Kāinga Ora—Homes and Communities Bill

I’m proud to be part of a Government that’s tackling the long-term issues facing New Zealand, and one of the most important is the housing crisis that we’ve been left with under this Government.

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: I’m sorry to interrupt the member, I got a bit confused—this is a split call.

Yes, that’s right. Cool. So down in Invercargill, we’ve been left with an incredible shortage of social housing because, under the previous Government, a huge number of our State houses were sold off. What that means is that many, many people in need of State and social housing are absolutely struggling to find somewhere. Fortunately, this Government’s put a huge investment into emergency housing, but it still is not the best in terms of ensuring that people get access to long-term, secure housing.

The other issue that’s critically important is housing quality. Just thinking back to a documentary that was run by Bryan Bruce, under the previous Government, called Inside Child Poverty: A Special Report, what he did is he took some cameras into a whole series of homes of families that were living with children. What he was showing was just the huge substandard nature of the housing that they were in. So he walked through this whole series of different flats, all connected, one after the other, and just showing the huge amount of black mould that was in the ceiling, the curtains waving in the breeze because of the gaps in the joinery, and curtains turning black within a period of months just because of the damp, substandard nature of the house.

So I think this is where this bill is critically important, because what Kāinga Ora does is it brings together two core functions: being a world-class public housing landlord and also leading and coordinating urban development projects. I think we’re going to need both to make sure that we can build those houses on a scale that is going to get us out of that housing crisis.

I think one of the most important things for me, looking at this bill, is that what the bill does is it enshrines Housing New Zealand’s recently introduced social housing objectives into legislation. And what they’re talking about is providing decent housing; being a fair, compassionate landlord; and helping to sustain tenancies. Those are core principles that I think would have made a big difference to many, many children living in State houses over the past decade.

So what I want to do is just take you through the operating principles that are laid out for Kāinga Ora in this bill, and talking about those that the board will be required to enforce. What they include is providing good quality, warm, dry, and healthy rental housing. Now, that sounds really simple, but if you contrast that to the lived reality for many children in our State houses over the past decade, there’s a big difference there in terms of some of their experiences. It also talks about supporting tenants to be well connected in their communities, to lead lives with dignity and the greatest degree of independence possible, and to sustain tenancies—so talking about secure housing. Again, it sounds, you know, as if that would be just self-explanatory—but again those lived experiences over the past decade, and so this is why I think it’s incredibly important that we enshrine this in law. It also talks about working with community providers to support tenants and ensure those most in need are supported and housed, because again something that has been lacking in the past is providing that crucial wraparound support for those tenants in our social housing.

The other operating principles—some of them include looking at supply and making sure that housing supply meets demand. And so just a couple of them: managing its housing stock prudently, including upgrading and managing its housing to ensure it remains fit for purpose. Again, basically, this is some stuff that again hadn’t been happening over the past decade. So we end up with rundown State houses, deferring the maintenance because they had to take off a profit. So, basically, putting this back in legislation is really important. Ensuring that housing is developed and is a mix of public, affordable, and market housing and is of good quality is again really, really basic. So, for me, thinking through what would have been the experience of many of those families living in our State houses if this had been in legislation at the beginning of the last decade—thinking through those hospital admissions for kids with all those respiratory infections—if it was enshrined in law that we had to provide warm, decent, quality housing? So this bill is incredibly important in that respect.

The other thing that it does is it requires the Minister to issue a Government policy statement and that just basically outlines the intended direction and priorities in housing and urban development. And again it sounds self-explanatory, but having that broader long-term vision laid out is something that we haven’t had for a very, very long time. So this is an absolutely critical and important bill and I therefore commend this bill to the House.

We’ve arrived at the moment, haven’t we—the Kāinga Ora—Homes and Communities Bill. I suspect people on the other side might be wishing, “Gee, I wish that this wasn’t coming up tonight.”, because we know as soon as we start talking about KiwiBuild, don’t we, that’s a wrecking ball for the Government—a wrecking ball. It’s a slayer of reputations, as I said this afternoon when I was talking about the KiwiBuild, and, of course, this bill is about smashing together three entities to try and make it work better. Of course, we’ve got Housing New Zealand, the development subsidiary HLC—or Hobsonville Land Company, as it used to be known—and the KiwiBuild unit, and I’m not sure this is actually going to solve our issues for the Government. Of course we want the Government to actually build some houses—not the 282 that they’ve built so far, but actually some real, decent houses, and get them out there—but, unfortunately, they haven’t, and we’ve arrived at this situation where we are way under the budget that they promised and promised and promised they were going to do for years and have failed to in the first 20 months. And this bill is not going to make a jot of difference in terms of achieving that outcome.

I think the idea that by merging stuff, you get better outcomes—well, in fact, if you look at the history of mergers, normally they don’t work. Partly, and the main reason, it’s because you get a cultural divide going on when you put entities together. I’m sure that when you merge two very high sort of Government-focused entities such as Housing New Zealand and KiwiBuild and put them together with a commercial arm like HLC, that is going to be a problem.

