Twyford PhilPHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū): I want to talk about the issue of Steven Joyce's $92 million tweet. It has gone down in history as probably the most expensive tweet that has ever been made. It has pioneered a whole new way of delivering the Budget for the Government and I am sure the Minister of Finance would agree it is a much more efficient way of announcing Government finance policy than we have seen from this Government at all in the last 8 years.It was an extraordinary backflip by the Government after 8 years of treating Housing New Zealand as some kind of cash cow. It has made a net withdrawal from our public housing organisation of more than $560 million that is when you net out the capital contributions against the dividends—more than half a billion dollars in net taken out of our State housing organisation in the middle of a housing crisis. Day after day Bill English has stood up in this House and said Well the dividend's very important because it's how we impose kind of financial discipline on Housing New Zealand." but that discipline went out the window. In a fit of pique on a Sunday afternoon Steven Joyce decided to tweet that the Government would no longer be extracting dividends from Housing New Zealand. That was a $92 million announcement made by Steven Joyce in a tweet and that speaks volumes about this Government's housing policy. It is completely at sea. It is making it up as it goes along. You can see the panic in those members' eyes.Paula Bennett announces a policy on the eve of the Budget to offer people $5000 to leave town and Bill English does not even know about it; nor does the Prime Minister. It is the day before the Budget. This is what is going on with the Government's housing policy. A few days later Paula Bennett announces that Government officials have gone out with the Salvation Army to knock on the car doors of homeless people at Bruce Pulman Park in South Auckland—the so-called flying squads which never existed. They have gone down in history with the unicorns and all manner of other mythical creatures—the Government's homelessness flying squads. But this is what is happening with the housing crisis and this Government's panicked response to it. It is desperate. It is making it up as it goes along. It is a comedy of errors. It would be funny if the consequences of this Government's negligence were not so tragic in the effects that they are having on the people of this country.I want to say something about what I thought was one of the most shocking stories that the media covered over the last 4 weeks: the way that the Government has been paying thousands of dollars a week to one of the worst slum landlords in South Auckland and referring desperate families to this slum landlord. The Government is shelling out in bond and advanced rent and weekly rent to this woman called Debbie Iskandar who had at least 10 properties in the South Auckland suburb of Manurewa. She was putting people into unconsented garages. There were entire families living in unconsented garages. There were entire families crammed into single rooms in shared houses and for that privilege people were paying up to $500 a week in rent. The Government was condoning this and actually referring these desperate people to go and live in unconsented garages and single rooms with no toilet facilities no bathroom facilities no kitchen facilities.This illustrates how bad the housing crisis has got and how absolutely morally and politically bankrupt this Government's response to the housing crisis is—that it is referring people to the worst slum landlords. It is a total abdication of the Government's responsibility to treat people with decency and to put a decent roof over people's heads. It shows the piecemeal tinkering that epitomises this Government's housing policy.A few weeks ago Paula Bennett announced $41 million over 4 years for emergency housing. Actually you know we did not criticise her for that. Good on her for making some contribution. But she was forced to come to this House within a few days and acknowledge that that financial commitment would not provide a single new bed; it would only fund the existing houses."