Allan KiritapuKIRITAPU ALLAN (Labour): E Te Mana Whakawā tuatahi ka nui aku mihi ki a koe e te pā. Ki a rātou ngā uri o Ngāti Hinerangi kua haramai nei ki tēnei Whare mō te hōnore o te pānui tuatahi o ā rātou pire. Heoi anō ka huri ake ki tēnei pire.[Mr Speaker firstly I would like to acknowledge you sir; and them the descendants of Ngāti Hinerangi who have arrived here to this House for the honour of the first reading of their bill. However I turn to this bill.]I quite enjoy this session. It's the last sitting session in the afternoon at the end of the sitting week and it's always quite a vibrant feel in the House. The House gets a little vocal. I think that we are all a little vocal this afternoon on this bill in particular the Kāinga Ora—Homes and Communities Bill because this bill here is one critical step change in what this side of the House needs to do in order to fix up the nine long years of absolute mess that the previous Government left for this side of the House to go about fixing.Now before I turn to the substance of the bill I want to acknowledge the Hon Phil Twyford. The Hon Phil Twyford has been the absolute architect of housing reform in New Zealand. The Hon Phil Twyford has stood sturdy amongst storms often conjured up by the Opposition on baseless claims because the reality is that they have to deflect and detract for nine long years of absolute insufficient and inadequate action on absolutely anything. In fact what was their legacy in housing if I may recall? Well I can tell you that we all remember for example in my little area the East Coast—what's their legacy? Was it building homes Mr Speaker? No sir it was not. It was selling down State houses—something that this side of the House thinks is an absolutely critical feature. Now as I turn to the bill the Kāinga Ora—Homes and Communities Bill I want to acknowledge that this bill does many things but in particular it brings together or converges three entities that are responsible for various components of housing here in New Zealand. So we are bringing together Housing New Zealand which is the largest I guess landlord in the country with the intention of it becoming the best landlord in the country under this new Crown entity Kāinga Ora. We're also bringing in the KiwiBuild Unit and we're also bringing in HLC Ltd. As the Hon Phil Twyford has said in his previous remarks about the intentions for why we are bringing these three entities together under this new Crown entity it is to ensure that we are lessening the duplication of the roles that have been—Clayton Mitchell: The duplication—I agree.KIRITAPU ALLAN: —exactly—played by multiple agencies. This side of the House is committed to efficiency. This side of the House is committed to doing the things that nobody else did for nine long years under the previous Government. We are tackling the long-term problems that this country faces here and we're doing that in this particular way by ensuring that those families—look there are 68000 State homes—68000 homes—managed by Housing New Zealand at the moment. Now there has been a somewhat troublesome—well in my patch they actually do a blooming good job but what the intention is here—Hon David Bennett: What are you saying—what are you saying?KIRITAPU ALLAN: —is to ensure—I'd love Mr Bennett to get up and have a good yarn because I think that he'd like to really give us his views on housing in the Waikato because it's pretty miserable as I understand because of that lot and what they didn't do. But look in addition to establishing the Crown entities this bill is also ensuring that there will be a Government policy statement on housing and urban development. Now this is going to be a very powerful Crown entity once it gets up on track. We know that this is the first piece of legislation that gives it the bones. The second piece of legislation that's coming into the House this year will give it the substance the meat on those bones. But we know that this is going be an incredibly powerful entity that will transform the face of housing here in Aotearoa New Zealand. Again I must tip my hat to the Hon Phil Twyford for being steadfast in the face of adversity.