Twyford Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to MembersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTwyford Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members[Sitting date: 25 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13694. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]8.PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—TeAtatū) to theMinister of Housing: What does he say to the almost 80 percent of people looking to buy their first homes who say they cannot afford the 20 percent deposit or will need family help because of LVR lending limits?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Prime Minister) on behalf of theMinister of Housing: First it is easy to understand the frustration of first-home buyers. It has always been difficult to get into a first home. We would say to those first-home buyers that we will do everything we can to give them a fair shot at the dream of homeownership. In particular they will have a better chance for an affordable home if we get a more flexible and faster growing supply of new houses on the ground and if we follow policies that prevent interest rates going to 10 percent as they were under the previous Labour Government.Phil Twyford: Why did he fail to advise the Minister of Finance that loan-to-value ratio lending limits would have negative consequences for first-home buyers before that Minister signed off the memorandum of understanding with the Reserve Bank that triggered the loan-to-value ratios?Hon BILL ENGLISH: First the member is wrong. The loan-to-value ratio rules were triggered by the Reserve Bank Governor using the tool kit that has actually always been available to him. The member continues to misrepresent that which I take as the Labour Party being keen to remove the independence of the Reserve Bank. I invite those members to explain to the public of New Zealand that they will now run interest rate policy banking supervision and financial stability. I cannot remember what the rest of the question was.Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I was listening to the Minister’s answer and for the vast bulk of the Minister’s answer he was outlining what he thought the Labour Party’s policy was and inviting the Labour Party to explain its policy. Since when has that been an acceptable form of an answer?Mr SPEAKER: Order! There was a portion where he certainly did that. [Interruption] Order! I took the answer to be an explanation around the continued independence of the Reserve Bank. In my opinion that question had two parts to it. Hecertainly addressed one part of it. The member has further supplementary questions if he wants to use them.Grant Robertson: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I want to seek some clarification from you. Is it your view that when the Minister does what he did there when he went into a long part of his answer on matters for which he is not responsible you want us to take points of order? Is that your position?Mr SPEAKER: No. If the Minister is attempting to address the second part of the question that seems to me to be perfectly satisfactory. The Minister said at the end that he had forgotten the first part of the question—Hon BILL ENGLISH: I can answer it now.Mr SPEAKER: —and if the member wants that raised in the normal course of events I would have expected the member to say that he wanted the first part answered. The difficulty the member gets into is when he raises a supplementary question with two parts. In the meantime I have heard an interjection from the Hon Bill English that he now does recall the first part so I think the best way forward on this occasion—Grant Robertson: We’ll do it again.Mr SPEAKER: —no—is to allow the Minister to stand and answer the first part of the question.Hon BILL ENGLISH: The Minister of Housing did advise the Minister of Finance of that fact.Phil Twyford: Did he advise the Minister of Finance that not seeking advice from Treasury on the impact on first-home buyers of theloan-to-value ratio lending limits until a month after that Minister signed off the agreement with the Reserve Bank would seriously undermine the Government’s housing policy and shatter the dreams of thousands of first-home buyers?Hon BILL ENGLISH: No he did not advise the Minister of Finance of that because it is simply not the case. But the Minister of Housing has advised the Minister of Finance that first-home buyers will benefit from a more rapid supply of houses to the market and that the legislative and planning regime is now in place to achieve that. First-home buyers would be brutally punished by policies that pushed first mortgage interest rates up to 10 percent which is where they were in 2008 after the previous Labour Government spent 9 years not solving the housing problem.Phil Twyford: When he became aware that the Minister of Finance intended to speak to the banks to ask them to prioritise or protect first-home buyers beforeloan-to-value ratio lending limits came into force why did he remain silent and refuse to go in to bat for first-home buyers?Hon BILL ENGLISH: You could actually ask the Minister of Finance whether he went in to bat for first-home buyers and I can assure that member that he did.Phil Twyford: How would he interpret the banks’ response to the finance Minister’s panicked request given that none of them has prioritised first-home buyers and that the ASB Bank yesterday put up a third-tier manager to respond to the finance Minister’s attack on that bank demonstrating that the Government has no credibility with any of the trading banks on this issue?Hon BILL ENGLISH: I think the trading banks’ problem is that they did not accord any credibility to the Governor of the Reserve Bank. And ASB has found out that when the Governor of the Reserve Bank says that he is considering bringing in limits then it ought to listen and stop promising young New Zealanders a loan that it knows that it probably cannot deliver on.