1. Housing Market—CommentaryPHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū) to the Minister for Building and ConstructionORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSHousing Market—Commentary1. PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū) to the Minister for Building and Construction: Does he agree with Mainfreight founder and Chairman Bruce Plested that housing is a social disgrace" that the market cannot sort out this problem and that real leadership and intestinal fortitude is needed now?Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for Building and Construction): I agree with Mr Plested's full statement on housing which identified the three main problems. Firstly planning restrictions make it difficult to increase housing within city boundaries which we have addressed through Auckland's new unitary plan. Secondly he cites the problem of the metropolitan urban limit restricting growth outwards which we have addressed through the special housing areas and the Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms. Thirdly he highlights the problems of funding infrastructure in which we are about to announce $1 billion in support for councils. Ironically the member opposed all of the measures that Mr Plested has fought for.Phil Twyford: If he agrees with Bruce Plested that the urban growth boundary has stopped Auckland growing why has the Government twice voted against Labour's amendments to abolish the urban growth boundary—amendments that have been supported by every other party in this House?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Well the member's claim is simply not true. The metropolitan urban limit was abolished with the new Auckland Unitary Plan. This Government has put in place the National Policy Statement on Urban Development which specifically prohibits there ever again being the metropolitan urban limit. I would draw the member's attention to the fact that the metropolitan urban limit had legal effect only when the majority of his colleagues voted for the 2004 RMA amendment bill that actually blocked Auckland's housing growth.Phil Twyford: If he agrees with Bruce Plested that part of the problem is a lack of finance for infrastructure why has he done nothing to reform infrastructure financing except offer Auckland Council debt that by law it cannot take on?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Because the member is simply wrong. In 2012 this Government changed the local government amendment Act to provide greater flexibility about the funding of infrastructure and specifically to provide for the private sector to be able to partner for the provision of that infrastructure. It is this Government that has provided the billion dollars for the Housing Infrastructure Fund; and ironically this Government has just passed an RMA reform bill that changes the way in which infrastructure is funded which that member voted against.Phil Twyford: If he will not take Bruce Plested's word for it does he perhaps agree with Kim Campbell of the Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern) when he calls for a large-scale housebuilding programme and says that the Government's current plans are not working?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I note that Auckland has had 6 straight years of increasing house construction. That has never occurred at any time previously in history. In fact the last 6 years of the previous Labour Government saw a decline in the number of houses that were built in every single year. The simple view is this: if you want more houses vote National. If you want less construction vote for the nobs on the other side.Dr Shane Reti: When were the urban limits that Mr Plested describes as a social disgrace put in place and how has the Government removed them?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The Auckland metropolitan urban legal limit bit in Auckland with the passage of the Resource Management Amendment Bill in 2004 which said that regional plans trumped district plans. That saw new home construction drop from 7000 to just under 3000 to the lowest level ever in 2008. We have systematically dismantled that Auckland limit with the special housing areas the new Auckland Unitary Plan our RMA forms and the new urban development national policy statement. This has reopened the pipeline of new home construction and we now have building activity at the highest level ever in Auckland.Phil Twyford: Rather long answer Mr Speaker?Mr SPEAKER: Order! I will decide that. But if the member is going to ask another supplementary question I would be grateful if he then listened to the answer rather than just interjecting.Phil Twyford: If he will not take the word of the country's leading business people on this will he accept the word of 72 percent of New Zealanders who say that the Government is simply not doing enough to control the housing market?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: If there is a social disgrace as Mr Plested refers to it I think it would be a party purporting to care about the standard of housing then putting cheap foreign labour into substandard overcrowded housing. That certainly is a social disgrace."