Sio William: Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSio William: Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 05 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13345. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Su’aWILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere): I would like to take a short call on this bill the Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill. I think that we on this side of the House are absolutely clear that there is a housing crisis and that it has an impact on our communities throughout the length and breadth of New Zealand. The Government has known about this housing crisis but I suspect that it has not worried about trying to address it. In the 5 years that this Government has been in office it has actually accelerated the housing crisis by attempting to sell off State houses and by gutting Housing New Zealand and removing the social focus of Housing New Zealand and when it approved a loan-to-value ratio of 20 percent it made it virtually impossible for families who want to buy their first home to be able to buy that first home.Currently we have families who are unable to secure proper rental properties because the prices of rental properties are high or because the quality of some private rental properties is some of the worst we have seen—not all but some. We now have a situation where even though a person might need a house and even though they mightbe living in garage or living in car if they trot up to Housing New Zealand they will not necessarily be able to access a house. Housing New Zealand will simply either recognise them as client A or client B; client A having priority and client B irrespective of whether they are living in a car or not simply would not be able to access a house.When I asked the Minister earlier about how many of these houses would be affordable and what the price of an affordable house is—which he envisages will arise from this bill—the Minister’s response was that that would be left to the market. Well let us look at the market. Currently if you are looking at a $200000 two-bedroom or three-bedroom bach in the rural areas out in the boondocks where there are no jobs where there are no Government services you would still have to front up with a $40000 deposit.Then the question is whether that person will be able to sustain that mortgage. If a person is on a median income of $20000 a year then there is a big question mark. If the house is in the city where some of the cheapest two- and three-bedroom houses are around $300000 $400000 or $500000 a person still has to front up with a $60000 to $90000 deposit and still has to be able to maintain that mortgage. The proposal to raise the loan-to-value ratio to 20 percent means they have to front up with a $60000 to $90000 deposit. But the median household income for some of our cities particularly in Manukau if I can use it as an example is $40000. The question is whether someone on $40000 is able to sustain a mortgage of $400000. There is a big question mark on that.But the appalling thing is that when the Minister says that the situation is left up to the market he reveals that this Government has not learnt the lesson that the market has failed. That is the reason why it keeps blaming the global financial crisis for the situation that we are in. The market has failed and that Minister and that Government have not learnt a single lesson from the mistakes of the past and they continue to peddle these ideas.This bill does not provide affordable housing. What it does is it enables the Government to control a council and it enables this Government to be able to allow for development that favours its mates and its friends. Simply allowing land to be freed up does not necessarily mean that people will be able to build affordable houses. In fact once the zoning of rural land is moved into residential that in itself will ensure that the price of that land will increase. This bill is not about affordable houses and anybody who believes that will also believe those lies.