Mackey Moana: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMackey Moana: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 31 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:12157. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MOANA MACKEY (Labour):One question forJami-Lee Ross: how many of those 39000 houses are going to be affordable? Not one. Not a single house—not a single house. National’s policy is to build 39000 “McMansions” that no one will be able to get into. First-home owners will be locked out of that market. That is National’s approach to affordable housing—affordable mansions for people who can buy them without any other support apart from maybe their families who can put their houses up as collateral. That is not a solution.Everything the National members have mentioned in this housing debate has failed spectacularly overseas. But the reality is that they do not care. They do not care that first-home owners are struggling to get into their first house in New Zealand. They do not care and that is why they have no intention of doing anything about it. Well Labour will. I say to Mr Ross: keep repeating the Labour Party policies over and over again likehe did in that speech because New Zealanders love them. New Zealanders want to see a Government that is going to take housing affordability seriously and Labour will. There will be 10000 affordable homes a year—that is 10000 young couples and young families getting on to the housing ladder the homeownership ladder in this country. That is a massive step forward for young families who are currently struggling and who are shut out of the housing market particularly in areas like Auckland where housing inaffordability is on a par with cities like New York. That is a policy that is actually going to make a difference unlike the rhetoric from over there which was a panicked reaction.When Labour released an actual housing policy the National Government suddenly thought: “Well we’d better put something out that shows that we’re even thinking about it.” But what it has put out will not work and it certainly will not deliver for those young homeowners who want to get on the housing ladder who currently cannot do that.It has been interesting sitting through this debate being lectured about housing by the National Government. I want to talk about social housing as well and about the role of State housing in this country. When we came into Government in 1999 we inherited a decimated Housing New Zealand stock. The National Government had hocked off nearly 14000 State homes to its developer mates. It had completely thrown those tenants out on to the streets. It carried out no maintenance whatsoever during its entire time in Government. It was a Labour Government under Helen Clark the last Labour Government that despite one of the biggest housing booms we had seen in New Zealand’s history managed to rebuild 8000 of those 14000 homes that had been hocked off. We started renovating and doing the maintenance that had not been done during the 1990s. Did we finish it? No because it was such an incredibly huge job at a time when it was difficult to get a builder for love or money. But still we managed to rebuild 8000 State houses. We started a maintenance programme.The National Government likes to brag about the home insulation scheme. That was actually started under Labour with the Green Party. It was the Green Party that called for that scheme in State homes not National. So it is very well that it tries to take credit for it now but let us not rewrite history here. So what have we had since National has come into Government? What have we seen from the National Government? Well again it is kicking tenants out of State homes. We thought that this Budget the last Budget was going to be about getting families into homes; apparently it is more about kicking families out of homes. That was a reality of this year’s Budget for Housing New Zealand tenants and those in social housing. From our perspective as the Labour Party we are dealing with these people every day in our offices—people who cannot find somewhere to live and who can no longer access State housing because National has said: “I’m sorry those category C and D tenants who are in provincial New Zealand did used to be housed by Housing New Zealand”—nearly 80 percent of the waiting list in Gisborne was category C and D. These are not wealthy people at all.The reality is though that in the provinces rental accommodation is very very scarce. It is often unaffordable. Housing New Zealand is one of the largest landlords not only in the country but particularly in provincial New Zealand. Well we have families living in garages and living in their cars on the East Coast at the moment—we saw this during the Ikaroa-Rāwhiti by-election—while 68 State houses sit vacant in Gisborne being readied for sale. It is the same thing in Hawke’s Bay the same thing in Wairarapa the same thing in the Hutt Valley and it will be the same thing across the country.How can this Government sit there with State houses empty? And Todd McClay who is in the chair should know this because he is from Kawerau another part of the country where we have people living in appallingly overcrowded conditions where thereis a real need for State housing. We have State houses sitting empty because the Government wants to sell them—the Government wants to sell them. Well that is appalling. It is not only appalling it is actually cruel. I think if you asked any New Zealander what we should do with those empty State houses that are sitting there being vandalised because there is no one living in them and sitting there falling into ruin because there is no one living in them the answer would be to tenant those houses.