Woods MeganDr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram): It is a pleasure to take a call on this part because I would like to speak to my amendment to the amendment which Chris Hipkins foreshadowed in his contribution to the Committee. Before I do that I would like to join other colleagues in congratulating Phil Twyford on bringing amendments to the Committee that mean that we can in this bill debate some real issues of substance around housing. They are things that might actually add to the debate and like other members I would like to thank the National Government for giving us this extended and protracted period to debate housing in this Chamber because it is something that we welcome. My amendment is to proposed new Part 5B—new clause 50T(2). What it does according to subsection (2) is state: Within six months of the completion of the plan required under subsection (1) the Minister must present a copy of the approved plan to the House of Representatives." My amendment to that inserts after subsection (1) "but not later than 1 March 2017". So it is not good enough under this amendment that Phil Twyford has brought forward for the Minister to sit back and do what he has done for the last 8 years which is precisely nothing to address the issues of housing affordability—so there is then an onus on the Minister to actually do something. Until we change the Government later next year we have to have legislative requirements to get this Government to actually do something. Mr Ngaro gave a contribution in which he told us: "Don't worry we're doing it anyway." Nobody believes that. People can look around they can look at the gold medal that New Zealand won in terms of housing affordability just today and see that housing affordability is at a crisis point in New Zealand. Too many New Zealanders are being shut out of the Kiwi Dream and if Mr Ngaro thinks that the National Government is currently doing enough then I think it is absolutely critical that we have this debate and expose the Government for the do-nothing Government that it is on the issue of housing affordability. If the people on the opposite benches think what they are doing is adequate to address the issues we have around housing affordability it is no wonder that we are in this muddle and that we have too many New Zealanders shut out of housing affordability. So the amendment we are putting forward would require this Government to do something. This Government which has had 8 years in office has been presiding over an escalating problem. So a plan would have to be produced. That would be a first because what we are learning every time one of the few Government members do get on their feet and take a call—and I do commend the Government members who actually have got on their feet and taken a call—is that more and more the layers of the onion are being peeled back to reveal just how much this Government does not understand the problem that New Zealand is facing here. What is revealed every time one of the Government members speaks is the lack of ability to grasp the real problem. The real problem is that there are not enough houses being built at an affordable price. It is the Labour Party that has come up with a plan to do that. We are going to put a plan in place we are going to put a target in place and we are going to build those houses. That brings me also to another provision in this amendment that I would like to speak to and that is new clause 50T(3) where the Minister must report to this Parliament on progress. What we have learnt from the last 8 years is that some accountabilities have to be put in place. It is not good enough for a Government to just sit back do nothing and then claim as Mr Ngaro said "Don't worry help is already on the way." Well that is absolute codswallop. What is more the people of New Zealand absolutely do not buy that this Government is doing anything to address the issue of housing affordability. It has taken a comprehensive plan from Labour. We will get the chance to debate over the course of today and tonight and possibly tomorrow what that comprehensive plan looks like. This Government needs to see up close what real action on housing looks like."