Twyford PhilHon PHIL TWYFORD (Minister of Housing and Urban Development): Thank you Madam Chair. I haven't taken a call for a while so it's nice to be back in the House and in this annual review debate. I want to acknowledge Miette Wooller-Harris who is a year 13 student at Rutherford College in my electorate. Miette is interning in Parliament this week and is in the gallery for this debate. I want to talk about housing. It's appropriate that housing is grouped together with social development because the housing crisis that the former National Government allowed to spin—Hon Dr Nick Smith: How many houses Phil? Hon PHIL TWYFORD: —out of control so badly when the Hon Dr Nick Smith was the housing Minister is responsible for most if not all of the poverty and inequality that we've seen over the last decade in New Zealand. The housing crisis has exacted a terrible price on the people of this country. This Government inherited a shortfall of 71000 houses that built up entirely on the former National Government's watch including during the period that we're debating—71000 houses short across New Zealand and 45000 in Auckland alone. Homeownership has fallen to a 66-year low. Homeownership hasn't been lower in 66 years and what did the former National Government do about it during its time in office? They made an artform of tinkering of minimalist incrementalism and of making excuses for doing nothing. That former Minister across the House Nick Smith was the arch practitioner of this whole policy of doing as little as possible while the housing market was allowed to burn. What did they do with State housing? The institution of Housing New Zealand which has been there for decade after decade as an expression of New Zealanders' compassion and belief that every child growing up in this country should have a decent roof over their heads no matter how life might be a struggle for mum and dad and for people who would otherwise really struggle to get a decent roof—CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): I hate to interrupt the Minister but again could he relate it back to the appropriations. Just relate it back—we're halfway through. Hon PHIL TWYFORD: I'm going to talk about the appropriations—CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): Good. I look forward to it. Hon PHIL TWYFORD: —because I'm talking about State housing—State housing that was sold off during the period of this annual review by the former National Government. In the middle of the worst housing crisis in living memory what did they do? They sold off State housing. They are so desperate to wash their hands of the fundamental responsibility to put a decent roof over the heads of people who need it. When we came into Government we asked the officials What's going on with the State house sell-off?" In Christchurch 2500 houses—including the State house that John Key lived in as a child—were in the process of being hocked off. They had been doing trade shows in Australia—trade shows in Australia—to try and sell off the State housing. There were another 700 houses in Invercargill that they were selling off and it was really only the utter embarrassment of two winters of record homelessness that embarrassed them into any kind of action at all. I want to mention the other real casualty of the housing crisis and that is the 40000-odd kids who every year get bundled off to hospital with respiratory and infectious diseases and the 1600 mostly older New Zealanders who die premature deaths every winter in this country because the state of the housing that they're living in is so poor. The best after nine years in office and during the period that we're debating in this annual review—the very best that Dr Nick Smith could summon up—was to require smoke alarms and a very very weak inadequate insulation standard. It's been left to this Government to come in and take some serious measures to actually require not only an inadequate insulation standard and smoke alarms—which in themselves might be OK but in the circumstances are woefully short of what's needed—but a serious modern set of standards that would require landlords to ensure that rental properties are warm and dry. Why shouldn't they be required to do that? It's a scandal that half a million Kiwis are living in rental properties some of which are in an appalling condition and are a risk to their health. Our healthy homes guarantee will require that rental properties are dry and are heat-able and that they will address drainage address draught-stopping and address moisture control—none of the things that the legislation passed during this annual review period under the sponsorship of Nick Smith addressed. Our healthy homes guarantee will finish the job that was started under that Government but was left uncompleted. So there are I think four key factors underlying the housing crisis—four drivers of the housing crisis—that are responsible for the misery that we saw year after year after year under the former National Government. They are I believe infrastructure financing which is the biggest roadblock to the ability of our towns and cities to grow up and out; the planning system which is a highly restrictive planning system that chokes off the supply of available land drives land prices up and triggers speculation and land banking and is one of the main factors that's responsible for the absurdly expensive urban land prices that we have; a low-productivity construction industry that has very high build costs at very low productivity and that is rife with anti-competitive practices; and fourth tax settings that encourage an economy of land banking and property speculation. Those are the four big drivers of the problem we have. In nine years including in the period that we're debating in this annual review the former National Government did next to nothing about each of those four factors—next to nothing—and that I believe is an absolute scandal. I want to talk in relation to those problems that I've raised about what this coalition Government led by Labour supported in coalition by New Zealand First and in confidence and supply by the Greens—I want to talk about what we've done in six months. In six months we stopped the State house sell-off—one of the first things we did—and we've commenced a massive State house building programme. We've set up a KiwiBuild unit—Hon Dr Nick Smith: 18. Hon PHIL TWYFORD: You mark my words Dr Smith you're going to see a lot more KiwiBuild houses coming down the track. You just mark my words. We've set up a KiwiBuild unit in the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment which is overseeing the development of large complex urban development projects and a mass Government procurement programme to build affordable homes for first-home buyers. There are 155 new State houses in the regions—the biggest and only significant building programme of State housing in the regions in more than two decades. That former National Government sold off State houses in the regions. They did not build any; they sold them off and regional New Zealand won't forget that. We are in the process of banning foreign buyers so that only permanent residents and citizens of New Zealand can buy the existing housing stock. We want foreign investment in the building of new homes and in new developments but we will not allow offshore speculators to bid up the price of the existing housing stock. We have work under way on reforming infrastructure financing and freeing up the planning system. Hon Dr Nick Smith: What about the RMA? Where's your RMA changes? Hon PHIL TWYFORD: We will reform the Resource Management Act (RMA) but not in the tinkering way that Nick Smith did that made the RMA more complex more expensive and more burdensome. CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): Can I just ask the Minister please in the last 30-odd seconds could he actually talk about the appropriations for the period 2016-17. Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Madam Chair it's perfectly admissible within an annual review debate to talk about the period right up to the present. Members on that side of the House—CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): I would appreciate it if the member would relate that to the appropriations. This is not a policy discussion. Hon PHIL TWYFORD: The first KiwiBuild homes at McLennan were unveiled the other day—18 of them—and they will benefit from a $2 billion appropriation that will kick-start the KiwiBuild programme. There are going to be many more coming. We are rolling out the emergency housing around the country that that former Government never did."