Turei MetiriaMETIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green): One million dollars—the average house price in Auckland today reached $1 million; $1 million to buy a house in Auckland. This Government has driven New Zealand's housing into the ground. It has stripped away from ordinary New Zealanders the ability to secure their future for themselves and their children by driving up housing so it is so expensive that in order to buy a home in Auckland the average price is now $1 million.And what do Government members say about that? Are they concerned about that increase in the cost of housing in Auckland? Are they worried that young families are being locked out? Are they worried that teachers firemen people who work in the Fire Service—Phil Twyford: The police.METIRIA TUREI: —and the police these people who are essential to our communities across the country in Auckland cannot afford to buy a house in the city that they love and serve? Are National members worried about that? Well no and that is obvious today because in response to the $1 million average house price announcement we end up spending a whole day debating this ridiculous bill that will not solve the housing crisis. If they were genuinely serious about making sure that people who work in the Fire Service or teachers or principals of schools or nurses or doctors—these people who serve our communities in Auckland—were actually able to live a decent life in a secure home in Auckland we would not be passing this bill we would be dealing with a genuine comprehensive plan to make sure there was affordable housing in our biggest city so that ordinary New Zealanders had a genuine chance to own their home.Instead we are dealing with a piece of rushed legislation that is poorly thought out that strips away the property rights of some in order only to extend what has been a failed policy in Auckland. The special housing areas (SHAs) policy has failed in Auckland and this legislation is designed to extend that failed policy because this Government has no other ideas about how to fix New Zealand's housing crisis—a crisis that has seen homelessness increase beyond all measure over the last few decades—and it is seeing young families and elderly people locked out of securing their future.The special housing areas have not delivered in Auckland. Of the 157 97 have no building on them; two-thirds have no building on them. They are simply sitting there and do you know why? It is because land bankers and speculators are making a huge amount of money by sitting on these special housing areas that Nick Smith and the Government have allowed them to have cheap. As I understand it only 1300 buildings have been built. That is a ridiculous failure by this Government over the last 3 years. Special housing areas have helped many speculators and many land bankers increase their wealth while hard-working families young people trying to secure their future and older people trying to secure their retirement are locked out of housing in Auckland.It is a continuation of Government's housing failure that this is how we have to spend our time: dealing with this bill. It will not solve the crisis and indeed it could make it worse by extending special housing areas and not dealing with the land banking issue that they create. This bill is nothing but a band-aid on a wound a housing wound that ordinary New Zealand families are having to carry every day. I think that fiasco" is the right word for this Government's response in this legislation. We are in the middle of a homelessness crisis the nature of which we have not seen for decades—for decades; a $1 million average house price in Auckland State housing still being sold off while the waiting list for State houses grows and grows and the only response is this rushed piece of legislation poorly considered and desperate to keep the special housing areas going.Why is that? It is because the Government's only solution is to allow more private developers to have access to land and have access to fast-tracking consents. That is its only solution. It is taking no responsibility for its role in being able to provide housing itself through a comprehensive build programme that New Zealanders are desperately crying out for. The Government knows that it can be much more engaged in actually building affordable homes. Instead its solution is to allow land developers speculators and land bankers to make more money off this crisis. What does the bill actually do? Well what the first part does allow is really in response to just eight developers in eight special housing areas that are halfway through their consenting process—so they are nearly complete but they have not completed their consenting process. If the special housing areas legislation expires on 16 September as it is set to do then those eight developers will have to restart their consenting process over again. There is an argument that says it would be worthwhile extending the time period to allow those eight developers to get their consents through—as long as of course they were actually required to build and it was not just another attempt another opportunity for Nick Smith and National to allow more land banking.If that was the case that there was certainty that they would build there is an argument that says we could use urgency to allow for that extension of time. Perhaps we could have a day of select committee. We could hear from officials and from those affected so as to be able to know that we have all of the information right and that when we were passing a law through urgency that that law would be properly considered properly constructed and effective. This is because a large part of the problem with urgency of course is that most of the law we pass through urgency is useless and full of mistakes. So that is an argument for saying that part of the bill could be justified with a short period for consultation with the public and those affected. I would have listened to that argument and taken it seriously if it had been put to me.The problem is that the bill also does other things that do not need to go through urgency and that actually do need to be properly considered. These are the two areas. The legislation extends the failed SHAs for another 3 years and it does not protect against land banking. The provisions in this little bill do not protect against land bankers. It gives the Minister for Building and Housing more powers and sets a time frame but there was already a time frame in the previous legislation. It does not prevent land banking and that is one of the major problems the major failures of the SHAs in Auckland. Neither does this bill improve the percentage required to be for affordable housing. So the problem for SHAs is that we cannot guarantee that there will be a significant provision of affordable housing through these special housing areas. This bill does not require more affordable housing from those special housing areas. It again provides wealth acquisition opportunities for the speculators but will not deliver affordable housing for the thousands of New Zealanders who need it. Hon Dr Nick Smith: That's rubbish! Just rubbish!METIRIA TUREI: The Minister keeps saying it is rubbish but there is nothing in his bill that is going to improve the provision of affordable houses in those SHAs. It gives him more powers; it does not provide any more certainty to New Zealanders who are desperate for this housing because they are in such dire straits.And of course we have the offer-back provisions which provide real concern. Nick Smith says that there are no Māori who provided that land for use for housing and who would be the first people under an offer-back provision to be offered that land back. He does not know that for sure. He does not know that for sure but he says he does not think there is any—and we are supposed to accept that from Nick Smith who thinks that birds pooing in rivers is more important and more dangerous than cows pooing in rivers. This is not a man with a great sense of perspective about what is important.We cannot support this bill in its current form. We do expect there to be some changes over the course of today and tonight—perhaps a splitting of the bill. But as it stands it is ineffective it is a waste of time and it will simply increase the risk of land banking and a lack of affordable housing in Auckland. Thank you."