Hughes GarethGARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Mr Chair. Ngā mihi ki a koutou. Kia ora. I am sure everyone has seen the newspaper series featuring headlines such as  'I almost lost hope': Woman 23 lands dream home in Auckland" "How to buy a home before you turn 30: Millennial tradies get head start" or "From nothing to two homes one in Auckland in two years". It is a bit like Instagramming food in a famine but people are clicking these clickbait headings because in New Zealand house buying has gone from normal to unusual.I want to speak about the housing affordability crisis featured in the Vote Housing report but I want to be honest and say I am one of the fortunate few who bought a house at the age of 30. Like the newspaper series I could have said: "Look it just took a bit of hard work a bit of dedication an MP's salary a zero percent deposit parental support and travelling back in time 5 years before house prices got crazily high." Instead of asking why a couple under 30 bought a house in Auckland we should be asking why a whole generation is being locked out of homeownership.It is time for some home truths. Currently the median house price in Auckland is more than $1 million. The median income is now only $23000. House prices are now 11 times the median income putting us first or second in the developed-world housing affordability league. We are seeing $100000 annual price increases which might make some people feel rich but it is making the country feel poorer. Generations are being locked out of homeownership and record numbers are sleeping rough. Meanwhile in the middle of this crisis the Government is selling thousands of State homes. That is like burning the furniture to keep warm. National has built a speculator's dream where homeownership is now at its lowest level in 60 years and unless people's parents are wealthy they are being locked out.So after 9 years of National what do we see? House prices up deposit requirements up building costs up rents up people sleeping in cars up and people sleeping rough on the streets up. The only thing going down is the number of State houses. But why is it getting worse? Well if you read the report we are debating the Government is about to launch a housing affordability indicator—an indicator. It is like waiting for the weatherman to tell you your house is blowing away when you are inside it in a tornado.Let us have another home truth: National does not care. It knows it will not be around in 5 or 10 years' time to be held responsible. It knows that people without a home do not vote for it so it does not care. And as the most self-interested power-hungry poll-driven Government ever it knows that as long as it gives the appearance of acting it does not have to act.So how has National got away with it? Well first it called it a problem of success—a problem of success. When everyone else stopped laughing it went on to plan B: blame everyone else. First it was Labour's fault then it was the Greens' fault then it was the councils' fault and then it was the Resource Management Act's fault. The only person it seems not responsible was the person most responsible—Nick Smith. Meanwhile its mates blame millennials and the other parties they go and blame immigrants.The reason millennials are locked out of homeownership is not that they go to Bali twice a year. It is not because they are driving a BMW on lease or have a 42-inch plasma screen and blow 200 bucks at the bar on Friday and gorge themselves on smashed avocado brunches.Chris Bishop: You're locked into Phil who blames migrants.GARETH HUGHES: It is because house prices are too high Mr Bishop. National has built a two-track society where wealthy kids get into housing. And to be blunt if you do not have a house now your kids probably are not going to have one in the future—170 years after migrants fled the class society in Britain we are returning to the days of the landed gentry.National's housing policies might be rotten but the foundation of New Zealanders' values—that everyone deserves a house—is still solid. The housing crisis has not been an accident. It has been the result of policies. Policies can be changed when you commit to having a warm dry house for every New Zealander. No one but the Greens has the courage to say in this House that house prices cannot go up for ever. No one but the Greens has the intellectual honesty to say that we need a capital gains tax. No one but the Greens has been able to work with both the red team and the blue team to insulate homes. Who first put a rental warrant of fitness on the agenda? The Greens. Who put rental rights on the political agenda? The Greens. Who will stand up for Generation Rent and get on with building homes? The Greens. The Greens will build a future where homeownership is not just clickbait; it is the New Zealand home truth."