O'Rourke DenisDENIS O'ROURKE (NZ First): I was very surprised that the Minister for Building and Housing when he spoke took so much of his speech to pat himself on the back because of this particular proposal this particular development. [Interruption] He did. He spent a good part of his speech patting himself on the back as though he was entitled to take credit for it and nothing could be further from the truth. In fact I was quite offended by his comments because this proposal has never formed any part of the Government's housing plans in any respect whatsoever. In fact what actually happened was that the Riccarton Racecourse board initiated the discussions—and no doubt had discussions with various parties including the Minister—and yet Joanne Hayes gets up to say to us: Well because of that it was Nick Smith's idea." That is simply not true. It is not true. It was not Nick Smith's idea. He had to be involved simply because legislation was necessary. The truth is that the Riccarton Racecourse board initiated this and then went to the Christchurch City Council to develop a local bill. To prove that I was written to—as other MPs would have been—by the city council. The letter was dated 9 September 2015 and it said this: "I write formally to notify you under clause 4(1) of Appendix C of the Standing Orders of Parliament of the intention of the Christchurch City Council to promote a local bill into Parliament called the Riccarton Racecourse Bill (the Bill). (2) The objectives of this Bill are to (a) identify part of Riccarton Racecourse to be available for housing development …". That is the truth of the matter. The truth of the matter is that it was not the Minister's idea at all; it was the idea that came from the Riccarton Racecourse itself. It had discussions with various parties but it was actually the Christchurch City Council that proposed and has put this piece of legislation forward. Yes the Minister had to get involved because the legislation was necessary and that is why we are now looking at these two bills. The point I do want to make is that while he was inaccurately claiming credit for this particular piece of legislation and this particular proposal for the development of that racecourse at the same time his Government has failed to actually provide anything like an adequate plan for housing in New Zealand; nor has it done anything about immigration which has greatly exacerbated that situation. It has built only half of the houses required especially in Auckland and we are therefore finding people living in cars and garages and being provided with motels at great expense to the taxpayer. As far as Christchurch is concerned the reality there for most of the new housing that has gone up in Christchurch in recent times is that the spending has come from two places. One is from insurance which is the lion's share of the funding and the projects for housing in Christchurch and the other is the Earthquake Commission (EQC) which is a Government fund for disaster relief and replacement of infrastructure and so on—nothing to do with this Minister or the Government's housing plans. Now that I have got that off my chest I can move on to the bills themselves. I did want to say this in particular: New Zealand First is particularly pleased with these bills and we want to thank the Riccarton Racecourse board and also the Christchurch City Council for promoting the bills. They will make a valuable—small but valuable—contribution to housing in Christchurch. Riccarton Racecourse is a very important piece of land. In fact it is an institution in Christchurch and in Canterbury but the land that is required for racing will still be there and people will still be able to enjoy that. There are over 120 hectares and only 40 hectares of that will actually be developed for housing—as I have said a very welcome relatively small but very important contribution to the need for housing in Christchurch where new homes are certainly in demand. There will also be a significant area of the land set aside for green open space and that is also very important. So you get three advantages: retention of the racecourse new housing and some open space. Given that it is a pretty positive proposal and a very positive development. The key purpose of these bills is to provide for both affordable and market housing in Christchurch. For those houses that are to be set aside for affordable housing the price is to be a base of $450000. That is affordable in today's markets and that is going to be very welcome indeed. Of those 600 homes 30 percent will be targeted to be in the affordable home category. As I have said in previous speeches on this New Zealand First would have liked to see that at 50 percent as a minimum but having said that 30 percent is still a valuable contribution and is entirely supportable as far as we are concerned. The methodology is that the Riccarton Racecourse board will provide a development scheme meeting all of the minimum specified requirements in the bills and that will be submitted to the Minister for final approval. It will mean at least 180 affordable homes and they will be very very welcome in Christchurch city. I also wanted to say this about that situation in Christchurch. Immediately after the initial earthquakes in 2010 and especially 2011 there was an exodus of people away from Christchurch. In fact 16600 people left in those years immediately after the worst of the earthquakes occurred simply because their houses had been damaged or were red-zoned or uninhabitable and there were not enough houses for all of the people in Christchurch to live in. So it is no surprise that that number of people left. That situation in more recent years has been reversed and we are still seeing an increase of about 5000 people per year in the Christchurch population. That is because as I said of the effect of the investment from insurance moneys and from EQC in building homes. Very little if any of that was actually due to any Government policy as far as housing development is concerned so it is most inappropriate that the Government should use these bills to say it has done such a wonderful job. The opposite is the case. The Government has done next to nothing. In fact after the earthquakes it even refused to put a cap on rents so they skyrocketed. They skyrocketed and yet Scott Simpson had the temerity to tell us in this House a few minutes ago that in recent years there has been a 5 percent reduction in rents. Well big deal. Before that there had been years and years of huge increases in rents because the Government did not do anything about it. That is the truth of that situation Mr Simpson. Finally I would like to say this. The influx of people now beginning to occur in Christchurch and actually in other places is driven not only by the history that I have just outlined but also as a result of Government inaction about housing across the country—especially of course in Auckland because of the chronic housing crisis that has now developed there because of the utter mess this Government has made of housing policy in New Zealand. These houses spoken of in these bills are needed but many many more will be needed as well because of the flight from Auckland because of house prices there because of the whole situation concerning the deficit of houses in New Zealand and especially because of the gross neglect by this Government not only of housing development but also of social housing in New Zealand. With those facts specifically in mind it is very important that somebody does something about housing in this country and this small but important project will make a contribution that is valued. It will be valued by Christchurch people and is certainly valued by New Zealand First. For that reason we will have no hesitation in supporting these bills."