Mackey Moana: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Mackey Moana: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:665;Page:12795] 
MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Chair. Tena tatou e te Whare i roto i Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori. Tena koutou tena koutou tena tatou katoa. I am happy to stand and take a call on the estimates for housing although it must be said that this year’s budget for housing was underwhelming to say the least. I am very pleased to have the Minister of Housing in the chair. The duration of my speech is roughly the length of time that he allowed himself to be questioned before the Social Services Committee at estimates this year. Guarded by the very good chairpersonship of Katrina Shanks the Minister of Housing spent most of his time recounting stuff he could see on the Housing New Zealand Corporation website and answering questions as slowly as was physically possible in order to chew up the time so that he did not have to face questioning of his appropriation from members of the Opposition. I have 5 minutes—well I have 4½ minutes now—and I want to try to make sure that we get an adequate look at this appropriation. We did not get one at the select committee this year which was a shame. 
The first thing we look at is State housing. Last year the Minister Phil Heatley made such a song and dance about this issue. He said he was going to fix it. He leapt up and down; we enjoyed the demonstrations in Parliament every single week. Where has that gone? All the money for new State houses has gone. In fact the Housing New Zealand Corporation has been told that it will have to find savings in its baseline appropriation in order to fund new housing and maintenance. I am pleased that the Minister seems to think he has fixed the housing problem in New Zealand in 1 year. The recession is over for him but I say to the Minister that the recession is not over for the 11000 families sitting on the Housing New Zealand Corporation waiting list right now—11000 families. The Minister has come up with an options and advice service. It appears that the main thrust of the options and advice service is to get people off the Housing New Zealand Corporation waiting list and push them into the private sector whether or not they can afford it. 
I have spoken to emergency accommodation providers like Monte Cecilia Housing Trust. They tell me that options and advice clients are turning up on their doorstep and they have lost everything. They have lost everything. They were put into accommodation they could not sustain they were not told that they might be eligible for a Housing New Zealand Corporation home and they ended up losing all their Work and Income entitlements in terms of advances. They lost their money because they had to leave a property that they could not afford. I asked this Minister why he does not just do a needs assessment for every person who comes into the Housing New Zealand Corporation. Those who are category C and D can be put through options and advice—fair enough—and those who are category A and B and who will probably get a State house can be put through that process. He refuses to do that. The only thing I can draw from that is that options and advice is all about keeping people off waiting lists. 
We also have a reconfiguration of State housing. The Minister has identified 20000 State houses that he thinks can be reconfigured which means sold. People from the community housing sector tell me that they believe that the Minister expects them to pick it up. A lot of them have said to me that he is in la-la land if he thinks they can afford to pick up 20000 State houses off the Government. But I am pleased to know that the Minister has promised that there will be absolutely no net reduction in State housing in New Zealand. 
This Minister has actually done nothing to address the issue of supply of housing in New Zealand. The fact is that he is building far fewer State houses than the former Labour Government did every single year yet the demand is growing. He has done nothing for affordable housing. Labour set up a shared equity pilot for 2 years. Of those 24 months 20 months were under that Minister Phil Heatley. What did he tell the Housing New Zealand Corporation? He told it not to promote the pilot and not to tell people it exists. At the end of the pilot he said he was getting rid of it because of the low uptake. Well the low uptake was probably because the Housing New Zealand Corporation was told not to tell New Zealanders that it was there. The shared equity scheme is gone. The Gateway Housing scheme that we have been promised since the election has yet to eventuate; it got no funding in this year’s Budget. The Minister has done nothing for affordable housing. 
We have been privy to wonderful displays of emotion and theatre in the House regarding State housing but the reality is that more and more people are coming through our offices unhappy with Housing New Zealand Corporation. There are Housing New Zealand Corporation staff with 1000 cases. There are tenancy managers with 1000 cases. I say to the Minister that that is not good enough. That does not mean that that front-line service is adequately serving the public as it should be. 
On the issue of homelessness the Minister has continued to block a select committee inquiry into homelessness that Labour has been calling for that the Coalition to End Homelessness has been calling for and that the sector has been calling for. He thinks it is OK that during the Rugby World Cup boarding-house tenants will be kicked out of their homes. I say to the Minister that it is not good enough.