Salesa JennyHon JENNY SALESA (Minister for Building and Construction): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker for this opportunity to speak about the Budget of 2018. Budget 2018 lays out the foundations for the future and my comments this afternoon will be focused mainly on housing.We are investing a total of $2.8 billion in housing. But I will focus my speech on Vote Social Housing funding—the $513.4 million that this Budget is investing in housing. But before I do can I just speak about one of the many reasons why we are focusing on housing this year. We came into this Government and we know—because we asked several experts to let us know exactly—the challenge that we're facing in housing. What we were told is that throughout Aotearoa New Zealand we are short by 71000 houses.Hon Peeni Henare: How many?Hon JENNY SALESA: Seventy-one thousand houses in Aotearoa. In our largest city in Auckland we are short by 45000 houses. I will cover a little bit later on in my speech the effect that this has especially on one particular vulnerable group Pacific people because the majority of Pacific people live in Auckland.But let me cover the good news first. The additional funding for public housing for State houses—this coalition Government has invested $234.4 million to meet the cost pressures in public housing as well as to provide additional new State houses. This will build 6400 new additional State houses. That's 1600 new State houses per year over the next four years.For those of us—and many of us here on this side of this House are local members of Parliament. We see so many of our families coming to ask us for assistance. The number one issue that they ask us for assistance with is housing. Many of these families are families who work full-time families who have never actually accessed a public or a State house before but because rent is so expensive nowadays not just in Auckland but right throughout Aotearoa New Zealand because homelessness is an issue that we're facing as a country not just in Auckland but everywhere else in Aotearoa—in many of our cities homelessness is an issue. We are—well we have been since a year or so ago—facing homelessness in terms of we are number one in the OECD for the rate of homelessness something that we have never dealt with before. So one of the reasons why we are investing so much in housing why we are tackling housing head-on is because there is so much to do in the area of housing.Another area that we're investing funding in to expand is Housing First. So we're investing $42.9 million to purchase an additional 550 Housing First places not only in Auckland but in the regions. As I said earlier on unfortunately homelessness is something that has gone out to the regions. Another investment that this coalition Government is doing is for transitional housing. In order to address cost pressures in transitional housing we're investing $169.9 million to address the shortfall in transitional housing as well as for us to meet the current target which is 2155 transitional housing places.If we're just to walk down in history did we need emergency housing before? Did we need transitional housing to this level before? No we did not. In fact if we look back in history a short history in 2008 we had just over 69000 State houses. That was in 2008. The wisdom or lack thereof of the folks on the opposite side of the House—they sold off a whole lot of our State houses. They sold them off. And so now we only have just over 60000 State houses.In a period of time that we are experiencing the rate of homelessness—and we're number one for homelessness in the OECD—the other side of the House sold off our State houses. Of course one of the first things we did as a coalition Government is we put a stop to that. We do not sell off the State houses. We are building State houses. In terms of ensuring that we serve our families well one of the things that we are also investing in is making sure that we have the front-line staff members to deal with so many of our families who are seeking help. So we're investing $30 million to continue funding for the current level of staff—that's 102 full-time equivalent staff members to deliver housing services. We know that when our families are in strife when they are living in cars when they are living in garages when they're living in caravans they go and seek assistance—either at Work and Income or with Housing New Zealand—and they do want to be served. They want to be served by actual people. And so we're also investing in that.This coalition Government is committed to building State houses. This current Government is committed to housing our most vulnerable families and our children. Too many of our families way too many of our kids are living in unhealthy houses where it is cold and damp. One of the things that we are doing as a Government is we're making sure that our houses are indeed healthy.Can I just touch a little bit more on Housing First. Housing First as an initiative—one of the reasons why we're investing money to ensure that we actually have Housing First in other places like in Tauranga Christchurch Wellington and other high-need regions is because Housing First as an approach is a simple one. It provides housing quickly and then it offers tailored support for as long as those folks need that support. Housing First as an initiative aims to end homelessness. It aims to end homelessness; not just to manage homelessness. The goal for Housing First is to end homelessness so that homelessness is brief rare and so that it does not occur again.There is so much that this coalition Government is doing in terms of housing. It is focusing on the fact that we need to build more houses. The Minister of Housing and Urban Development the Hon Phil Twyford of course has covered KiwiBuild. We need not only to house our vulnerable families; we also need to build houses so that our first-home buyers can afford to get into their first home. The Budget announcement that we have made on housing cannot come sooner for all of us.Can I just as I wrap up talk about Pacific families. The majority of Pacific families live in Auckland. We know that 24 percent of State housing or public housing tenants in Aotearoa New Zealand are Pacific families. But we also know because the majority of them live in Auckland that they make up a higher percentage of State house tenants in Auckland. So many of these families—some of them who have never lived in cars before some of them who have never lived in garages before but who are working full time—I have met in person when they've come to seek assistance. It is heart-breaking when you see these families with their children coming in the cars that they live in. But we are a Government that is focused on ensuring that all of our kids have a roof over their heads that they do not continue to live in garages and that they do not continue to live in cars.This week as well as the Budget announcements earlier on last week is a great time for the coalition Government. It is absolutely something that Pacific families that vulnerable families that families who live in South Auckland where I am an electorate MP—they are rejoicing that there has been a change of Government. They're rejoicing and they're happy that there is a Government on this side of the House that is focused on addressing the housing crisis that actually acknowledges that there is a housing crisis and a Government that is building houses to house our families. Madam Assistant Speaker thank you for this opportunity.