Ngaro Alfred: Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNgaro Alfred: Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 22 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12793. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ALFRED NGARO (National):It is a sad day when that member Rajen Prasad writes his own speech notes. I think he should stick to the notes given to him by his communications team. The only cynicism really is from that honourable member there—he is an honourable member—who was along with me on the Social Services Committee when we were hearing submissions on the Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill. We know that this bill is a short-term process in order to facilitate what we believe is an important part of the process to addressing these issues. This bill provides a short-term legislative tool that seeks to improve housing affordability by facilitating an increase in land and housing supply. There were 64 written submissions and there were 40 submissions that we heard as a select committee and we did hear the concerns. We heard from Local Government New Zealand and the Mayor of Tauranga Lawrence Yule came and spoke on behalf of all the territorial authorities.Hon Simon Bridges: He’s the mayor of Hawke’s Bay buddy.ALFRED NGARO: The Mayor of Hawke’s Bay; sorry I apologise.Hon Member: Hastings.ALFRED NGARO: Hastings. Oh well there you go. He is moving all the time. He is a very fluid mayor. Can I just read from the submissions because we want to deal with the facts and not just with assumptions.Dr Rajen Prasad: The member doesn’t write his own speeches so the member may as well read it.ALFRED NGARO: This is important and I would like that member to listen to this. Here are the key points that were brought out by Lawrence Yule when he spoke to theSocial Services Committee. This is what said: “The local government sector fully understands the rationale behind the Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill. We support many aspects of the Bill but there are key matters we diverge on—the principal matter we do not support is the ‘override’ provision proposed.” That is fair. It is fair to understand that. But let me just say that we heard that time and time again. The Opposition has continued to say that there was total opposition to the bill. Many said that they understand and support the intent of the bill and they understand the rationale of the bill but the devil is obviously in the detail.I want to go straight to the point that was raised by Lawrence Yule particularly in dealing with the override principle because it did cause some concern. We even heard from the Auckland Council which shared this concern. As a select committee we heard those concerns. However we also know that it is important to have a process that allows us the opportunity to act—we need to be able to act—when there is no ability to have an accord and when there is no agreement. That is what our communities are asking for—they are asking for action. So these are some of the amendments that the select committee has made. Some submitters were concerned about central government being able to intervene to speed up development if agreement cannot be reached with local councils. The Government wants to partner with councils but if agreements cannot be reached there must be a mechanism to streamline consenting and plan changes when these are also needed. The bill now includes the option of inserting a dispute resolution process into the Auckland Housing Accord. This option actually came from a number of the submitters. They said they did not like it but they knew it was there and that it was a principle of last resort. However if the provision is in there they asked for a clause to allow them to go to some form of arbitration or dispute resolution so they can ensure they come to some agreement.There are a number of things that are also very important. The Productivity Commission had identified that land supply is definitely one of the key issues and the honourable member Mr Prasad said of Auckland that many of us do not know what the issues involved with the purchasing and procurement of homes. Many of our families are in the very same situation. Housing can be made affordable by focusing on five key areas. We have heard the Opposition say that this bill does not allow us to actually realise affordability because it is not factored in there. But those who do understand construction and do understand consenting know that there is a multiplicity of different things you need to tackle at the same time and this has been evidenced by the Productivity Commission.There are five key areas. Land supply is one. The cost of materials is another. Also there is infrastructure productivity in the construction sector and compliance costs. At the moment for instance my taxi driver—his name is Rick—is purchasing a house over in Melbourne. He told me that to build there it is costing him around about $800 per square metre. Back here in New Zealand in Wellington it would cost him about $1700 to $1800 per square metre. That is the average cost. We know it is an issue. We know it is important. But there are five key areas that we are focusing on and that is what this bill is doing.Lastly I have been concerned about New Zealand First’s concern about what people are calling the “Chan ban”—this hatred against Asian people who have come here have become citizens and have wanted to be productive and contributing citizens to our society. Some have begun to say that this is about the pressure those people have put on the pricing and the purchasing of homes. But can I say that the BNZ survey shows that around 3 to 4 percent of house sales are to foreign buyers—3 to 4 percent. Barfoot and Thompson has also put the number of foreign buyers at around 4 percent. Can I also say that the honourable member Denis O’Rourke talked about the fact that we should banthese foreign buyers. Well the majority of those who purchase and are foreign are actually Australians so where does it end?This is an important bill. It is part of a suite of other things that we are doing. There is another piece of legislation coming through. This is the Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill. We are tackling five key areas. We believe that this bill will allow us to see not only land supply being more available but also the sales and cost of homes coming down. This is a good bill. I commend this bill to the House.