Street Maryan: Budget Debate 
Street Maryan: Budget Debate 
[Volume:647;Page:16570] 
Hon MARYAN STREET (Minister for ACC) 
: 
 I would like to speak in this Budget debate about the vision that Labour has for New Zealand for the next 10 or 15 years because this is the balanced Budget that allows after years of prudent and careful management of good times for the Government to invest in the things that are important to Labour and to the majority of New Zealanders—that is upward economic growth including the provision of health and education services and at the same time being able to ensure that the tax cuts in the Budget are appropriate are manageable are meaningful and are in the end sustainable. I would like to talk about the vision we have for a future of New Zealand that goes way beyond simply the carping mantras that we hear from the Opposition. 
I would like to talk first about housing and about the things we are moving along in housing particularly to address the issue of affordable homes. Budget 2008 includes significant investment in affordable housing and that reflects a wide-ranging plan of action with considerable innovation in it unlike the views we hear so frequently from the Opposition. We have some innovation we have some ideas and we have some enduring balance to our Budgets which the Opposition cannot deny. The fact that those members do not have such vision and do not have such balance in any of their statements to date indicates that they are neither fit to govern nor competent to deliver the kind of Budget that is good for the times. 
New capital spending of $37.8 million over 3 years is set aside in this Budget for the first phase of the Hobsonville development. We anticipate that this development will generate some net revenue to the Crown but more important the development which will be undertaken in several phases uses Crown land to create up to 500 affordable houses and up to 500 State houses as part of a wider project that will set a benchmark for sustainable urban development. The project also gains additional operating funding of $5.1 million over 4 years. 
As housing Minister there is another thing I am particularly proud of in this Budget. I wish to again pay tribute to the Green Party for its contribution in this respect. It is to do with the additional funding that will go into insulating the remaining 21000 State houses that were designed and built before 1978—before insulation standards became mandatory. This new time frame because of this funding secured by the Green Party in its bid will mean that in the next 5 years we will be doubling the pace of the insulation of State houses. I have visited State houses that are not adequate for current times. The ongoing work stream to improve the insulation and retrofitting of these houses is to be sped up so that 21000 of these remaining State houses or about that number will be properly retrofitted in the next 5 years. The retrofitting will include underfloor insulation ceiling insulation draught-stopping and a whole range of measures that will provide immediate benefits not only in health and personal welfare terms to those houses but also in efficiencies that will provide them with savings in power bills. There is no doubt about that. We are setting about to deliver improved services to these houses as of 1 July. 
Another initiative in this Budget that I wish to draw to the attention of the House is the shared-equity pilot I announced just before the Budget. Budget 2008 funds a 2-year shared-equity pilot that will assist between 500 and 700 households into starter homes. In the concerns that we have had around affordable housing we have never as a Labour Party resiled from the dream of New Zealanders to own their own homes. We know that in the last 5 years the price of houses has increased by 80 percent. No Government would have been able to keep pace with that kind of increase yet this Labour-led Government has increased incomes to households by some 25 percent in real terms. In addition we are now making available as of 1 July a shared-equity pilot that will allow first-home buyers the best chance to get into their first home. 
The shared-equity pilot which I am proud of has been targeted and tailored. The reason it has been targeted is that there are five areas in particular in New Zealand that are extremely expensive for people to live in. Those areas are Auckland Wellington Christchurch Nelson and Queenstown. We have sensibly tailored the shared-equity pilot to those areas. Yesterday Nick Smith was at some pains to say that this would not address the issue of interest rates in Nelson. The shared-equity pilot was never designed to address interest rates. It is designed to provide an interest-free loan for a portion of the cost of a first home. In that sense it addresses interest rates because it deals only with an interest-free component which it makes available to first-home buyers. 
In the Nelson area there is a cap on the house price of $240000. When this was first announced Dr Smith was very keen to point out that there were no houses of that price in Nelson. Unfortunately he had not read the most recent property magazines in Nelson nor had he read the  
New Zealand Herald 
 where the intrepid reporter had actually gone on to a real estate website to discover that there were 60 properties within that housing cap in the Nelson area. 
Hon Member 
: 60? 
Hon MARYAN STREET 
: Yes 60 properties. I was about to say to the reporter from the  
Nelson Mail 
: “Yes this won’t buy you a house in Princes Drive.” Anybody who knows Nelson will know that it is that drive on the crest of the hill that looks down to the port and back to the city. It is a wonderful spot. The thing that is really important is that I was prepared to say that that initiative will not buy a house in Princes Drive and I opened up the latest property magazine and what did I find? I found a house in Princes Drive. The ad states: “Three bedrooms immaculate condition city views large sun deck $235000.” Ten percent of that would be interest-free to a first-home buyer who could raise a 5 percent deposit. 
That is the kind of initiative that will deliver to people in Nelson. That is part of our ideas our initiatives our plan and our coherent strategy to address the issue of affordable housing. That remains one of the most important things in this balanced forward-looking futuristic Budget.