Edmonds BarbaraBARBARA EDMONDS (Labour—Mana): This morning speaking on the tax bill that extended the brightline extension I went back to my maiden speech and I referred to being brought up in a home where there were 24 people living under our roof. That was the situation back then because we chose to so that our families could save money to buy their own homes. I said I came to this House to act and I was brought up with the mind of acting and providing solutions. So on this side of the House yesterday those announcements were around action and it's quite disappointing to see that we didn't even get any alternative solutions from across the House not even a press release I understand the Minister of Finance said today.This morning I took the House through a bit of tax history. This afternoon I want to take the House through a bit of local Mana electorate history around housing. When I looked back through Stuff recently back in 2009 when the National Government was in they bowled down 27 State homes in Castor Loop—27 homes. It sat there empty. And then in early 2017 when the new Labour Government came in the Hon Kris Faafoi pitched tents with local community leaders. He held barbecues. He held public meetings on that vacant piece of land because he was tired of no action from the previous Government. So in November 2018 the Government announced a $1.5 billion investment in Porirua. It's a partnership with our local council and with our iwi who have now provided a new subsidy called Te Ahuru Mowai to look after 900 homes in Western Porirua. I can proudly report back to the House that after those sit-ins on that empty piece of land by the Hon Kris Faafoi 14 one-bedroom homes have been completed in Champion Street 53 homes have now been built on that Castor Loop site which was empty since 2009 and 100 homes are currently under construction in Esk Place and Niger Street. That's action and I thank the Hon Kris Faafoi for his leadership in our community when he was the MP for Mana before he was even a Minister and for then carrying through with his commitment to housing in Porirua once he became a Minister.I also thank the Hon Megan Woods for her work to remove some of the barriers holding up the building of new homes. Part of the announcement that she made yesterday was a $3.8 billion acceleration fund. This contestable fund which is not a loan—and was only a billion dollars under the previous Government—is increasingly important for a city like Porirua which has trouble with our infrastructure. We cannot build unless the pipes the sewers the water underneath have good pipes to run through and there's a lot of repairs and maintenance that needs to be done. As a local member in Tītahi Bay I see it weekly where unfortunately there is sewage discharge into the beach. Our community is holding a public meeting about this next Monday at the surf club in order to hear from Wellington Water and Porirua City Council about what we're going to do. I really encourage our local government to be able to bid for this contestable fund to help fix those pipes to help us build more houses in Porirua City.I want to go back to last week when on Monday I attended the opening of the last of those 53 homes in Castor Loop. I met there a local mum called Toni and I met her two kids TJ and Hope. She said to me This place is like a village." She used to watch the building of these new homes from above the hill and she used to think "It would be pretty cool to move into those homes." She got one of those homes and she said to me "The place is like a village. The kids rule the roost around there. All the neighbourhood kids from those 53 homes pretty much rule the lane; so watch for cars that go through that particular part of Castor Loop." She asked me for one request. She asked "Could we please get a street sign up?" The name that the lane is being called is Ixion Lane and so I asked Kāinga Ora in my speech at that opening "Please put a street name up because that street name signifies a new chapter. These are new homes for our people in Porirua. It is a new village and these are our homes and this is our community."Last but not least I want to give a quick shout out to the member for Ōtaki my new neighbour Terisa Ngobi. We opened up our brand new Kāpiti office on Monday. So I'd like to thank the members of our caucus who came there to celebrate with us. And to our community of Kāpiti thank you very much. We look forward to serving you."