Naylor Jono: Social Housing Reform (Transaction Mandate) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNaylor Jono: Social Housing Reform (Transaction Mandate) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 17 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:9131. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JONO NAYLOR (National): I would just like to return—as we are debating clauses 1 and 2—to the title of this bill because this is actually a really important part of what is going on here. We have heard a number of alternative titles but the actual title of this bill I believe is actually very good. It is about social housing reform. That is actually what we are talking about doing here. We are having a reform of a system that has been essentially the same for a number of years. And let us be honest—if you are going to reform something if you are going to change some things around it is probably likely to result in a change of ownership of some description so of course we need the word “transaction” in the title. So the title Social Housing Reform (Transaction Mandate) Bill is actually although it may be a little dull for some people an incredibly appropriate name for this bill.I think it is important as we move towards the end of the Committee stage of this bill—we have had a wide-ranging discussion—to come back to what the whole point of this bill actually is. The whole point of this bill is that we can actually start to provide for vulnerable New Zealanders who are for whatever reason unable to either live in their own home or rent in a normal commercial sense. That kind of social housing environment is going to be flexible it is going to be responsible and it is going to ensure that they get the very best care the very best housing that they can have and the best kind of wraparound services.In order to do that it is important that it is not just the Government that is involved in this. We have got a number of very very good agencies right around New Zealand that are providing an excellent service to their clients to their customers to the people who are living in the houses that they look after. I would like to see those people be able to do even more. I would like to be able to see those very good organisations which are doing a really really good job of looking after vulnerable New Zealanders and their housing needs be able to do even more of that. Some of our housing stock is not necessarily fit for purpose anymore because the demographics have changed. It just makes sense to me that we have an ability not necessarily to withdraw housing services from those people but to transfer the delivery of those services from the Government to other agencies.In order to achieve that it seems a very good idea—and this is not saying that all 65000 houses are going to go on the block—for the Government to allow some other people to accessthose properties so that they can provide those very very good services. The system we have currently has by and large done a pretty good job. In many ways it has done a very good job of looking after vulnerable New Zealanders. But just because we have always done it that way it does not seem to me that we should always do it exactly the same way.Coming back to where I started from this about having a system that is more flexible and more responsive and in order to do that some transactions will need to occur for us to bring in appropriate well-balanced and good social housing reform for those people of New Zealand who need it. I happily stand by this title the Social Housing Reform (Transaction Mandate) Bill.