Shearer David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Shearer David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 27 November 2012. Volume:686;Page:6761. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
3. 
DAVID SHEARER (Leader of the Opposition) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does he stand by his statement that “Yes there is a housing issue in New Zealand”? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister) 
: 
 Yes and that is why the Government has responded to the Productivity Commission and is working with local councils on the underlying problems of land supply building and resource consents provision of infrastructure—[ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I apologise to the right honourable Prime Minister. Look the members’ leader asked a question. I imagine he is interested in the answer and too much interjection is not reasonable. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: Yes and that is why the Government has responded to the Productivity Commission and is working with local councils on the underlying problems of land supply building and resource consents provision of infrastructure and productivity in the construction sector. I also stand by the statement I made yesterday in relation to this issue. I reckon— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! The Prime Minister is now going on a little long. 
David Shearer 
: How many houses does he guarantee will be built as a result of his Government’s package that he announced on 29 October? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: More than the number that Labour will produce in Auckland— 
David Shearer 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That was a pretty straight question. It asked just for a number. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: What is it about a point of order the National ministerial benchers do not understand in terms of being silent? The House is just so rowdy today. When a person asks how many I think it is unreasonable to expect just a single figure answer but the Prime Minister needs to do his best though to give some information about how many. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: The answer is more than the number of $300000 houses that Labour will ever produce in Auckland given the median price of a house in Auckland is currently $530000. The median section price is— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! That is sufficient answer given the question asked. 
David Shearer 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I think that the Prime Minister could at least give a ballpark figure about how many houses his package will be able to provide. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! Again I say to National ministerial benchers that that was a point of order and only the Speaker can determine whether it is a valid point of order not members. They must listen to it in silence so the Speaker can hear it. The reason why there are more supplementary questions is that if the quality of the answer is not sufficient and I accept that the member has some grounds for not thinking the quality of the answer was quite what he might have expected there are further supplementary questions that dig into what “more” meant—if he thinks that is a wise supplementary question. 
David Shearer 
: What proportion of the houses that he hopes to build will be in the affordable category of houses? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: Well it depends on what the member means about what I intend to build. I do not intend to build any houses. 
David Shearer 
: Does he agree with Murray Sherwin when he said: “We no longer build the starter homes that allow … young families to get started in a decent home. … We can build them cheaper we should be building them cheaper and we need to.”; if not why not? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: I do agree with Murray Sherwin and that is why the Government has been doing quite a lot of work looking at this issue. But let us have a dose of reality. Let us just take the average section cost at Hobsonville an area the Labour Party knows well. The bare land cost was approximately—[ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Would the foghorn at the back please desist from his interjections. 
Dr David Clark 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. With respect my interjections today have been rare. That I believe was my third today in the whole of question time. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! Look this is getting beyond a joke. Members do not take on the Speaker in that way if they want to stay in the House. The member’s interjections have been in my view unreasonable. He is not the only one. Members sitting against the back walls should know that their voices project across the House loudly and they need to be a little more reasonable. I have got to be able to hear and I cannot. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: I have enormous sympathy with the member. He is not the only David sitting in the back row who wants to make a noise and be the leader. 
David Shearer 
: Does he stand by his statement that building homes for low-income people in Hobsonville is economic vandalism; if so why? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: That was in relation to the building of State houses on prime land at Hobsonville and yes I do stand by that. Let us go back to Hobsonville because the bare land at Hobsonville was bought from the Defence Force at roughly $46000. The land that went to the council for roads and reserves was $46000. The infrastructure costs that largely went to the council were another $80000. The professional consultants and selling costs were $18000 and the consenting—[ 
Interruption 
] Look this is not a Labour Party caucus meeting. I know that is the way you talk to each other there. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! In the past I have had to ask the Attorney-General to look after a certain Minister sitting next to him during question time. I am now asking the senior Opposition whip to please take care of the member on his left to have him interject just a little more reasonably. Today’s performance is not a good look believe me. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: So Mr Speaker— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No I think we have heard a sufficient answer. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I was in the middle of answering a serious question that was interrupted by endless interruptions by the senior Opposition whip. It was a serious point I was not being smart about it and I was simply making a point about costs. I think I should be allowed to finish. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Well the thing is though that the question was a certain question and the Prime Minister’s information was a little more additional than was absolutely essential to answer the question. I let him go on until he started to respond to the interjections but answers cannot be too long. A lot of information had been provided. 
David Shearer 
: Why does he say that building homes for $300000 in Auckland is impossible when the New Zealand Housing Foundation backed by the Tindall Foundation is already building homes in Auckland for that price? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: If one goes and has a look at the social housing fund as a good example of subsidised housing that the Government supports then across the entirety of New Zealand the average price is $409000 and in Auckland it is $431000. That is coming from the social housing fund. If you go and have a look at a basic place a large piece of land like Hobsonville the total cost of the land is about $200000 on average for a 250 square metre section of which $80000 alone is development contributions to the council. So that member is saying he can build on land that is less than almost half of the development contributions from the council. That is why he is in fantasyland. 
Michael Woodhouse 
: Has he heard of any reports that would encourage the building of at least one house for $300000? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: I have. I have seen the reports that there would be interest to build one house for $300000 in Lumsden. The advice I have had is that it is possible to build a house for $300000 in Lumsden. That house would contain David Cunliffe and it would be called the doghouse.