Paul Tamatha; Brownlee GerryTAMATHA PAUL (Green—Wellington Central): Thank you Mr Speaker. I want to take this opportunity to talk about my electorate Pōneke Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington Central and the housing emergency that has become far too common here in our capital city.Wellington's rents are among the highest in the country. The average house price in Wellington is about $1 million far out of reach for most people who live here. We have 2395 people waiting for a home on the public housing wait-list and homelessness is increasing particularly at both ends of the age spectrum where you see more young people more rangatahi sleeping on our streets on Lambton Quay and Courtenay Place. But we're also seeing more kaumātua and more older people represented in homelessness sleeping in cars overcrowding. That to me is a deeply shameful thing for our city.The experience that renters in Wellington have being too sick to work or study because of the old mouldy heritage-protected flats that we have to live in is far too common in Wellington. The experience of waiting in line with 100 others at every single flat viewing that you go to is far too common in Wellington. Having your landlord or property manager suck every single cent out of you that they can for supposed damages not being able to do something as simple as use Blu Tack on the wall in your rental home without inciting absolute fury and rage from your landlord having your rent put up despite no improvements to the home that you live in; these experiences are far too common in Wellington. That can be attributed to the lack of public housing that we have here in Wellington. It's been a long and fast abandonment and degradation of public housing here in Wellington and the provision of public housing by our council and by Kāinga Ora has been an important part of the whakapapa of this city acknowledging how important it is to have mixed communities where people from all different backgrounds are represented. We have the Gordon Wilson Flats sitting derelict and empty on The Terrace which we can't do anything about because they're heritage protected. We have the Dixon Street Flats home to over 100 public housing tenants that has been closed and emptied due to its designation as an earthquake-prone building. We have the Granville Flats owned by council and operated by Kāinga Ora home to 144 tenants; that has been closed and soon to be demolished. Our supply of public housing in Wellington has been in decline for a long time and that means that all of the whānau and all of the children who are just waiting for the opportunity to start their lives and have a good life with that home as the foundation to that start of their life will be waiting even longer. So I want to use my five minutes today to encourage the Minister of Housing who has paused the Arlington development in Mount Cook which is 350 new public homes to be delivered desperately need those public houses and my plea to Minister Bishop is that he will make sure that project is delivered because there are high expectations from the city's MPs from the city council from the regional council and from our communities that that project will be delivered—and I will be focusing my energy and attention on making sure that is delivered. We are a city that embraces public housing which is a big flex given many communities around the country often oppose the presence of public housing in their neighbourhood. But we are a city that embraces the presence of public housing in our community. But we realise that there is money to be made in the absence of public housing which is why there has been such a degradation of our public housing offering here in Wellington. We can be the first city to end homelessness and to not have it in our streets but in order to do that we need more public housing we need to have the wraparound care that people need to live the best lives possible and that is something that I know we'll be very proud of into the future. Kia ora.SPEAKER: I call Dan Bidois.Dan Bidois: Mr SpeakerOh hang on sorry my apologies.Dan Bidois: No it's Cameron Luxton.I call Cameron Luxton sorry who was calling when Dan Bidois was sitting there quietly not calling.