Willis Nicola; Woods MeganNICOLA WILLIS (National): Two quick questions for the Minister: first I want to confirm her earlier remark that it is correct that while Kāinga Ora had a target of 700 to 800 transitional houses to be built by June this year the Minister on hearing that they were off-track revised down that target to 500. The reason of course—well I look forward to the Minister's clarification of that point. Of course that is the form here because KiwiBuild if it were to have delivered on the Minister's promises would be delivering 16000 houses next month but of course that is not the case. However what the Minister has revised her target to is that 800 KiwiBuild houses will have been built in the year to June. So my question is whether the KiwiBuild delivery targets are at risk given the Ormiston Rise development has gone into receivership. Written question answers the Minister has provided to me show that there are 176 KiwiBuild homes in the Ormiston Rise development due to be built by June this year and that as of 15 March only 60 were under construction. Is KiwiBuild going to meet its target this financial year? Given the filibustering that has occurred tonight—the lack of readiness from Ministers to show accountability for their portfolios and to answer simple questions about things that they are accountable to New Zealand taxpayers for and that they are accountable to voters for because of the promises they made them—I'm going to take this opportunity to take a call and put some questions to the Minister that she might have the grace to address because actually in this country right now we are facing a housing emergency of proportions that the Minister should not be laughing about. The Minister should know that she promised 16000 KiwiBuild houses by June. So I would ask her if she had actually delivered on her promise would the State house waiting list be a little shorter because right now that waiting list is more than 23000 people. It has quadrupled since National left office. So my question for the Minister would be: does she think she's doing a good job when four times as many New Zealanders are out of a home squeezed out of the private rental market and unable to pay the rent and are having to line up for a State house that that Minister can't provide? Does the Minister think that's acceptable and I want to know does she think the increase in the State house waiting list that occurred last month alone—that's right: 456 additional people last month couldn't pay the rent because the rents have gone up so astronomically under this Government. It was so desperate that they signed up to the State house waiting list and that's not even including the people I was told about in the Wairarapa yesterday who said We don't even bother going on the list any more because you wait more than a year to get a house." So not even accounting for that of those 456 who were added to the list in the past month alone how many does she think got added to that list because the landlord put up the rent because the Minister decided to mess around with interest deductibility? I'd like to know what steps is she taking to monitor the increases in rents that are occurring as a result of her Government's tax policy and when will the rent data come out because it seems mysterious to us sitting here in the Opposition that the last lot of rent data that was due in March hasn't come out yet. Is that because the Minister has something to hide? Has she modelled what rent increases will do to the State house waiting list? Here's a really important question and if the Minister doesn't address this colleagues—if the Minister doesn't address this question then ask yourself what her commitment is. This question is: by what date will the State house waiting list reduce? I'm not even asking the Minister when she'll get it back to the levels National managed to keep it at; I'm asking her when was—[Interruption] OK the members opposite laugh. I want the members opposite to explain to the 23000 people on the State house waiting list why that is not Labour's fault. There are four times as many people who have been squeezed out of their private rental and I want that Minister to tell me when we will see a month of statistics in which that number drops. I want to know: if you're off-track with the transitional housing how can we trust you on your other programmes? I want to know: is KiwiBuild on track because what we heard this month—just yesterday; just over the weekend—was that the Ormiston Rise development had gone into receivership. Now I had a conversation with a very anxious KiwiBuild buyer who said to me "I thought that when I bought a KiwiBuild home that meant the Government had done its due diligence. That meant the Government had run the ruler over. That meant the Government was confirming that this was a good house to buy. And now I get a letter a cold letter at 5.30 on a Friday night saying 'Actually it's gone into receivership. We'll work something out. If you've got any questions talk to your lawyer.' " Well Minister I would like to know: will the 176 KiwiBuild houses that are meant to be happening in the Ormiston Rise development be completed and will they be completed on time and if they are not going to be completed does that put her KiwiBuild target at risk? I also want to know Minister whether she thinks she is doing everything she can to partner with the community housing organisations up and down this country that I have spoken to that say that if that Minister were to take a different approach in some of her policies—and I'd like to note for members opposite that some of these community housing providers are iwi-led or wish to partner with iwi to provide Māori housing. I wish to note that because this was a point of discussion earlier. Does the Minister acknowledge that current policy settings are preventing them from delivering the homes that they could deliver? I would like to know why the Minister doesn't drop her ideology and get some houses built. If the Minister would answer just one of those questions that would be a great start. Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Housing): I'm happy to address those questions as I have all the questions that have been put to me in the committee this evening. In answer to the first question that the member put in terms of being behind this year I'd like to remind the member of the subject of the debate that we are having and what we are doing is looking back at the previous financial year. What I was talking about was the 2019-20 financial year and I talked about the fact that there was a five-week delay because of COVID in terms of that delivery and who it was who delivered those. We are on track for transitional housing this year. I think the member misunderstood that contribution so I'd like to reassure that member that this Government is continuing to roll out transitional and emergency housing in a way that previous Governments failed to do. The member also asked a question about KiwiBuild and whether we're on track around targets. The target that KiwiBuild has is as many houses as quickly as we can so the answer is we're absolutely on track around that. The member asked a question about Ormiston Rise and this is a serious question and one that does need to be addressed. Over the weekend I received briefings and then I took the opportunity to talk to officials and get deeper briefings on Monday around this because this is something that I do take seriously. What I am very pleased to report to the House is that while this is a development that has been placed into receivership the officials after discussions with the receivers have confidence that there is a shared desire to see that development progress and that all indications are pointing to that fact. I wouldn't like to see scaremongering in this House that would unduly unsettle those people. What I want to give those people that are affected—and I have great empathy and I feel for them—is that all that can be done is being done but whatever happens their money is safe and there are ways in which they are protected. I think that we need to take great care when we discuss these issues and I will continue to keep this House updated as I am asked about it or "if I am asked about it" is probably more the question. In terms of the question the member put that if we had built all our KiwiBuild houses would our social housing register be low I'd just like to take this opportunity to explain to the committee that for those people who are in social housing it's not a question of "Will I buy a house today or will I register for social housing?" because they're two completely different pools—one doesn't affect the other. In terms of what we need to do to help people into affordable homeownership that is something that a Government has been committed to for the first time in a generation. When it comes to public housing what we have to be doing is adding to the housing stock for that. We will not continue the practice of the previous Government that when they weren't reducing State house numbers by selling them off any time it was added to was largely through buy-ins. That is not our policy. Our policy is to build to add to the housing stock and to make sure that we are doing our bit to address the housing crisis. We sometimes hear criticism that we have continued selling off. Well I think the figures speak for themselves. Here and there there has to be a property transition but what we've seen is something like 190 houses sold in the time since we have come into Government versus about 1500 that the previous Government sold off. These are entirely different propositions and entirely different ways of dealing with it. We will always make sure that we have housing stock that is fit for purpose and fit for our clients and there will always be—and always has been—everyday transactions within the housing portfolio. What you will not see from our Government is the mass sell-off of State houses. If the member wants to talk about what is driving that State house waiting list it is not only the selling off but the failure of the previous Government to build any houses over nine years. They finished Government with 1500 fewer houses than they started with. If they'd built at even our minimum level of 1600 houses a year we would have had 15000 more public houses in New Zealand. So if any member wants to have a conversation about why we have had an increase in our public housing register I'm happy to have that conversation. I can also tell that member from being in an electorate office and being an electorate MP that we no longer have tenants too scared to come and put themselves on the register—people who might be overcrowding into a house with other tenants."