SpeechGENERAL DEBATEHon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for Building and Housing): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. It is timely today that we take head-on the debate on housing and set out our plan for addressing the long-term issues over supply over affordability and over homeownership. We have a well-researched and consistent plan that is not based on prejudice that is not based on sound bites but will make a material difference for those Kiwi families wanting to get access to and be able to own a good quality Kiwi home. Secondly I want to highlight just how much is happening because Opposition members claimed yesterday that nothing was happening and nothing was being built which could not be further from the truth and shows just how out of touch Labour is. Talk to anybody in the building industry and they are run off their feet. Building activity in Auckland and across the country is at an all-time high and at a level a third higher—a third higher—than what it was at a peak more than 10 years ago. We have had growth of 26 percent in building activity over the last year. That is on top of 22 percent the previous year and 30 percent the year before that. I challenge members opposite to tell me any 5-year period when there has been stronger house-building activity growth than in the last 5 years. Tell me any 5-year period when there has been greater growth in residential building activity. They will not find it because it does not exist. That exposes how shallow the Opposition's KiwiBuild policy is. Just having the Government build the houses would only displace the building activity that is actually growing at record rates in the private sector. It is interesting to note that prior to the last election Labour said it reckoned that KiwiBuild in its first year could build 500 houses. It reckoned that in its second year it would be able to get an extra 2200 and it said that in its third year it would be able to ramp it up to 3300 houses. That is an extra 6000 houses over the term of this Parliament and that was its big bold policy. Well actually we are going to build more than 20000 additional houses over this term of Parliament. The truth is that that target has already been exceeded. What is needed is getting the regulatory framework right and I could spend all of this general debate going through the planning law changes the changes in tax laws the emergency housing initiative the Resource Management Act reforms the brightline test the removal of tariffs on building products the special housing areas that now number more than 210 the fast-track plan process in both Auckland and Christchurch that is due to be completed in the next few months—Phil Twyford: Compluted"?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: —and the changes in development contributions. I draw Mr Twyford's attention to the law change made by this Parliament which he voted against in respect of infrastructure agreements that he has now come up with as his bright new idea. I draw attention to the KiwiSaver HomeStart scheme and to the residential tenancy laws that have just come into effect. Labour has been all over the paddock. Remember when those members wanted a capital gains tax? Now they do not. Remember when they said the metropolitan urban limit had nothing to do with the problem? Now they say it has everything to do with the problem. Remember when Phil Twyford said he supported State houses being transferred to community housing providers but then opposed it? Remember when he came out and he said that he was opposed to loan-to-value ratios (LVRs) and then demanded LVRs? Remember all those contradictions?This Government has a plan for housing that is working and that is why there is a record level of building activity. That is why we have got work for an urban development authority. That is why we are looking to reform the Unit Titles Act."