Eagle PaulPAUL EAGLE (Labour—Rongotai): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's a pleasure to be speaking on my favourite subject area and that is of course housing; also just to replace Dr Duncan Webb who's busy as the very busy chair of the Environment Committee who I want to thank for leading this vital and critical piece of work through the House.Look there certainly won't be an apology. In fact we gave them an apology because of the last nine years of neglect from that side of the House to every State housing tenant because we said We've got no agenda secret or otherwise to sell you off." We know that the real agenda of the other team the other side was to—as they did with other Crown assets—sell off the biggest balance sheet and that is our housing stock. Thankfully the public of New Zealand saw sense and thought this is a Government that's tackling the big long-term issues facing Aotearoa New Zealand and ensuring that everyone has a warm dry roof over their head; that's why this is a real flagship policy of the coalition Government.I'm really really saddened to hear that they're opposing this bill. Really what they're saying is that they are opposing a Government role in housing. We saw that by there being no housing Minister in the previous Government—none no one. There was no excuse for it. It was quite arrogant that there wasn't a Minister of Housing. On this side of the House there is a strong housing team and that team incorporates everything from housing itself urban development building and construction and we've got public housing recognised there too in a Cabinet role. That's a very strong team to lead this transformation and to really—the tenants living in the Tamaki electorate will be very sound and proud to hear that they have a Government who is looking after them and holding their hand and saying "We're looking after you." There's no apology needed.The other thing is that by opposing this they're also opposing building and construction and development. That's surprising. That won't be going down well with the development community who have been crying out for a pipeline of activity. Funnily enough HLC that was mentioned—Hobsonville Land Company now Homes. Land. Community—is I understand a Housing New Zealand Corporation subsidiary company. So it was fully Government-owned anyway. I think again there was a little bit of disingenuous behaviour there because they were hoping to set that up and maybe to flick that off to the private—always seeking to flick things off share risks.We know that by sharing risk it's been high-risk. That's why we've had construction and development companies go under because that side of the House shoved it all across on to them and they went under. The market was meant to stand up and build all these houses: no more Ministry of Works no more tradespeople working under the old Department of Housing and Construction to actually do anything. So without the workers you've put all the risk over there and nothing gets done. But I think that was always part of the plan.This certainly isn't a shuffling of the deckchairs; absolutely not. What this is doing is taking the very best and putting our housing service delivery in one new entity. I'm really proud—apart from being Māori Language Week having a Māori name for it also: Kāinga Ora healthy homes is a fantastic name. It also sends a signal to this country that we are serious about housing and that we are getting back into building homes—Kiritapu Allan: Doing the mahi.PAUL EAGLE: Doing the mahi—doing the hard work: a hands-on approach in tackling everything from homelessness through to affordable housing. It's less about identities. On that side of the House they were more concerned about—certainly I don't know—just competitive stuff to try and make these different entities compete against each other. That doesn't work. We know that—we know that that doesn't work. So what we've done here is said "Not only are we joining the very best expertise from the different entities but we are just getting those synergies right and putting them into one entity." So I'm really happy. I know staff from the three different entities. They are looking forward to coming together. There's duplication; there's overlaps. Really what they are simply wanting to do is build homes for Kiwis. That's a simple mission that doesn't need clutter and competition; it just needs focus and the can-do attitude that I know people who work in these entities are looking for.Kiritapu Allan: We're driving real change.PAUL EAGLE: We are driving change. Look it will take time but what I want to say is we're taking a balanced approach and I know that we'll also with the strength of our Ministry of Housing and Urban Development—look I just couldn't believe that after a lengthy crisis that we had no policy arm no research nothing coming through to even have a conversation about what type of housing do we need? Who's doing what? There's no pipeline. There's nothing. I want to congratulate Minister Phil Twyford who's here on his work because he has got the nuts and bolts sorted. Whilst that can take time this is a great platform for moving forward and building homes.The other aspect of this bill is the Urban Development Authority. It's been around since—look dear I mention her—the former Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark. It's been talked about; now it's a reality. On that side of the House they talked about it too. They just didn't do anything because they thought "Well we don't actually want to do anything in housing. We want the market to fulfil it."I know here in Wellington that the local authorities—for example iwi are looking forward to partnering with an entity both to share risk but also to allow Government into their plans for building a great Wellington region. For example there are projects ready to go. I know Ginny Andersen in Hutt South—there's hundreds and hundreds of State houses that were shut boarded up with plywood by that side of the House. We're taking the wood off the windows and ensuring that people are not only going to get homes but neighbourhoods too. That's a collaborative approach with local government and the outcome of this entity's work will be transformational.I know here in Wellington City in my humble electorate of Rongotai that there is plenty of work coming through the Let's Get Wellington Moving project where I'm looking forward to the uplift of Adelaide Road through the best suburb in New Zealand—finally a Government who's doing something. I mean have you seen Adelaide Road? It's crying out for help ignored by that side of the House.This side of the House was saying "Here's a strip of land by the Basin Reserve past McDonalds"—my second favourite fast food restaurant—"and up there into Newtown". But that's an example already where KiwiBuild is under way. There you go under way with a Wellington developer who's doing a fantastic job—embraced on time on track. Once this entity's in place you'll see the uplift not only in a physical sense of enhancing that heritage part of this great city but also the transport component that the transport Minister was talking about and that's the difference. We will make a transformational difference. We'll look back and that side of the House by then will say "I only wish we did that. I only wish we did that."—but they didn't. So I'm looking forward to seeing the signage up saying: this is proudly co-developed by for example say the Wellington City Council and the New Zealand Government—that being this side of the House—and the Urban Development Authority in Kāinga Ora—Homes and Communities. I know that this has been decades too long in the making; it's finally here. It's the first of two bills the powers are coming and when they do you will see development all over Aotearoa New Zealand in ways that that side of the House will be thinking: "Why didn't we do this? Bugger dammit." They'll be saying all sorts of expletives; we'll be celebrating on this side. I know that the Ministers of Housing our housing team of Ministers and transport will be there cutting ribbons enhancing communities and making them very very happy. I commend this bill to the House. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): Just to remind all members that people do listen to Parliament and it's really important that the words we say are words that might be gentle on the ears—some of those may not have been."