O'Rourke Denis: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Rourke Denis: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 20 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18112. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENIS O’ROURKE (NZ First): The Prime Minister says there is no housing crisis. Whom does he think he is kidding? Not the tens of thousands of young people seeking to buy their first home. These are the people locked out of the housing market by at least five forces that the Government has failed to adequately address. First of all the cost of homes has skyrocketed out of control for more than 5 long years. Second is the lack of land for housing development especially in Auckland and Christchurch which the Government did not even notice for the first 5 years. Third is that loan-to-value ratio restrictions are limiting most people to 20 percent deposits. That means that a deposit is something like $80000 which very few young people are able to afford. Fourth is rising interest rates. Fifth is excessive and badly controlled immigration which National Governments of course especially under that Minister of Immigration over there are so famous for.The Prime Minister is also kidding the people of Christchurch who are moving out of that city to Rangiora  Rolleston  and further afield to seek affordable homes and sections. Those who choose to stay or who must stay have a real problem finding an existing home to buy at an affordable price or they cannot find a section at an affordable price. The progress of repairs to earthquake-damaged homes or in rebuilding destroyed homes is far too slow. The fate of some properties in the Port Hills is still undecided by this Government more than 3 years since the February 2011 quake.The Prime Minister must also be kidding the people seeking a home to rent if he thinks there is no housing crisis especially in Auckland and Christchurch. In Christchurch the rental market is still utterly dysfunctional after 3 years of massive rent increases which few people can afford and with a shortage that is getting worse as the influx of people continues to grow demand at an alarming rate. Rents of near to $1000 per week for a three-bedroom house are commonplace. New Zealand First called on the Government to regulate rents over 2 years ago but there has still been no action by an uncaring Government.In Auckland not only has the Government not addressed excessive rentals there but it has made the situation worse by pushing people out of State houses into an overheated private rentals market with its disgraceful social housing policy. In other parts of the country the Government is selling off State houses as fast as it can. That is not a recipe for solving a housing crisis. I ask the Prime Minister: if all of what I have just said is not a housing crisis then what is it? I know—I know—it is another National Government failure.The OECD report just released is sobering. New Zealand’s houses are the second most expensive in the developed world based on price relative to income. Our homes are the most overvalued relative to rents. So it is not just my opinion and it is not just what the people of New Zealand feel; it is what the OECD says as well. So does the Prime Minister really think that if he tells bigger lies about this the housing crisis people will suddenly start to believe him? Well I have got news for him. They will not. Constant denial will not work—not now and not on 20 September either. People looking for homes want action not some lame excuse by the Prime Minister or by Nick Smith.The Government’s Budget measures this year barely touch on these crisis-sized housing issues. Its announcement to reduce the cost of housing by temporarily removing duties and tariffs on building materials is a drop in the ocean saving about $3500 on the average new home. The cost of homes in Auckland currently is increasing by something like a staggering $6000 per month so the Government’s generous $3500 gift is not much more than 2 weeks of increases.The Government caused the housing affordability crisis by allowing uncontrolled immigration and letting overseas buyers push up the cost of homes. It waited 5 long years before even recognising the problem and has still done next to nothing to assist first-home buyers while property prices have gone ballistic. With first-home buyers pushed out of the market by loan-to-value ratio restrictions young people need a much more stable and strategic approach to the problems of accessibility and affordability of homes and this Government has no ideas. The Government’s market-based approach cannot work in Auckland Christchurch or elsewhere where land availability is not solved just by housing accords or by attacking local government development contributions. Local Government New Zealand figures show that local government development contributions average only 4 percent of the cost of a new home so again there is another drop in the ocean.What the Government’s attack on development contributions shows is that it does not really know what to do about the housing crisis and what is worse it does not really care. So in the absence of any worthwhile ideas Government Ministers simply deny that there is a housing crisis. New Zealand First has been saying so for the last 2 years. We have argued for the last 3 years that immigration was a problem. I have asked questions in this House several times and made speeches saying so over all of those years. The Government’s immigration policy is an incomprehensible mess. It allows far too many people in who have no skills to offer. In fact only 28 percent of Chinese immigrants actually have those skills and the rest do not. That is how bad it has got.The Government allows people to crowd Auckland when there is a labour shortage in Christchurch and elsewhere. It even allows immigrants to buy their way into New Zealand giving priority to people with $500000 so that they can buy a home here and then buzz off to Australia. The problem with non-resident overseas buyers is also a real factor in driving house prices up and no denials by the Prime Minister will convince most people otherwise because it is true. New Zealand First has revealed over the last 2 years how overseas promoters have advertised overseas and encouraged house buying in New Zealand. There are many overseas buyers who own several houses here. One reported to me appears to own 77 houses here in New Zealand. It is time that New Zealand First policy was adopted. We would not mind if the National Government stole yet another one of our policies so I hope it is listening.We believe that housing is a basic human right so we want to establish a Government housing agency to invest in land for housing where it is needed most to sell smaller sections for smaller affordable homes to first-home buyers on a long-term repayment basis with concessionary interest rates. It is not enough to try to free up land zoning for housing. The Government must be active in the residential land market if it is going to make a difference.The Government has also failed to curb the explosion in home rentals especially in Auckland and Christchurch. Its market-based approach again has demonstrably failed yet still it will not introduce any form of control in Christchurch where the market simply cannot cope. The Budget provision of a staggering $64 million operating and $16 million capital dedicated to pushing people out of State rentals especially in Auckland into an overheated rental market is irresponsible and is useless in solving the housing need. That $80 million would be better spent on hundreds of new State rentalhouses. The Government’s Budget measures on housing were pathetic. It knows it so now it simply seeks to deny that there is a problem. That is even more pathetic.