Bennett David: Affordable Housing: Enabling Territorial Authorities Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Bennett David: Affordable Housing: Enabling Territorial Authorities Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
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DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) 
: 
 When we hear that weak Minister in the chair the Hon Maryan Street talking about doing nothing we can look at this legislation and see that the Labour Government has taken 9 years to put forward legislation on affordable housing. It has taken 9 years at a time when New Zealanders have had a housing market they have not been able to be in. They have not had the opportunity to buy the Kiwi dream to set up a family home for their children and to partake in the capital gains that they would get as members of the home-owning community and this Minister puts forward this legislation in the last week of a dying Government. Well that is simply not good enough. If the Minister wanted to help those people and if she wanted to provide affordable housing then she should have done it a long time ago. If she had done it a long time ago the Government would have worked out what actually makes the difference in affordable housing. 
The Government does not understand the difference between income and equity. The Government of the day believes that if it gives equity advances it will assist people into housing. Well the reality is that the biggest thing dictating whether people can get a loan and therefore whether they can get a house is the income ability of the individual or the family. The ability to service a debt is the key ingredient in getting a loan. People can go and borrow 100 percent from a bank if they want to but the Government of the day believes it is about the equity people put into the purchase of a house not their income-earning ability and their ability to repay the loan and pay the interest on their debt. 
That is the difference between National and Labour. The National Party understands business. We understand that if one has income in the hand then as a member of the community with that income one can go out and buy a house. If a person is just given capital commitments then to a large extent it will not make any difference to his or her ability to purchase a home in the current environment. 
When we look at the current environment we see that the Labour Government has done one thing to make housing affordable in New Zealand—it has destroyed this economy. It has absolutely and criminally destroyed this economy to make sure that we are in recession at a time when we should be growing. With that recession the housing market has declined and it is making houses affordable through its economic mismanagement of the New Zealand economy. That is the reality of what is going on out there. 
But the great thing about that from Labour’s point of view is that the Government is also taxing those hard-working New Zealanders who need some income in their hands to take advantage of the lower market. And what is the Government doing? The Government taxes individuals and families meaning that they cannot go out there and purchase properties because all their money is going towards paying for the Government’s promises at election time—promises brought in to try to win election after election. 
Government members do not care about affordable housing. They do not care about New Zealanders getting in there and buying their first home. They do not care about families having an asset that they can all treasure and build upon. All they care about is promises that they can go out to an election campaign with—false promises based on equity and not the income ability of an individual or family. 
That is the point of difference between the parties and that is why New Zealanders are struggling to get into homeownership. The answer to that problem is to have a strong economy and only National will deliver that. If we have a strong economy then we can deliver strong and successful wage increases and that gives individuals and families the ability to go out and purchase properties. Without a strong economy individuals and families do not have that ability to purchase. They stagnate just like their country is stagnating under this Government and the people of New Zealand find that they cannot access homeownership. 
Affordable homeownership is more about how one runs an economy than about how one actually dictates the rules of the game. It is about how one gives New Zealanders who want to purchase their own home a chance to go out and do it themselves. That is the real nub of making housing affordable in this country as it is in any other country. The Government will not though the whim of a piece of paper make housing affordable. That is why this legislation is all a lot of ifs maybes buts whatevers and whoevers and nobody is taking it on board because the reality is that the market the councils and the individuals know that they need income streams to have affordable housing.