Parker David: Social Housing Reform (Flexible Purchasing and Remedial Matters) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParker David: Social Housing Reform (Flexible Purchasing and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3668. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour): I would like to speak to the title of this bill which is named the Social Housing Reform (Flexible Purchasing and Remedial Matters) Bill. Before I come to why I think it is misnamed I want to just recap the main features of the existing housing crisis in New Zealand. First of all we have got the lowest rate of homeownership in the private ownership marketin over 50 years. Secondly we have got the highest prices for houses ever in New Zealand. Thirdly those prices are amongst the highest in relation to income as they are in any part of the world. Fourthly the Government has already sold off thousands of rental houses. Fifthly we have got poor-quality rental stock around the country—in Auckland but also in the provinces—because we have got no minimum standard of housing and yet this bill does away with the advice function of the ministry.I want to address where this leads. In particular in one little subsection of housing when you have such high housing need and no place for people to stay you not only get an increase in homeless people you get people staying in substandard accommodation. We are now actually seeing middle-class people—who used to be insulated from this sort of thing; I know of people in this situation now and I did not of know people in this situation a few years ago—who if they suffer a family breakup for example have to move with their child into another house and share a bedroom. These are middle-class people. These are not the lowest-income people. The person I am referring to whom I will not name is in full-time work but he is in that situation with one of his children.Even further down the tree the people who are less well-off get forced into even less desirable situations—namely caravan parks. I want to just reflect on where this is heading in New Zealand because we now have more people than ever living in caravans and caravan parks. I came across this article in respect of where it has got to in the United States because this is the path that we are on currently with all of those factors I have talked about. It is in the Guardian Weekly of 15 May—just this month. It says that “America’s poverty trap is offering up sharp profit margins for private landlords”. I hope people in here are shocked by this. This article refers to the number of people who are living in caravan parks in the United States—and its problems have been growing for longer than ours in this regard. How many people do you think are living in caravan parks in America? Have a guess.Dr Megan Woods: A million.Hon DAVID PARKER: A million?Dr Megan Woods: A million.Hon DAVID PARKER: A million is an enormous number of people. You would think that is right would you not? Did you know that the answer is 20 million people—6 percent of the American population now live in caravan parks. And it has become a big industry for the big end of town because they do not even own their caravan in their caravan park—6 percent of all Americans now live in caravan parks.I would hope that the housing officials who are sitting there looking at this would be ashamed of their bosses who are forcing through the House legislation to say that the officials cannot give advice about that being where this trend ends in New Zealand. That is why this bill should be named something different from it being about remedying social housing problems. It actually makes them worse and it should be about the trend towards caravans because that is what is happening in New Zealand.Paula Bennett who should hang her head in shame in this Chamber refers people to the local caravan park in west Auckland. In west Auckland and South Auckland the camping grounds are bulging at the seams because New Zealanders—some of them in work—have to live in camping grounds. Under this Government we are going down the same path that America has where it has now got 20 million people living in caravan parks in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. We are one of the wealthiest countries in the world too and we have got increasing numbers of people living in cars sharing houses living in camping grounds or being completely homeless.This bill will make it worse because it allows the Government to abrogate its responsibility—to escape income-based tenancies and State houses because it can sell them all off and move them to some other function that is not properly funded. And who will make more money? Again it is the big end of town. Who makes money out of all these trailer parks and the misery in America? The owners of the trailer parks. How many people are affected in America? Six percent of its population. This legislation should be called the “Housing (Promotion of Caravan Parks as a Band-aid) Bill”.