3. Housing New Zealand—Statement of Performance Expectations and Financial PositionPHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū) to the Minister responsible for HNZCHousing New Zealand—Statement of Performance Expectations and Financial Position3. PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū) to the Minister responsible for HNZC: What changes if any did he make to Housing New Zealand's draft Statement of Performance Expectations received by his office on 20 May 2016 and why has the statement still not been published 5 months later?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister responsible for HNZC): I sought two changes to the statement. First in view of increasing demands on Housing New Zealand (HNZ) arising from the accelerated building programme I decided that HNZ should retain the proceeds from the potential transfer of properties in Tauranga. Secondly I asked HNZ to reconsider its planned housing divestments particularly in provincial areas in light of stronger demand for social and emergency housing in those areas. Publication of the statement has been affected by these changes and by the start of a new chief executive in September.Phil Twyford: Is it not pure incompetence to have driven a $20 billion organisation to the brink of insolvency and worse to have asset-stripped the very agency that should be leading the Government's response to the homelessness crisis?Hon BILL ENGLISH: As I said before the media have withdrawn and corrected the story that said Housing New Zealand was in their words going broke". I am not surprised the Opposition is persisting with it because it seems to have almost no understanding whatsoever of the financial situation of Housing New Zealand which has $20 billion worth of assets $4 billion worth of debt and not much short of a billion dollars in cash flow. It is in fine shape and I think what is really bothering the member is that Housing New Zealand is embarking on large-scale housing development which we require them to do competently.Phil Twyford: Did Treasury and Housing New Zealand officials tell him last year that Housing New Zealand lacked the capital to service its debt and why was he saying as recently as 31 May that Housing New Zealand had all the money it needed?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Because it does.Phil Twyford: It clearly doesn't.Hon BILL ENGLISH: Well it clearly does because it is signing off major developments like the Northcote development of a thousand new houses quite recently with more in the pipeline. So the member does not need to be concerned about the state of Housing New Zealand's finances and I am sure the member is concerned that the Government is committed to supporting them on large-scale housing redevelopment.Phil Twyford: Can he confirm that his musings about building 30000 houses on what is now State housing land is not actually an affordable housing programme—it is just a desperate sell-off of land and housing to try to stop Housing New Zealand from going bankrupt?Hon BILL ENGLISH: No that is a ridiculous assertion about Housing New Zealand but I know that will not stop the member making it—vigorously no doubt for as long as he thinks anyone might be listening but it is just verging on stupid actually. [Interruption] Mr SPEAKER: Order! I want substantially less interjection from my right-hand side.Phil Twyford: Is he deliberately sabotaging Housing New Zealand's balance sheet asset-stripping it and running it into the ground in order to justify selling off even more land and State housing?Hon BILL ENGLISH: That is the reason why Labour is such a fiscal risk because that is its description of sound financial management. The fact is that Housing New Zealand's large-scale building programme is financed ultimately by people working in the rain all last week paying their PAYE and giving us their GST on their milk from the supermarket. That is why we are going to be demanding of Housing New Zealand to ensure it has well-thought-through development plans and is very careful about how much of the taxpayers' money it is going to deploy in large-scale property development which is in itself quite risky. The member can call that sabotaging the balance sheet; we call it doing the job properly.Phil Twyford: I seek the leave of the House to table the advice from Treasury and Housing New Zealand officials in which they say that Housing New Zealand is at risk of being unable to service its debts.Mr SPEAKER: I just need to know where the member sourced that Treasury advice.Phil Twyford: Under the Official Information Act (OIA).Mr SPEAKER: On that basis I will put the leave. Leave is sought to table that particular OIA response. Is there any objection to it being tabled? There is none. It can be tabled.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Phil Twyford: Why does he not instead of sabotaging Housing New Zealand and asset-stripping its balance sheet do what Labour would do and run Housing New Zealand as a public service with one job: putting a decent roof over the heads of Kiwis who need it?Hon BILL ENGLISH: We have an example of how Labour would like to run housing and that is how it did it last time it was in Government. It let it run fat with loose cash it stopped maintaining the houses so that it would have some cash to build some new ones and we have spent 8 years having to backfill the damage sort out the arrogance and complacency—[Interruption] Mr SPEAKER: Order! There is little point in carrying on with the amount of interjection coming."