Mapp Wayne: Affordable Housing: Enabling Territorial Authorities Bill — First Reading 
Mapp Wayne: Affordable Housing: Enabling Territorial Authorities Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:644;Page:13885] 
Dr WAYNE MAPP (National—North Shore) 
: 
 The disappointing issue about this Affordable Housing: Enabling Territorial Authorities Bill is that after 8 years all the Labour Government can promise is a survey. I have heard and I have read that the new Minister of Housing Maryan Street is quite promising but her first initiative is to promise a survey. She tried to say to the National Party that we should not be too worried about this bill because it is not prescriptive that no one has to do anything and that no territorial local authority will force anyone to do anything.  
You know in some respects that is our fundamental complaint is it not? This particular response is pathetic. The best that her hard-working department and her hard-working Cabinet team can come up with today is a survey and the ability I guess to make a few by-laws—an ability not for the Government but for local authorities.  
I guess she will go out next year to the voters of New Zealand and say: “Vote for Labour because we are going to fix your housing problem with a survey. That is our solution and in fact we did such a good job of it that we sought to pass the legislation through urgency because that is how important the survey is.” I have to say to the Minister that it is simply pathetic.  
If a survey is Labour’s response to the front-page article in the  
New Zealand Herald  
today that shows an increasing gap of wealth between Australians and New Zealanders in housing affordability frankly it is not surprising that more and more New Zealanders are making the choice to go to Australia. Last year 40000 New Zealanders moved to Australia; 40000 New Zealanders made a vote of no confidence in the Government. That is the truth of it. New Zealanders are moving to Australia because they are sick and tired of this Government and its lacklustre response to all sorts of problems.  
The Government could have done a whole raft of things. My colleague Mr Phil Heatley pointed those out: more land availability and fewer prescriptive building regulations. I just point out to the Minister—she may not know this you see—that in Wellington City according to the council as a result of the Government’s building legislation people now have to provide 300 pages of documentation and 12 A3-sized plans just to build an ordinary house. We are not making this up; these are Wellington City Council’s own figures. That is a tenfold increase from just 4 years ago. I know there has been a leaky buildings crisis and I know that things had to be done to fix that up but multiplying the paperwork tenfold is not a solution.  
Earlier this year I went to a forum in Auckland run by Arthur Grimes. He identified the most critical issue for housing affordability as the lack of urban land for subdivision. He specifically identified metropolitan urban limits as driving up land prices and he had a huge amount of data on that. My colleague Mr Phil Heatley was also there. We read that material. I want to share something with members: not a single Labour person was at that meeting. This is important research. Arthur Grimes is a highly respected economist and there were hundreds of people at that meeting but not one member of the Government was there.  
Arthur Grimes identified the critical problem as being lack of land availability and because the metropolitan urban limits have not shifted for well over a decade. What has this Government done about that? It has done absolutely nothing.  
David Benson-Pope 
: What did the National Government do about infrastructure for Auckland? 
Dr WAYNE MAPP 
: We did do things actually. I say to that member that we had the economy growing. This Government is simply missing the big picture. It does not understand that the real causes of the housing issue are problems such as lack of land availability.  
The second point I might add is clearly stated on the front page of the  
New Zealand Herald  
today. New Zealanders are too poor— 
Hon Judith Tizard 
: Oh well it must be true. 
Dr WAYNE MAPP 
: Do members hear that? Labour hates the  
New Zealand Herald  
at the moment. The Prime Minister is saying: “We hate the Herald. The Herald is unprofessional and does not know how to do journalism.” That is Labour’s approach and the Minister of Housing has joined her plaintive voice to that chorus as well. “We hate the Herald.” is Labour’s mantra. I guess we will hear a bit more today in a certain third reading about how Labour hates the  
New Zealand Herald 
. Why do Government members not go and read the  
New Zealand Herald  
and read the data that says New Zealanders are poorer than Australians?  
There are some key reasons for that. One of the fundamental reasons is the tax situation. Labour has not given a tax cut on rates or thresholds for nearly a decade. In fact its only response was to increase taxes in 1999. In the last election Labour promised to change the thresholds. Do members know what it has done now? It has broken that promise. It has broken that promise to New Zealanders and National will be reminding them of that.  
Today New Zealanders are paying more in tax than Labour’s promise indicated and they are doing so because Labour broke that promise. If it had kept that promise then there would be more money in the hands of New Zealanders. That is actually how people pay for housing. I know that is a startling revelation but if people have more money in their pockets then they can pay bigger mortgages they can buy properties and we can actually solve the housing crisis. But Labour ignores those obvious steps.  
After 8 years in office Labour’s best approach is to have a survey. If that party is saying: “Well National is concerned about housing affordability”—we are—“therefore it should be voting for this bill.” then we say no. We say no because it is simply the wrong solution. Actually it is not even a solution at all. Why call it the wrong solution? It is no solution to go out to the public and say that the approach to this issue is to have a survey and to perhaps just give the option to local authorities to have a little bit of affordable housing here and there.  
Labour will ignore the real issues of course. It will ignore the Resource Management Act it will ignore Arthur Grimes it will ignore metropolitan urban limits and it will ignore reducing taxes. It will ignore all of the things that matter. It will ignore all of the things that would reduce the cost of housing and make housing more affordable for hard-working New Zealand families.  
New Zealanders know that. They have seen this Government in action now for 8 years. They know the Government has failed and frankly young New Zealanders are voting with their feet. This Government should be alarmed by that article in the  
New Zealand Herald  
today. Actually the Minister was alarmed but the Government has no solutions. It has alarm but no solutions. And when the new Minister comes up with her magnificent solution under urgency it is to have a survey. National will not vote for a survey. We are voting against this bill.