Fox Marama: Housing Amendment Bill Housing Corporation (Social Housing Reform) Amendment Bill (No 2) Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters (Social Housing Reform) Amendment Bill (NO 2) — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFox Marama: Housing Amendment Bill Housing Corporation (Social Housing Reform) Amendment Bill (No 2) Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters (Social Housing Reform) Amendment Bill (NO 2) — Third Readings[Sitting date: 18 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:9183. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARAMA FOX (Co-Leader—Māori Party): Tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā. Nei taku hōhā te whakarongo nei ki ngā tangata e whakaparahako i te ingoa o Te Pāti Māori i runga i tō rātou whakahē i tō mātou tautoko i te Kāwanatanga nei. He aha te take e pēnei ai? Nei taku kōrero atu ki a koutou.[Greetings Mr Assistant Speaker. Here is my exasperation after listening to people vilifying the name of the Māori Party because they oppose our support for this Government. Why are they like this? Here is what I have got to say to you.]I come with some frustration at those who want to deride the name of the Māori Party because we dare to have an independent voice that allows us (1) to vote against the Government but also (2) to vote with it when we feel that we must. And this is the reason why everyone is asking “Why is the Māori Party voting with the Government over this?”—I am here to tell you. This is not a vote for the wholesale sell-off of the State housing stock; for us this is a vote of rangatiratanga because we have been asked by iwi around this country to support this legislation to ensure that they can get into the social housing market. And why? Because Housing New Zealand has done an appalling job of looking after our people and they believe that they can do it better. Actually we believe they can as well. This is about ensuring that they have the right to treat their tenants in the way that they feel is respectable and where they can be nurtured in a state of manaakitanga.People say: “Well who are you talking about Marama?”. Well here is what I am talking about: Kahungunu Executive Ki Te Wairoa Charitable Trust Mangatawa Papamoa Blocks Inc. Te Rūnanganui o Ngāti Porou Trustee Ltd Ngā Pōtiki-a-Tamapahore Trust Ngā Rau Tatangi Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga Trust Whai Maia Charitable Trust and Waiohiki Community Charitable Trust. These Māori organisations have come to us and asked us to support this legislation so that they can better cater for their people.I will give you an example of why that is so. I have been called up and down this country by tenants of Housing New Zealand to intervene on their behalf when they have been treated less than respectfully. I have been called into other people’s electorates because they cannot get an MP on the end of the phone who will respond to them. So when I travel to Auckland to speak with the family of Tame Nēpia who is a paraplegic who has been evicted from his home and has been given no alternative place to go to I go to advocate on his behalf. I get him into a new house and it does not have a secondary ramp on the fire exit for him. So we ask: “Can that be fixed please?” and the answer is “No. Actually we’ll give you a fire extinguisher and fire blanket.” and that needs to be OK for this man in his wheelchair. That is not OK and that is absolutely the reason that we support the devolution of 10 percent of State houses.So let us get this clear: this is not a wholesale sell-off of all State housing. We have agreed actually before we start jumping up and down over here to sell only a small percentage of these houses so that we can have options for our people because we do not want our people to be stuck under the thumb of the Government for the rest of their lives. If they can have a provider that understands their complex needs that might put a Whānau Ora navigator alongside them to assist them out of that situation into homeownership then that is exactly what we want. That is what the Māori Party has done.So let me tell you the things that we have advocated for. We have advocated for the warrant of fitness trial on housing. Five percent of the housing stock—which extrapolated out across the whole of the Housing New Zealand stock is about 60000-odd homes—failed miserably the trial Housing Warrant of Fitness test. It is going to cost about $34 million for this Government to ensure that those urgent repairs are carried out on those homes. I have had calls from people who tell me that their home is infested with rats. They cannot get Housing New Zealand to come and respond to them. I get calls from people who tell me that Housing New Zealand has just painted straight over the black mould and that their child has been hospitalised.I have no problem at all—no problem at all—in supporting this legislation which provides other people such as these iwi organisations the opportunity to show that actually we can do it better than that.