10. Question No. 10—Housing (Public Housing)SIMON O'CONNOR (National—Tāmaki) to the Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing)Question No. 10—Housing (Public Housing)10. SIMON O'CONNOR (National—Tāmaki) to the Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing): Can he confirm that the social housing wait-list is nearly at 18000 people in the last reported quarter; if so has the wait-list been rising every quarter since his Government took office?Hon KRIS FAAFOI (Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing)): Kia orana Mr Speaker. Social housing is and has been a top priority for this Government and that's why in three years we've boosted the number of public housing by over 5000 to deal with the demand that the member speaks of. We've housed over 18000 households from the waiting list and also assisted thousands with emergency and transitional housing. Not wanting to be a pedant on the last day of school but as the member's question suggests it is not my Government; it is the Prime Minister's and she has asked me to remind the member that her Government has added over 5000 public houses ended National's mass sell-off of State housing and passed the Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill (No 2) and the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill just to name a few. I must also note that if National had built the 30000 State houses that Jacqui Dean thinks that they did then the wait-list would obviously not be an issue.Simon O'Connor: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Twofold: firstly I didn't actually hear a confirmation of the number and secondly it's Her Majesty's Government and always will be.SPEAKER: Well I'm not going to address the first one but the second one anticipates decisions of this House and we're not going there.Simon O'Connor: When the Prime Minister said last year that she stands by her proactive work to fix the housing crisis." did that proactive work contribute to almost 18000 New Zealand families being on the social housing wait-list?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: That proactive stance has meant that we've built over 5000 public houses over the last three years and we've proudly invested in 8000 more at Budget 2020.Simon O'Connor: When former Minister of Housing and Urban Development Phil Twyford talked about the Labour-led Government "paddling the waka as fast as we can to provide better housing choices." did he expect the waka would need to house 18000-plus families?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: We've got many passengers on our waka and this Government as I have said has proudly invested in social housing over the last three years which has meant that we have now more than 5000 public housing places than when we came into Government and have committed to 8000 more. This Government is building houses. We are not waiting list deniers and cutting the list in half arbitrarily like the previous Government.Simon O'Connor: How does he reconcile the comments of his colleague the Minister of Housing saying last year "We will get people off the public housing register as quickly as possible" with said register increasing every single quarter since this Government took office and now over 18000 families are on the waiting list?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: Well one of the first statements that this Government said is that if people needed housing we would help them. That's why people have come forward and see hope in the Government in supplying housing for New Zealanders that need it which is why we now have more than 5000 more public houses than we inherited. We have committed to 8000 more. I would point out again that we have built them and in the last couple of weeks National has again promoted 30000 "ghost homes"."