Davis KelvinHOUSING CORPORATION (AFFORDABLE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingKELVIN DAVIS (Labour—Te Tai Tokerau): I move That the Housing Corporation (Affordable Housing Development) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Social Services Committee to consider the bill. The population of New Zealand is 4.2 million and I can guarantee that just about every single one of those 4.2 million people knows that there is a housing crisis in New Zealand except for 59 of them. There are 59 people in New Zealand who I know do not realise that there is a housing crisis in New Zealand. They all sit over there.Pita Paraone: Where?KELVIN DAVIS: Over there on the other side of the House. Everyone else in New Zealand has seen the pictures on TV of people living in their cars. They have seen the pictures on TV of children trying to do their homework by the interior light of the vehicle. They have seen pictures of people living in tents on their relatives' back lawns. They have heard the stories about marae having to open their doors to allow whole families to stay for a number of weeks because they have nowhere to live. All New Zealanders have seen those stories except for those people sitting on the other side of the House.When it comes to a plan to address housing those people have employed what I call the ostrich strategy. They have put their heads in a hole in the sand and tried to pretend that things are not happening around them. The trouble is when you have got your head in a hole in the sand the part that everyone can see is the posterior sticking up at them. What we would call that in Māori is whakapohane. When you show your backside to the people it is a sign of contempt and to me that is what this National Government is doing to the 41000 homeless people in New Zealand—it is just showing contempt for the situation and the predicament that those people find themselves in.It is the Government of see no evil hear no evil and speak no evil. The Government members do not want to see the problem that is staring them in the face. They do not want to go out and see the people down on Lambton Quay living in doorways. They do not want to see the people living in tents on their relatives' back lawns. They do not want to see the people down at the marae. They do not want to see any evil. They do not want to hear any evil—they do not want to hear what we are saying that there is a crisis. Their modus operandi is deny deny deny. They do not want to speak any evil—they do not want to say the c" word: crisis. They do not want to acknowledge that there is a housing crisis. If they see no evil hear no evil and speak no evil then in their minds no evil exists. But let me tell you that a housing crisis does exist in New Zealand.We know that we have a new Prime Minister and we know that he is no leader; he is a follower. Here is his chance to actually follow a plan from the Labour Party. The architect of that plan is my learned colleague sitting to my right Phil Twyford. It is a plan that will see 10000 houses built every year for 10 years.All we have heard from the 59 people across the way—who see no evil hear no evil and speak no evil—is a mishmash hodgepodge patchwork of random thoughts and ideas that are going no way to addressing the issue of homelessness. Let us have a look at some of their stunts and stupidity. There is Bill English selling off State houses taking $1.8 billion out of Housing New Zealand blowing the budget and putting homeless families in motels. There is Nick Smith announcing that he would build houses on land that turned out to be unsuitable for residential housing—I think there was a cemetery; I think there was a power station or a pump house or something—Phil Twyford: Government House—the Governor-General's residence.KELVIN DAVIS: The Governor-General's residence.Hon Members: Ha ha!KELVIN DAVIS: You may think that I am joking but that is the truth. John Key declared that there would be 65000 social houses but he had no plan and no money because all he wanted was a big number in his speech which he was delivering to a group. Then remember Paula Bennett's flying squads—they flew out and they could not see the problem. They failed to find the record number of families sleeping rough; they obviously did not look hard enough. Then Bill English abolished the housing portfolio. Is there actually—[Interruption] I am getting there Mr Assistant Speaker. Is there actually a Minister for housing?What this bill does—it is really really simple and the people across the way should take note—is it "amends the Housing Corporation Act 1974 to increase the supply and affordability of housing and land by requiring the Minister of Housing to undertake an affordable house construction programme that will build 10000 affordable houses per year."Now here are the two clinchers—everyone should take note. The first part of the plan is that the Minister must prepare a plan—must prepare a plan to build 10000 affordable houses. Here is the real clincher—and I think everyone should take out their pens and their notebooks. The second part of the plan is to implement the plan. Develop a plan—such as the one Phil Twyford has developed called KiwiBuild—and build the houses. That is all it takes.It is pretty simple. In clause 4 inserting new section 50T: "(1) The Minister of Housing must prepare a plan in consultation with the Corporation for the building of 10 000 affordable houses per year for first-home buyers. (2) Within 6 months of the completion of the plan required under subsection (1) the Minister must present a copy of the plan to the House of Representatives."—so that we can all see what is in the plan and then—"(3) The Minister of Housing must—(a) ensure that all targets set out in the plan are met; and (b) report to the House of Representatives annually on its progress." It is pretty simple: if you want to build houses you have got to have a plan. Like I say all we have seen is a mishmash a hodgepodge and a patchwork of random ideas and the situation has not improved.The second part of this bill new section 50U inserted by clause 4 is that "The Corporation will be responsible for managing the development of affordable housing under the plan …". This is what the plan means: the Housing New Zealand Corporation must ensure that the houses that are built are first of all affordable because people have to actually be able to afford to buy them. We are talking about homeless people here or people renting who need to be able to afford to buy houses; we are not talking about people who have already got one or two or three houses and they want more in their portfolio. The houses that are to be built must be sold to first-home buyers—those young people and maybe some not-so-young people now who do not have a house. These houses are not to be used for speculation. It is pretty simple stuff. The Housing New Zealand Corporation must ensure that all the houses built must meet all legal standards required and are warm dry and safe.It is a pretty simple plan and the members of this Government over there need to open their eyes open their ears and when we have the vote open their mouths and say "Aye"—that they will support this bill.In the last quarter there were 2500 houses built in Auckland—2500—and people said: "Wow that's a lot of houses." The sad reality is that in the last quarter in Auckland alone 4000 houses needed to be built so there is a shortfall of 1500 houses. Let us extrapolate that over 6 months: that is 3000 houses that we are falling behind with. Over a year that is 6000 houses that are not being built that need to be built. And that is in just Auckland alone—we are not talking about the rest of the country.As I have said there are 41000 homeless people in New Zealand. The most common complaint of constituents who come to my offices—after they have had a moan about Child Youth and Family the other most common complaint is about the lack of housing. They want us to help them to get into homes. In fact I saw a guy the other day in a backyard in west Auckland who is living in a tent on his relatives' lawn. That is unacceptable in 21st century New Zealand—that we have people these days who will never ever be able to afford a home to call their own. Imagine how soul-destroying that must be knowing that you are going to raise your kids for ever living in someone else's house. That has got to stop. All it will take is for this Government to support this bill. I commend it to the House. Kia ora."