually gets to access a house. This is a fair country. We used to be so proud that we were an egalitarian society—well-known internationally for being an egalitarian society; for looking after our own especially our vulnerable families—but we live in a day and age when this is no longer the case. Just today we were told that the house prices in Auckland are over $1 million. But we also know from the statistics that 80 percent of the houses sold in Ōtara last year—in my electorate of Manukau East—were sold to investors. When we know that Ōtara houses are being sold to investors what that means is that investors have to recoup their costs. Whom do they recoup these costs from? It is from our tenants and most vulnerable families—the families who can least afford to pay these rents. Six years ago rent was only about $230 for a three-bedroom house in Ōtara. Today 6 years on it has doubled. So why is it that we are seeing so many homeless families? It is because the rent is out of control. In general more than 50 percent of people in Auckland rent but when we look at vulnerable families we see for example that 82 percent of Pacific families rent either from private landlords or from the State. Is this bill the Housing Legislation Amendment Bill which we are discussing under urgency going to deliver for any of these families? No I do not think so because the affordable houses that the Hon Nick Smith talks about are houses that are $500000 or $600000 and above and that is not affordable for many of our vulnerable poor families. Thank you."