Hayes Joanne: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHayes Joanne: General Debate[Sitting date: 25 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11261. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JOANNE HAYES (National): I stand to take this call in the general debate. To be honest I do not feel as a National backbencher that I have been left out and that I have been cut back because I feel like I am at the front of all the Ministers thank you very much.So because the hot topic is around the housing area I want to focus my contribution today on the things that are actually happening in Christchurch to do with social housing because it is really really important. It is really important because I am focusing on the area that I am based in which is Christchurch East. Did we know that Christchurch East has received over 108 social housing homes in the Aranui area? There are over 108 social housing homes in Aranui which suffered from the amazing number of homes that were destroyed—that is Housing New Zealand homes that were destroyed—because of the earthquake.Recently the Minister for Social Housing Paula Bennett went to Aldershot Street which is in Aranui if you know where that is and she opened 15 of those houses—15 of those houses—which will house a number of families and which are three-bedroom four-bedroom and two-bedroom homes. In Christchurch 970 homes will be delivered there—970 homes. That is an amazing number of homes and 600 of those new homes will be based in Riccarton once legislation has been completed. This is amazing—amazing for a city that was virtually brought to its knees and the housing issues there were absolutely astronomical. I cannot say that we will fix everything but we are moving along.I can tell you that housing issues in this country have been here for many years within this Government and within the past Governments but it has been this Government that has addressed and is addressing the situation of homelessness. It is doing an amazing job. The announcements that the Minister has made about making $5000 available to relocate homeless people from Auckland to the provinces: that is not a horrible thing to do. Recently I was in the Bay of Plenty and there were some people whom I met there in the Bay of Plenty who had moved from Auckland to Tauranga. They thought that by moving there they would be able to save a little bit more money and be able to invest it in the education system for their children. They love Tauranga—they absolutely love Tauranga—and they said to me that they wished they had done it earlier.When we start looking at these housing areas I start to look at the Māori Housing Network and this is getting an amount of $12.6 million over the next 4 years. Do we remember when the Opposition members ever gave funding for Māori housing? They did not give money for Māori housing. This Government has given $12.6 million to the Māori Housing Network to be delivered over 4 years so Māori whānau too will be able to have safe and warm homes in which they want to live. Housing New Zealand in Christchurch has carried out over $150 million worth of repairs to homes that tenants are currently living in as well as spending $200 million on building 700 new homes. To date 300 of those are ready to be moved into. By 2017 700 homes will be completed.As I said at the start of my contribution there have been many things to do with housing going on with this Government. We are responding. Opposition members have never responded to the housing issues that this country has faced in the past. In fact as I sit here and I listen to the contributions from the Opposition members you would think that they have a monopoly on poor people in this country. It is disgusting that they would want to bandy around and punch around poor people. I can tell you we have a lot more respect for the people of this country than to use them and bandy them around this House like they are just absolutely nothing.So in closing I just want to say that this has been a good opportunity here for me to speak about the housing issues in Christchurch and the remediation work that we have been doing for the people of Christchurch because they are important to us. The people of Christchurch East are important to us and I can tell you that I am looking forward to that Budget tomorrow because I believe there will be some amazing things that will come out of it. Thank you.