Twyford Phil: General DebateText is subject to correctionTwyford Phil: General Debate[Sitting date: 06 November 2013. Volume:694;Page:14412. Text is subject to correction.]PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū): And now back to the future. I have spent a bit of time in Canterbury lately and I am convinced that one of the great failings of this Government is the Canterbury rebuild. It has been a case of too slow too little and woefully lacking in execution. It has been 3 years since the first Christchurch earthquake—3 years—and the rebuild is only just beginning. That is unbelievable. Three years of waiting. The people of Canterbury have just endured their third winter since the earthquakes and too many people in Canterbury are putting up with a housing crisis that has seen them paying hundreds of dollars every week to rent a caravan or to squash a family into a sleepout or someone’s spare room. It is totally unacceptable.Rents are up 25 percent in Canterbury since December 2011. House prices are the highest and the most unaffordable in any city outside Auckland. The Government’s own officials say that up to 7400 people in Canterbury are officially homeless. Nick Smith and then Gerry Brownlee today got up in this House and said that there is no housing crisis in Canterbury; there is just a challenge. Well the challenge is for the people of Canterbury putting up with a Government that has demonstrated two massive blind spots when it comes to the Canterbury rebuild.The first blind spot has been Gerry Brownlee and Nick Smith’s oversight if you could call it that. It might be that affordable housing is a technicality for National. It might be that it is a minor matter for National but the Government has completely overlooked affordability when it comes to the rebuild. There are houses being built on the outskirts of the city on new greenfields land in developments like Wigram Skies and Prestons Road but few if any of them are affordable for ordinary Cantabrians. This is a huge gap in the rebuild and Labour will plug that gap. We will deliver 10000affordable starter homes for first-home buyers over 4 years—high-quality affordable homes for first-home buyers.The other big blind spot of this Government’s approach to the rebuild is that it is a lot better at demolition than it is at building. The “Human Wrecking Ball” Gerry Brownlee gave himself wartime powers to compulsorily acquire new land. He has used those powers mostly to demolish not to build. The great Lyndon Johnson once said that any jackass can kick down a barn but it takes a craftsman to build one. That says it all about Gerry Brownlee’s approach to the Christchurch rebuild. This is why the rebuild has been so slow—Gerry Brownlee thinks that demolition and hope is a rebuild plan. That is why Labour has announced the formation of the New Brighton Community Revitalisation Project. We will back the efforts of local residents in New Brighton. We will back the local business community. We will work with the council. We will consolidate the old retail area in New Brighton which has fallen on hard times and we will turn that community into a vibrant modern character beachside suburb with hundreds of new units of affordable housing.New Brighton is a microcosm of many other parts of Canterbury. It is a community that has been knocked around by the earthquakes. It has fantastic natural assets including an amazing beach. It is close to the Avon-Ōtākaro river precinct. What is missing is a Government prepared to roll up its sleeves and back the efforts of the local community. I cannot believe that this National Government has missed New Brighton as an opportunity to revitalise that community and help rebuild the kind of place where Cantabrians want to live to work and to play.Labour’s approach is creative. It is hands-on. We announced a package of announcements on the weekend including KiwiAssure and including the smart use of empty but habitable houses in the red zone. We promised 10000 affordable starter homes in Canterbury over 10 years and we will get behind the efforts of local people in New Brighton. We will work with the Christchurch City Council with the private sector and with the community to revitalise New Brighton. Thank you.