Twyford PhilGENERAL DEBATEHon PHIL TWYFORD (Minister of Housing and Urban Development): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. Thank you Mr Speaker. The state of the National Party was revealed this week in their confused and contradictory response to the Government's exciting new housing development at Unitec. Simon Bridges and the four horsemen of the housing apocalypse—Judith Collins Cameron Slater Mike Hosking and Matthew Hooton—have tied themselves in knots. Simon Bridges claims that Unitec was his idea and that National had already done it. Well Mr Bridges I've got words for you: coulda woulda shoulda. You could have done it; you didn't. But we have.Then he said that they didn't announce it during the election campaign because he was worried they might get accused of pork-barrel politics.Hon Chris Hipkins: The bridges—what about the bridges?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: This is from Simon 10 bridges" Bridges. He's obviously had some kind of road to Damascus experience but his road to Damascus is a 10-lane super highway called a road of National Party significance.Then there was Judith "Crusher" Collins the face of compassionate conservatism. Judith had so many reasons not to like—SPEAKER: Order! Order! Both the names used—thank you.Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Judith Collins had so many reasons not to like the Unitec project that she had trouble choosing between them. Apparently it's going to cost money to put the pipes in the ground therefore we shouldn't do it. Density is apparently a really bad idea for any urban development and now she's worried about the possibility of potential lawsuits in years to come. The National Party are so good at making excuses for not building affordable houses. That's precisely the kind of thinking that got us into the housing crisis to start with.Let's turn to Cameron Slater who's fallen on hard times recently because he used to be on John Key's speed dial and now he's just Judith Collins' puppet boy. Perhaps that's why he was so scathing of Simon Bridges' statement that Unitec was a good idea. Cameron Slater did some basic maths and concluded that the Unitec project would be a slum which is pretty much what Mike Hosking had to say on the radio the next morning. Cameron Slater and Mike Hosking running the same lines from the National Party research unit—Hon Chris Hipkins: Who would've thought?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Who would've thought? What a coincidence! But you know Mike I have to say these aren't the kind of houses that you would buy. You know on a Saturday morning at Unitec in 10 years' time the neighbours won't be out on the road lovingly buffing the Ferrari and the Maserati. There won't be any Georgian shutters on the houses—no topiary around the swimming pool out the back. But Mike these are the kinds of houses that your listeners would love to buy and in fact they're going to be lining up around the street trying to buy these houses just as they are at Hobsonville right now—the stunningly successful commercially successful Hobsonville development where they can't build those houses fast enough because they're so popular.But the most fevered of the four horsemen of the housing apocalypse was Matthew Hooton who went on the radio waving around numbers that he had downloaded from Wikipedia claiming that Hobsonville Point has a higher population density than Hong Kong. Now anyone who's been to Hong Kong knows how patently ridiculous that is. Mrs Collins you need to get better sources. This all goes to show just how hopelessly divided and confused the National Party and their acolytes are. On one hand they claim that this exciting new urban development project at Unitec in Mount Albert is their idea and that they've already done it but on the other hand it's a terrible idea and we shouldn't be doing it.Thinking up excuses not to build affordable housing is exactly what got us into this crisis. The National Party spent nine years denying there was a housing crisis and now it seems like they don't want affordable houses to be built for young Kiwi families. They don't want it. Our Government is going to roll up our sleeves and build the high-quality affordable houses that young Kiwi families so desperately want."