Heatley Phil: Affordable Housing: Enabling Territorial Authorities Bill — First Reading 
Heatley Phil: Affordable Housing: Enabling Territorial Authorities Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:644;Page:13882] 
PHIL HEATLEY (National—Whangarei) 
: 
 The National Party will not be supporting this legislation quite simply because it does nothing that matters in a climate where for the last 5 or 6 years property prices for both land and buildings have got out of reach for tens of thousands more New Zealanders. Many of them are young New Zealanders but the Minister ignores the fact that many of them are also older New Zealanders entering retirement who would love some sort of accommodation stability. In a climate where housing is getting out of reach for more and more New Zealanders the Government has tabled legislation that it heralds as its magic bullet but all it does is give district councils more and more work to do at the expense of their ratepayers and give builders and developers more and more paperwork and regulatory hoops to jump through costing them more. Quite simply they will pass those costs right back to the first-home buyer. The question the National Party has is why the Government does not do something that matters. There are lots of things it could do to address the appalling housing affordability problem that would actually do something for first-home buyers. 
First of all we found out through the housing affordability inquiry which the National Party called in front of the Commerce Committee—and which the Prime Minister and the Minister of Housing at the time said was not necessary—that developers builders first-home buyers consultants university representatives those in the Department of Building and Housing and all sorts of others say it is the cost of land that is driving up property prices more so than the cost of building. Are building costs driving up property prices? Yes absolutely over and above the cost of inflation but their effect is nothing like the cost of land in driving up property prices overall. When I say “property prices” I mean the cost of building and the cost of the land underneath. So the land component is driving up property prices much more than anything else. 
The Government says we need to free up more land for development so that the supply-demand equation is met. That is land on the outskirts of cities and new land and land within city boundaries. At the moment if a couple say an elderly couple want to split their section into two or four sections which would supply more housing for those in the market the lengths they have to go through the hoops they have to jump through in terms of local council regulations or of legislation that this Government has given councils mean that it is all too hard. Why would a couple within the city boundaries of Auckland want to split their property in half? It would take 2 or 3 years and cost tens of thousands of dollars. They would have to consult with someone in Bluff if the local council wanted them to because through the Resource Management Act anyone can object to anything anywhere! That is the first thing. Why does the Government not make sure that more land is freed up for subdivision? 
After 8 years of this Government and 15 years of the Resource Management Act everyone up and down the country on the front line not just to do with housing but also to do with electricity generation and transmission road building telecommunications you name it—anything to do with infrastructure—is saying that the Resource Management Act needs to be streamlined. This Government has ignored that call for 10 years. How can it be that a subdivision in Whangarei can be objected to by someone living in Invercargill? How absurd is that! The hoops one has to jump through quite simply have to be fixed so that builders and developers are not paying $10000 to $30000 per section to get their applications through the Resource Management Act process. When they have to pay $10000 to $30000 through that process they slap it on the price of the section and the first-home buyer ultimately pays it. But this Government ignores calls to streamline the Resource Management Act. 
We have seen two or three pieces of amending legislation to the Building Act brought before the Parliament in the last 3 or 4 years. Has the Government made it easier to build better houses? No it has not. If builders want to shift a window 3 inches to the right they have to submit more plans to the council get more consent and have more visits from an inspector. Does that make the house any less leaky? No but it certainly slaps another five or 10 grand on top of the price of housing for first-home buyers—just another bill they have to pick up. 
Lastly housing affordability is made up of two components. Firstly skyrocketing property prices have occurred over the last 5 or 6 years because supply has not met demand. Secondly take-home pay has not kept up with those prices and interest rates have gone through the roof to a point where they are the highest in the developed world—at roughly 9 to 10.5 percent.  
Let us take the interest rate component first before we look at take-home pay. Interest rates have skyrocketed in the last few years simply because of the Government’s poor management of the economy and its unproductive spending. It is unproductive spending to pour billions of dollars into health but not provide for more doctors nurses and operations. It is unproductive spending to pour billions more into health and billions more into the bureaucracy but not provide for more operations more doctors or more nurses. Unproductive spending drives up the costs in the economy. This Government will pour money into the Ministry of Education but it will not provide for more teachers or for teaching more children. Unproductive spending has driven up interest rates in this country and first-home buyers pay the bill. 
The second aspect is take-home pay. If only this Government would recognise that a significant tax cut to those young families who are trying to pay off a mortgage would make all the difference in the world.  
Hon Members 
: Ah! 
PHIL HEATLEY 
: Labour members mock me. The Government has railed against tax cuts for 7 years but with an election looming—less than 12 months away—and people across the country saying they are sick of the Government wasting taxpayers’ money Michael Cullen has done a U-turn and said: “We’ll do tax cuts.” But the country does not believe that Labour will give tax cuts because it is so reluctant. The Government does not want to do it. I tell the Government that a difference in take-home pay—a tax cut for young families—would make all the difference in the world when it comes to being able to service a mortgage. 
National opposes this legislation because it is so convoluted; it will not help first-home buyers—certainly not today. Councils that pick this up have to do a study in their districts which will take 12 months and then they have to include it in their long-term community plans. That is just lovely! That will take another couple of years. So 3 years down the track if councils want to they can invoke this. The interesting thing is that Queenstown Lakes District Council is doing this at the moment without this shoddy legislation. Unbelievable! How is it that we are having to pass the first reading of this legislation in the debating chamber today yet the Queenstown Lakes District Council is doing this at the moment without this legislation? National will not be supporting this bill.