Moroney SueSUE MORONEY (Labour): It is a pleasure to rise and speak to this excellent amendment proposed Part 7 from Metiria Turei about making sure that the money that is dedicated to Housing New Zealand is used for the purpose of housing New Zealanders. It is not a hard thing to ask for—Phil Twyford: Pretty radical.SUE MORONEY: I know; it is pretty radical but actually it is pretty simple in its context. It is what every New Zealander would expect their Government to be doing on their behalf—ensuring that the money put aside in the Budget for housing is dedicated to housing. I want to bring Hamilton into the debate. We have spoken a lot about Auckland. I see there are two members opposite in the Chamber who are from Hamilton but I do not think we are going to hear anything from them any time soon. They are probably too embarrassed to talk about the impact that Part 7 has on their constituents in Hamilton and so they should be. About 2 weeks ago Andrew Little came to Hamilton. He addressed a lunchtime meeting on the issue of housing and there was standing room only. That is how much this issue of Housing New Zealand and how it is operating in New Zealand and the lack of housing available under Housing New Zealand is impacting on Hamiltonians. David Bennett might find it entertaining but I can tell that member and he should know this himself from the people who come in his door that it is not at all entertaining for those people who are sleeping in cars and who are sleeping in garages because Housing New Zealand is paying a profit a surplus back to his Government instead of building more State houses in Hamilton where they are needed. The example I will give you and I took Andrew Little to see this particular block of land is Jebson Place which is in David Bennett's electorate. Actually Jebson Place and Dey Street around that area over in Hamilton East is a beautifully located piece of Housing New Zealand land. It is largely abandoned. The State houses are boarded up left derelict by that Government for years while the need for housing grows exponentially in Hamilton. Our housing prices have increased by an average of 30 percent in the last year alone and that Government has left that block of land empty with houses boarded up derelict. It is like a ghetto in the middle of Hamilton.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): Back to this part.SUE MORONEY: Back to this part Mr Chairperson. The surplus that Housing New Zealand has been told to pay back to that Government should be spent on developing good healthy State houses in Jebson Place where people can live not have these resource consents so that people cannot live in them but have actual houses built by Housing New Zealand. I will give another example in Hamilton. This is another one in David Bennett's electorate actually. It is known locally as Poets Corner. Well actually nothing could be less than poetic than what has happened to that Housing New Zealand land. Housing New Zealand should be using that surplus to build houses on that land. In fact it was under the last Labour Government that we decided that particular development was not up to standard and so we cleared it. We had consulted with the local community to find out what type of State housing they wanted erected in its place. We had an agreement with the community because we consulted with it about exactly what that development would look like. What happened next was that when the National Government came in it left that land abandoned and again derelict for years and still not one State housing tenant has a house back in Poets Corner. No one is tenanted on that block of land because the Government still has not built State houses there.David Bennett: Yes they have.SUE MORONEY: No it has not. Is anyone living there David Bennett? Who is living there? What is the street address?David Bennett: I opened them last week.SUE MORONEY: You opened them last week. So it took the Government how many years? Is it 9 years that we are up to? Well 8 years—8 years and the Government opened one house last week. I do not know whether anyone is living in it yet but that is how long that Government has neglected State housing in places like Hamilton where the housing needs are that high. Part 7 would ensure that instead of paying a dividend back to that greedy Government to balance its books Housing New Zealand would be able to invest money in building good healthy State houses in cities like Hamilton.