SpeechTĀMATI COFFEY (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker; good things come to those who wait. This is a chance to talk about local issues and there is no issue more prominent in the beautiful geothermal paradise of Rotorua than our housing situation. It has taken a hit over the past few years but actually it's been a problem that has been decades in the making. We haven't kept up with our local housebuilding and as a result we are short which is why media reports as recently as midway through last year were highlighting just how bad the problem had got—our motels filling up. That happened partly because of what happened during COVID. We took all of our homeless people off the streets and we put them into motels. It was the right thing to do at the time but it caused a bit of an interesting situation where when we looked up actually many of our hotels in a really small space had been occupied by people that had been taken off the streets and moved into that kind of accommodation. The image and the perception of our city took a real hit and it's only starting to get back on its feet. Thankfully something that happened last year was that we signed six months ago—this month actually—the Rotorua Housing Accord. Now what that is is it's a partnership between the Rotorua Lakes Council the iwi Ngāti Whakaue and Te Arawa whānui and also Government officials. We bring the best brains to the table to be able to get around there hold each other accountable and try and work through some of these issues. Some of the issues that have been worked through just to date are the idea of supply getting a real idea about how much housing we're bringing online—public housing papa kāinga housing—and it's initiatives that this Government has actually invested in. We've had to invest in it for the benefit of the people of Rotorua. Just next month actually we're going to be opening a 15-unit papa kāinga development just opposite Rotorua Airport. That's very exciting. It's something that we're all looking forward to. We've built 200 public homes in Rotorua but also 300 are still in train still coming down the pipeline. So we're definitely trying to build that supply build ourselves out of this crisis one house at a time. On top of that we need to make sure that we've got supports in place. And this is something that I hope that people understand. We've come up with something really innovative which is the idea of a bespoke housing hub and it is situated on Fenton Street in the middle of the CBD. Anybody that needs that kind of housing support can go to one front door and go and get it from there. Innovatively the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) have got people stationed there as well so if people do need some kind of Government assistance they can get that. More importantly the Ministry of Health have also put up a health practitioner in there as well because often people that present have health issues too. It was something that was identified by MSD. They came forward and said We're not social workers; we are an administrative agency that are there to help. But if people have got health problems we have to send them back out the door and round the corner and hope that they get to the hospital or to a GP clinic."Having a one-stop shop like Te Pokapū has helped to fix that. And it's been done in a very kaupapa Māori way. The organisation is run by Te Taumata o Ngāti Whakaue and they have gone and put over that place a layer—a korowai of aroha and tikanga actually—around it so that people that go in there are treated with love with respect like they should be because people that are facing housing insecurity sometimes they need as much help as they can get. So when we're looking at the big picture we are increasing supply in Rotorua. We are making sure that support is easy to access. We're building papa kāinga to be able to help Māori to be able to create solutions for themselves as well. And we've got this thing called "contracted emergency housing" which basically means we've still got some motels that are operating with homeless whānau inside them. They look a little bit different because they've usually got a barrier at the front. The difference between contracted motels is that we're able to put in a bunch of rules and regulations around how those places operate. And it's really good. The reports are coming back that yes although they're in motels actually they're being supported and they're being looked after while they're in those spaces. So some of our best brightest brains in this space from back home they're the first ones to say "Don't take away the contracted emergency housing." because that's still a valid option for people and we just need to make sure that we've got tight rules around it. And that's exactly what's happening. What we're seeing is a reduction in the number of motels. And every month the Rotorua Housing Accord meet. You've got the mayor you've got the chief executive you've got the senior officials from inside the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and Kāinga Ora who sit around that table and the iwi have put forward their brightest brains as well as a way to help keep each other accountable and make sure that we're building ourselves out of the homelessness mess that we've found ourselves in."