Twyford PhilHon PHIL TWYFORD (Minister of Housing and Urban Development): Thank you Mr Chairman. How great to be able to take a call in this annual review debate and what a privilege it is to be part of a Government led by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern a Prime Minister who is bringing kindness back to our national life who makes us proud on the international stage and is willing to tackle the difficult long-term challenges that were ignored and neglected for so many years over the last nine years.If there's one issue that is emblematic of that failure to tackle the difficult long-term issues for so long it's housing and our Government is tackling housing in a more determined and wholehearted way than this country has seen in a very long time and there's a huge need for support. There is a huge pent-up need for people who have been shut out by the system and we've seen over the financial year that we are discussing in this annual review the public housing waiting list continually rise as the hidden homeless have come forward. Thousands and thousands of New Zealanders have been living in overcrowded housing in cars in garages and in campgrounds because for years they knew that there was not a Government there that would provide support. Under Jacinda Ardern's Government they have people who have said Come forward. If you don't have proper shelter we will make sure you get a roof over your heads".Now there's been quite a lot of talk in this debate about public housing and I want to make a few comments about that. In Budget 2018 we committed $234 million. Housing New Zealand are investing $4 billion off their balance sheet to increase the stock of public housing by an average of 1600 every year 6500 over the four-year period. We are well on track to deliver that 1600 in this financial year and that stands in stark contrast to the record of the former Government who sold down State housing so that there were 6500 fewer State houses in New Zealand by the time they left Government with—Priyanca Radhakrishnan: Shameful.Hon PHIL TWYFORD: They should've crawled shamefacedly away from this Government but they didn't. We stopped the sell-off of State houses and more than 1900 more families are in public housing now than there were when we took office—Simon O'Connor: Over 11000 on the list Minister.Hon PHIL TWYFORD: —1900 extra families. I know that Simon O'Connor thinks that that's a sign of failure—that putting people in State houses is a sign of failure because somehow that means they're dependent on the taxpayer and that is the mentality that we're trying to overcome.I'm very proud to say that not only are we building more State housing now than at any time in decades; we're building public houses in parts of New Zealand that haven't seen new public houses in decades. Housing New Zealand under our Government is a compassionate landlord. Now when we became the Government when I became the Minister I was told by Housing New Zealand staff that they were told not to do pastoral care work with their tenants that they were doing pastoral care work in their own time. Well they are a compassionate landlord now under our policy. They are working directly with their tenants to make sure that they get a fair deal.Our Government busted open the methamphetamine rort that was allowed to go on for years under the National Government. Housing New Zealand was spending $25 million every year on methamphetamine contamination testing and remediation that never needed to happen; a hundred million dollars wasted by that Government and in the time that we're debating under this annual review we fixed that and we've compensated 963 households to an average of $7800 because they were tossed out under that Government for methamphetamine testing that never needed to be used as an excuse to evict State house tenants. So that is the shame of it.Housing New Zealand is making great progress. They are building more public housing than we've seen in decades and they are truly a compassionate landlord looking after the tenants doing the right thing instead of demonising them and stigmatising them as we saw yet again tonight."