Salesa JennyJENNY SALESA (Labour—Manukau East): Kia orana koutou katoatoa. Happy Cook Islands Language Week. Thank you so much for this call on the appropriations bill as it deals with the social development and housing sector. The areas that I would like to talk about—and I can see that the time is going to run away on me—are homelessness waiting lists for social housing boarding houses and emergency housing.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.JENNY SALESA: Kia orana koutou katoatoa and thank you Mr Chair for this opportunity to speak on the Appropriation (2017/18 Estimates) Bill as it relates to social development and the housing sector. But before I do may I just take a moment to congratulate Jacinda Ardern the new leader of the Labour Party as well as Kelvin Davis our new deputy leader. I look forward to working under both of them for a better and a fairer New Zealand.This National Government claims that it is working to build a better future for New Zealand and the Associate Minister for Social Housing the Hon Alfred Ngaro earlier on stated that it is his intention to focus on addressing the challenges of housing and delivering for all New Zealanders. Well I can tell you that right now this National Government is not delivering for all children and for all families in Manukau East in South Auckland. This Government's policies and its Budget is not working for all of our children and families in South Auckland and as it relates to this bill I would like to talk about homelessness waiting lists for social housing boarding houses and emergency housing.I will start with homelessness. We know that homelessness is a big issue for New Zealand. The University of Otago tells us that we have over 41000 people who are homeless. But can I talk about my office. When I became a member of Parliament 3 years ago we were dealing with approximately 20 families who were homeless in any one week. But today only 3 years on that number has tripled. We are dealing now with 60 homeless families. Just today three homeless families came through my office and I will give you just one example of one particular family.Both parents are working full time. The father works for 60 hours a week. The mother works too. They have three children. They do not qualify for assistance from the Government and what this family has done is they have put their three kids with relatives; they are couch surfing while the parents are living in a car. This is not a situation that anyone in this Chamber should be proud of—the fact that we have too many of our families who are homeless and cannot afford the rent.One of the reports that the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment did just a few months ago was the housing affordability measure. According to the Government's own report the least affordable area in this country is Manukau ward which is the area that I cover in Manukau as well as Aupito William Sio in Māngere. This is one of the most socio-economically deprived places right now in Aotearoa New Zealand. How can we be proud of that?When this Government in its Budget says that it is putting aside millions and millions for emergency housing putting our families into motels I can tell you that in Manukau ward we have over 110000 people who are already living in overcrowded conditions and when we put families into emergency accommodation that usually means motels. That usually means that you have four to six and sometimes more from one family living in an overcrowded room for up to 3 months at a time. That is not something that anyone in this Chamber should be proud of and the fact that rent is so unaffordable and the fact that we are not building affordable houses for our families to move into but instead we are selling off our social houses and our State houses—that is also not something to be proud of.When we look at this report and it tells us that there are 3400 people who are priority A on the waiting list for social housing that is also not a number to be proud of. We know that there are over 5000 who are on the waiting list for social houses. But can I say this is a Budget that I do not support. We should be caring much more for our families. Thank you.Votes agreed to.