2. Question No. 2—HousingNICOLA WILLIS (Deputy Leader—National) to the Minister of HousingQuestion No. 2—Housing2. NICOLA WILLIS (Deputy Leader—National) to the Minister of Housing: Does she stand by the then Minister of Housing's statement in December 2017 that home ownership will become more affordable for New Zealand families" and why hasn't the Government delivered on this commitment?Hon POTO WILLIAMS (Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing)) on behalf of the Minister of Housing: I do stand by the then Minister's statement in the context it was given. When we came to Government in 2017 we inherited a housing crisis caused by decades of inaction and in particular a failure of the previous Government to acknowledge the crisis and build enough houses. So while the previous Government refused to even admit there was a crisis we took action. We banned offshore speculators. We closed tax loops for investors. We began the largest build programme in a generation established the progressive homeownership scheme and we're supporting thousands of Kiwis into their first homes through first-home grants. While we have reset the KiwiBuild programme the lives of more than 1000 families have been changed by purchasing their first home through this programme. We know there's more work to do and we're starting to see the green shoots with a record number of houses being built and the highest market share for some homebuyers on record. I'm proud of our record to date and I would put this against the previous Government's denial and inaction any day of the week.Nicola Willis: What does the Minister say to all the New Zealanders who feel betrayed by a Government that promised 100000 affordable KiwiBuild homes but has instead delivered rampant house price inflation with house prices leaping up on average—SPEAKER: Order! Order! The member finished her question some time ago.Hon POTO WILLIAMS: On behalf of the Minister what I would say is I would balance our record in Government against the National Party's with under Nick Smith the delivery of 100 affordable homes under the special housing areas. Already we have delivered a thousand homes under KiwiBuild.SPEAKER: Look as I indicated to the House yesterday I am receiving a very high level of complaints about the public not being able to hear members when they're speaking. One particular set of complaints related to this member yesterday and what was perceived by the public to be the shouting down of her during the general debate. I'm not prepared to put up with a House in a position whereby Ministers answering questions are not being heard.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Point of order. Mr Speaker you seem to want us to be in silence all the time.SPEAKER: In this particular case I do. The member will resume his seat.Nicola Willis: When will the Minister admit that her Government's housing policies of changing tax rules promising KiwiBuild houses and hiring hundreds of highly paid housing advisers has utterly failed to deliver affordable housing for New Zealand families?Hon POTO WILLIAMS: On behalf of the Minister we are in the middle of a residential housing building boom as evidenced by 45000 consents up by 20 percent in the last year alone. Not only that but this Government is supporting that build by ensuring that there's sufficient infrastructure we're building the workforce capacity through our apprenticeship schemes we've made changes to tax schemes we're tilting away from speculation to investment and first-home buyers in the homebuyers' market are increased to 25 percent of the market signalling very clearly that we are doing much more in this space and building far more homes than that Government ever did.Nicola Willis: Is the Minister concerned that her Government is at risk of delivering the lowest ever number of First Home Grants this year despite her promise in March to adjust the settings and give more first-home buyers access to the scheme?Hon POTO WILLIAMS: On behalf of the Minister I actually reject the premise of that member's question. The number of first-home buyers continues to grow both in number and proportion of all buyers just as I've said. The most important thing that we can do to help first-home buyers is to increase the overall supply of new housing and we have a comprehensive plan to do that and we are delivering on that.Nicola Willis: Point of order Mr Speaker. The question was specifically about First Home Grants which was not addressed in the Minister's reply.SPEAKER: Yeah absolutely right; it was and it wasn't. The member knows if she asks a general primary question she cannot expect an answer to a specific supplementary.Nicola Willis: Will the Minister just admit that the Government's policies have made homeownership less affordable than ever with 19000 more families waiting for a State house 4000 families raising their children in emergency motel rooms and rents up $90 a week?Hon POTO WILLIAMS: On behalf of the Minister I'd just like to note that the Reserve Bank supports this Government in terms of its strong growth of supply and with our current low population growth environment it means that supply is now exceeding growth in demand. This will improve affordability for first-home buyers.Hon David Parker: Further to that answer can the Minister confirm that since 2017 the number of houses being built in Auckland per annum has increased 90 percent from 10000 a year to 19000 this year?Hon POTO WILLIAMS: On behalf of the Minister yes I can confirm that.Nicola Willis: Does the Minister think the Government's decision to spend $800 million buying houses on the open market in direct competition with first-home buyers has helped make homeownership more affordable for New Zealand families?Hon POTO WILLIAMS: On behalf of the Minister between 1 November 2017 and 31 October 2021 we have increased public homes by 8683—6824 of those were new builds. But what we have done is we have taken the total public homes to 74917.Nicola Willis: How many KiwiBuild houses has the Government built this year and does the Minister think that's a number to be proud of?Hon POTO WILLIAMS: On behalf of the Minister I would like to compare our KiwiBuild programme which has taken a thousand Kiwi families and put them in a home to the special housing areas of that Government which delivered 100 affordable homes in nine years.Nicola Willis: Why does the Minister keep blaming National for New Zealand's housing emergency when she promised to fix it she failed and this week National is helping her out with a bill that will do more to reduce the housing shortage than anything that Minister has done for four years?Hon POTO WILLIAMS: On behalf of the Minister when building consents had fallen off the cliff National did nothing to bring confidence to the market: no underwriting of developments; nothing to encourage new builds and affordable housing; nothing to keep the skilled workforce from leaving New Zealand; nothing to grow the workforce the builders and tradies; and hardly anything spent on infrastructure. We on the other hand we've cracked down on investors we're encouraging new affordable housing the house building sector is booming we've had months of record-breaking new dwelling consents we have thousands of new apprentices in the building sector we're rebuilding public housing and we the State have stepped in where the market has failed to develop land and invest in infrastructure for housing."