10. Question No. 10—Pacific PeoplesBARBARA EDMONDS (Labour—Mana) to the Minister for Pacific PeoplesQuestion No. 10—Pacific Peoples10. BARBARA EDMONDS (Labour—Mana) to the Minister for Pacific Peoples: What recent announcement has the Government made about supporting Pacific peoples and home ownership?Hon AUPITO WILLIAM SIO (Minister for Pacific Peoples): Last month as part of Budget 2022 I announced the Government's Pacific package of $196 million. That includes a housing programme to build up to 300 homes over the next 10 years for Pacific families in Porirua East with initial funding of $49 million in the forecast period. This Government's commitment to homeownership for Pacific families will see it deliver on more affordable and sustainable housing for Pacific families by partnering with local iwi and Ngati Toa and a key Pacific housing provider in the Porirua area by Pacific and for Pacific families. Over the next year the Central Pacific Collective Ngati Toa in consultation with Kāinga Ora the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and Treasury will ensure a comprehensive business case meets the criteria of the Government's Pacific wellbeing approach.Barbara Edmonds: Is this the first example of iwi and Pasifika working together for Pasifika homeownership?Hon AUPITO WILLIAM SIO: Yes. This is the first partnership between Pacific peoples and iwi to build affordable homes for Pacific families but certainly not the last. We know that Pacific communities want to own their own homes and this is the reason why in Budget 2022 we plan to partner with Ngati Toa and the Central Pacific Collective in Porirua to build these homes dedicated to Pacific families in Porirua East. These 300 homes will be built over the next 10 years through Our Whare Our Fale an innovative Pasifika housing initiative that will be developed with Ngati Toa and delivered by the Central Pacific Collective and this Government. The chair of the Central Pacific Collective said that Pasefika people experience inequitable outcomes across nearly every measure. Providing high-quality affordable housing will improve wellbeing and help Pasefika people to build inter-generational wealth and independence."Barbara Edmonds: Why is homeownership so important to Pacific families?Hon AUPITO WILLIAM SIO: A Salvation Army report in October 2019 called the "Housing Crisis in Aotearoa Facing Pasifika People in Aotearoa" said that more than 70 percent of Pacific people in Auckland were renting. In another report called "Housing in Aotearoa: 2020" it shows that in 2018 Māori and Pacific peoples were less likely to own their own home or hold it in a family trust than any other ethnic group and were also more likely to live in public housing. That same report concluded that the decline in homeownership has occurred unevenly since the 1990s with greater falls for Māori and Pacific peoples and in the Auckland region where the largest number of Pacific people live. Social housing has allowed our families to have a roof over their head but this generation wants to own that roof and build intergenerational wealth for them and their children as the generation before them had done. We cannot create intergenerational wealth through social housing and why this initial project partnering with Ngati Toa and the Central Pacific Collective is so critical. We are literally building the template for homeownership for Pacific families for generations to come by working with iwi and starting in Porirua East. I want to assure everyone in the House that this is just the beginning of a valued partnership between iwi Pacific peoples Government and affordable housing for our families. I also want to acknowledge and thank the arohatanga and the manaakitanga of Ngati Toa for supporting Pacific aspirations."