Parker David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParker David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 15 April 2014. Volume:698;Page:17218. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]2.Hon DAVID PARKER (Deputy Leader—Labour) to thePrime Minister: Does he have confidence in all his Ministers?Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): Yes.Hon David Parker: Why does he have confidence in the Minister of Housing who now says that New Zealanders will have to wait 20 years for affordable housing under his Government?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I do not think the Minister said that; what the Minister did say is that it is a very long-run process. I note that if one looks at homeownership rates they have been declining since 1991 actually. What is of course a great concern to many New Zealanders is the way that house prices doubled under the previous Labour Government.Hon David Parker: Why should a young couple in their early 30s facing an average house price in Auckland nudging $700000 have to wait 20 years until they are in their 50s and their children have already moved out before they can buy a house?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: This may come as a shock to the member but there are many young couples in their 30s who are out there buying houses today. Those lucky couples will almost certainly have jobs under a National-led Government and will be paying interest rates that are a fraction of what this Government inherited when we came in to office. They will also be subject to all of the things that this Government is doing including housing accords in Auckland looking at development contributions and dealing with reform of things like the Resource Management Act. There is no silver bullet to the housing issue but what we do know is that house prices under this Government have gone up by 23 percent. They doubled under Labour. No amount of being a lion in Opposition will make up for the fact that they were a bunch of little lambs—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I do not think that is going to help the order of the House.Hon David Parker: Was his decision to abandon yesterday’s challenge to debate housing policy with David Cunliffe on national TV a result of overnight focus groups and polling showing—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! I heard the first part of the question; I am struggling to hear the second part and I need to so I require a little less interjection. Would the member please start his question again.Hon David Parker: Was the Prime Minister’s decision to abandon yesterday’s challenge to debate housing policy with David Cunliffe on national TV a result of his focus groups and polling overnight showing that New Zealanders know that his housing policy is such a shambles that he is best to leave it to Nick Smith to take the rap?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: For a start-off I would be happy to debate with David Cunliffe in Parliament if he would like to turn up. That is the first thing. The second thing was I made it quite clear actually that we were more than happy to have that debate which we will be having in the first debate on Television One. And if we want to get into polling I hate to tell the Labour members but in our polls Labour was at 26 percent last week.Hon David Parker: Who is correct: Bill English who said that we will not collect data on overseas buyers of New Zealand houses; last week’s Prime Minister who said that we will not collect data on overseas buyers; or yesterday’s Prime Minister who said that concerns around overseas buyers are credible and that he might now gather the data?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The point we have been making is the right point which is that we do not think that foreign purchasers of houses are actually a significant impact on housing prices in Auckland or around New Zealand. What is also true is that there is not actually a lot of credible data out there but the data we do have certainly indicates that. But as I have said it is always a possibility to look at that but I think it is a very challenging thing to do because people can buy properties through trusts or through companies or through many other structures. What I do know is that Labor in Australia has introduced what Labour in New Zealand is talking about and what is interesting is that in Australia there are more foreign purchases taking place than in New Zealand. And secondly unaffordability is higher in Australia than it is in New Zealand. It is nine times the average wage to buy a house in Sydney and seven times in Auckland.Hon David Parker: With the average Auckland house price having increased by $200000 under his watch and now nudging $700000 each loan-to-value ratios hurting first-home buyers and provincial New Zealanders and his own admission that after 6 years of his Government Auckland is building only a third of the new houses it needed is it not time that he admitted that his and Nick Smith’s housing policy is a complete shambles?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Let us just run through a few facts. I hate to put them in sway of the member’s argument but house prices doubled under 9 years of Labour. They have gone up 23 percent on average under this Government in 5½ years. When those homeowners go to buy a house under this Government they are facing a base rate of 2.75 percent. Under the previous Government that rate was 8.5 percent. It is this Government that has a special housing accord established with Auckland that will see 13000 sections consented and homes built over a period of time for the next 3 years—39000 sections. It is this Government that is looking at the cost of building materials and it is this Government that is actually looking at development contributions. The member needs to go and ring up Helen Clark because she spent months and months—in fact years—working on housing issues because they were such a big issue under her Government and it ignored every recommendation that it got. That is why house prices doubled under Labour.Hon David Parker: Can he confirm that the number of building consents issued nationally in the last 5 years even with the Canterbury rebuild is 100000 down on the previous 5 years?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I do not have that data but what I do have is that in February there were 21854 consents more than in any other period of time. Of course during the global financial crisis there would have been a significant reduction in demand and with Christchurch there was a reduction in demand. But it is pretty simple. This is the message: under 9 years of Labour house prices doubled and interest rates went through the roof.