Prasad Rajen: Social Housing Reform (Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Amendment) Bill — Second ReadingText is subject to correctionPrasad Rajen: Social Housing Reform (Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Amendment) Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 07 November 2013. Volume:694;Page:14519. Text is subject to correction.]Dr RAJEN PRASAD (Labour): There is so much here that two or three members opposite have talked about that I could spend the next hour taking each one of those things apart. In speaking to this bill the Social Housing Reform (Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Amendment) Bill I start with this question: why did Phil Heatley lose his job? Why did he lose his job? Because he was no good. He was no good and today he reminds us about gang members in State houses.Simon O’Connor: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I believe he is trying to huff and puff and blow the House down. I just wish he would quieten a bit for the hearing’s sake.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! That is not helpful. It is not a point of order.Hon Simon Bridges: Oh this is the best speech!Dr RAJEN PRASAD: Well that member is never helpful. And neither is that other—Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!Dr RAJEN PRASAD: I am sorry Mr Speaker.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Members should not assume things. I now call Rajen Prasad.Dr RAJEN PRASAD: On this side of the House Mr Speaker we are just so good at anticipating so my apologies. I want to ask the Hon Annette King this question: where are those gang people whom Phil Heatley tried to eject? They are still in the State houses. They have not left. That is where they are. Phil Heatley was the Minister of Housing and what he tried to do was very interesting. He was the person who said the Labour Government was a slum landlord. That was his entire housing policy—his entire housing policy—and it is no wonder he got the sack. Then he said: “Well let’s putsome more light bulbs in.” and things like that; not “Let’s build houses”—nothing like that. There was no real appreciation of the problem of those who are not housed.So Phil Heatley was the Minister of Housing and then he was gone. Then the Hon Annette King as the Opposition spokesperson on housing and the wonderful Phil Twyford began to really develop a housing policy that had some resonance. It was a housing policy about which people out there began to say: “Look this makes sense. This is what we need to do.” All of a sudden the Government fired Phil Heatley and brought in the next spin merchant the current Minister of Housing and that is all that that Minister has been doing.Hon Annette King: He’s going to go.Dr RAJEN PRASAD: He is going to go—absolutely. It must be his time to go. But I want to remind those three National members who spoke and are still in the House including the last person who spoke my friend Melissa Lee that it was National that sold 13000 State houses in the 1990s—13000 State houses in the 1990s. It did not build; it just sold. That is the curse of that particular ideology that that side of the House internalises. So really when it comes to housing and a housing programme it is about building it is about working with other people and it is about make sure that we actually give people a home.Now all of a sudden the Government is interested. Of the two bills it brought to the House one was to bully the councils particularly Auckland Council about accords. “If you don’t do it we will make you do it.” is what the Government said. So here is—Hon Chris Tremain: How are you going to push through 10000 houses a year? I hope you don’t have to bully the council.Dr RAJEN PRASAD: Well I tell you it is the Auckland Council—Hon Chris Tremain: How are you going to push 10000 houses through a year without bullying the Auckland Council?Dr RAJEN PRASAD: I ask the Hon Chris Tremain to go back and read the bill because there is an override provision. That is how that bill would override the council. The Government would bully them. It is called the override provision Mr Tremain. I do not think that that member knows the other Act that was passed because if he did he would not be raising those rather inane points.Hon Annette King: He’s gone.Dr RAJEN PRASAD: He has gone. He has gone too. Well he has definitely gone—honourable retirement I think it was.The other point I want to make is about renewable tenancies. Renewable tenancies sound very good and if they were that good they would be widely supported. I tell members opposite to be very cautious with renewable tenancies because the system that is designed in this bill the Social Housing Reform (Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Amendment) Bill is a blunt instrument—[Interruption]—Mr Ngaro. It is a blunt instrument and the member should recognise it because that member’s own people will suffer as a result of what this particular bill is going to do. It will be the most vulnerable who will be assessed every year and who will they be? They will be the vulnerable and they will be the elderly and these are easy pickings Mr Ngaro.Hon Member: Easy targets.Dr RAJEN PRASAD: Easy targets. Of course this Government does not have any development plans. It really goes just for the easy targets. This is another version of its punitive approach to welfare. That is what it is. If the Government was really concerned that there are a number of people who are taking advantage of the housing system it would come up with a well-thought-out proposal that could really begin to say: “Well let’s go and have a look at those. Let’s see who they are and let’s see whether we can enable them to buy the house get into a home etc.” We on this side of the House wouldnot object to that at all because that would mean people being housed in their own homes. That is what a decent society does Mr Ngaro.There is so much I could go on about in this particular bill. That side has not made the argument. This is another punitive piece of legislation. Of course when we are in Government—after November next year; almost a year from today—we will have to fix these things up Mr Ngaro. As I said that is what we will have to do. On that note I will finish. Thank you.