Robertson Grant: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRobertson Grant: General Debate[Sitting date: 25 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11255. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central): There we have it. The Government’s solution to the housing crisis in Auckland is to give up. It is to give up and say: “We can’t solve the housing crisis in Auckland so we’re going to pay people five grand to get out.” Well newsflash Minister: all of those places you are sending people have State house waiting lists. Where are you going to put them Minister? The Government cannot wish the problem away write out a cheque for five grand and say: “We’ve solved the housing crisis.” That is an admission of defeat from a Government that is thoroughly out of ideas and out of touch.This morning I thought that maybe just maybe the Prime Minister had worked out what was happening in New Zealand. He told Paul Henry this morning that he slept like a baby. If by that he meant waking up every hour crying his eyes out then he was right because that is how he should be feeling about New Zealand today. He is like a less cool version of the Fonz who could never say the word “sorry”. He used to go “s-s-s”. He could not say “sorry”. John Key cannot say “crisis”. He just cannot get the word out. Well there is a housing crisis. Everyone in New Zealand knows it 75 percent of New Zealanders have come out and told the National Government that it is failing on housing and 61 percent of its own supporters have told the Government that it is failing on housing. And yet this Government will not open its eyes.We have the lowest homeownership rates in 65 years and there is a shortfall of 40000 houses in Auckland and all Nick Smith can give us is a cemetery and an exploding substation. It takes nine times—nine times—the income of a typical person to buy a home in Auckland. We see the crocodile tears on the other side of the House about homelessness. Well what would have been done had the Government not sold off 2676 State houses since it has been in office? And every single time that a Labour-led Government comes into office we have to make up for the National Party degrading social housing. There were 13000 homes sold in the 1990s and another few thousand have been sold under this Government. This Government has an appalling record on housing and is refusing to face up to what every New Zealander knows. After 8 years there is no one else to blame. It is the National Government’s fault. It has got to take responsibility instead of trying to look back to the past. Its members should be the ones fronting up to New Zealanders about what it has done.There might not be a fiscal deficit in tomorrow’s Budget but there will be a social deficit: people living in cars and garages people for whom it takes 6 years longer to get an operation than it used to mental health in crisis 300000 kids in poverty 144000 people unemployed. Anne Tolley might want to answer to the people of Gisborne where unemployment is now 10.9 percent. More than one in 10 peoplein Gisborne Mrs Tolley are out of work under this National Government. Around the country 87200 young people aged between 15 and 24 are not in employment not in education or not in training. That is the future of New Zealand that National is creating. That is the problem that a Labour-led Government will have to clean up because this Government is letting a generation down.There are four things that should be in the Budget tomorrow and one of them is very simple—Jonathan Coleman will get this. Three words Mr Coleman: build more homes—build more homes. That is what this Budget should be focusing on. We should also be funding health properly to keep up with the demographic pressures not playing around with the numbers—not denying reality as Dr Coleman would do. We need a real commitment in this country to a free education system: the bedrock of opportunity. Parents are facing more and more costs. Tertiary students are in more and more debt. We need to invest in decent work opportunities. Wherever you live in New Zealand there should be the chance to earn a good living and raise your family.One more thing: should we not see a Budget where everybody pays their fair share? Like a lot of New Zealanders we on this side of the House are sick of the Government standing up for the tax evaders and the tax avoiders. It is time for every New Zealander to pay their fair share so that every New Zealander gets a fair go. This Government is out of touch. It is arrogant. What New Zealanders need in this Budget is hope and opportunity and that is what the Labour Party stands for.