But the real issue with this is that you can see what’s happening already in the market. This unit is already out poaching consenting staff from Auckland Council, paying a lot more to get the same people out of Auckland Council consenting unit. They’re hiring them in here and paying a fortune more for them because they think somehow this entity is going to deliver a better outcome. It will not. It’s another failure and it won’t achieve anything towards a real significant move towards building a heck of a lot more houses, which we, ultimately, need in New Zealand.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The Kāinga Ora—Homes and Communities Bill: I understand that the world adheres to the standard that when a promise is made, the promise is made with the intention of making good on it, and that the promise is not made unless the promise-maker, with experience and skills and knowledge and honour and dignity, has reasonable cause and intention to make good on that promise. The promise that 10,000 homes would be built—1,000 in the first year, 5,000 in the second year, and so on—had been made. After two years, 258 homes have been built.

💬 Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi: How many?

Two hundred and fifty-eight homes have been built. Yes, and 169 have been sold. All indications are that the promise could not have been fulfilled at the time that it was made, yet it was made, and repeatedly. The promise is now no more.

Under the bill, Kāinga Ora will take control of 27,000 homes in the pipeline under each year when National left office. Taking control of these homes, and the merger of three existing entities into one, without any substantive reform in the Resource Management Act or addressing the needs of private sector developers in the building industry, we believe will not achieve better outcomes. For that reason, we oppose this bill.

It is an absolute privilege to speak on this Kāinga Ora—Homes and Communities Bill. I grew up in a State house in Onehunga in Auckland when I arrived here in New Zealand in 1980, and that’s because that State house was built by a Labour Government. And that was because there was a need in the community in New Zealand to provide for those who we may say are vulnerable but actually it’s providing for those—both my parents were working at the time but they still needed support. It is to provide for ordinary New Zealanders—ordinary New Zealanders.

So before I talk further on this bill, I want to reflect on what the New Zealand Public Service Association said, because it sums up the bill. I just want to say it just in case I talk on and on and I forget to include that in my speech. The New Zealand Public Service Association said, “We welcome the commitment from this Government to strengthen the role of central government in the planning and co-ordination of housing and urban development. The merger of Housing [New Zealand], HCL and parts of the KiwiBuild programme into one agency with housing and development powers is a positive step forward towards a more co-ordinated approach from central government. We look forward to the accompanying piece of legislation to see the detail of the new agency’s development powers.” So that’s what it is about. That’s what Kāinga Ora is all about.

This coalition Government is about fixing the long-term, hands-off approach by the previous Government in their last nine years. Kāinga Ora reflects our Government’s commitment, like I said, to the hands-on approach to tackling homelessness and unaffordable housing. Kāinga Ora will be our housing delivery arm right across the housing continuum. We have designed Kāinga Ora in a way that reflects our values and focuses on the wellbeing. The fact this bill is actually called Kāinga Ora brings a new perspective into lenses of a Te Ao Māori world view that has been missing from some of our conversation in this country. In a collective term it actually talks about the wellbeing of the community, and if a bill in law starts off with the intent of providing for wellbeing in the community, then I say it is the right thing to do. It is the right thing to do.

Previously, we’ve heard, from the last nine years—I had been a diligent public servant during those times—of the trickling-down effect. Actually, what we’ve just heard from Dr Liz Craig, the Labour list MP based in Invercargill, in the documentary that she alerted us to was that actually mould was trickling down the walls, the curtains—the breeze was coming through holes in the wall.

I know Invercargill. I actually spent most of my time in Tāmaki-makau-rau, but I know that in Invercargill, it is a lot colder. It is a lot colder in Invercargill—curtains move indoors because of what the conditions of these places were. I think that the perspective of kāinga ora, of a well community, well home, actually is the right way to go.

The Tongan word for kāinga, which, in Māori, is about home and a place to stay, is called ‘api. When you’re talking about ‘api, that’s why I reflect on this in terms of a collective point of view of wellbeing, is that I connect to it because ‘api means the whole property, the people that live in the home. So I think that kāinga and ‘api actually are about the same.

So what does Kāinga Ora do? Well, Kāinga Ora has two core roles: being a world-class housing landlord, and leading and coordinating urban development projects. It will be a powerful delivery entity capable of integrated urban development that provides a mix of public, affordable, and open-market housing in large and small urban development projects throughout the country.

As I’ve said before, I grew up in a State house, and I’m used to having the lawn in the front and the lawn at the back, whether you lived in the State house or you had your own home. What New Zealand is going through is a new way of living. Whether you were living in an affluent community or whether you grew up in a State house, we all had a backyard—most of us had a backyard. We’re going into the new future of New Zealand now where there is a possibility that might not be a possibility for many. If kāinga ora is about looking at the wellbeing of the community, that we will take into place urban spaces where people could have recreation places, parks that will actually support the growth of urban living.

So for some large-scale, complex development projects, it will have access to a range of statutory powers that will better enable development. It is a new agency to power us to partner with local government, iwi, and the private sector to build—here comes the word, it’s called quality State and affordable market homes, creating thriving, living, and planned communities.

So why do we need it? Why do we need Kāinga Ora? Why do we need Kāinga Ora—homes and communities? As I said before, New Zealand is becoming more urban with more people living in cities and towns than ever before. I’m not sure what my view is on Invercargill, but I’m glad that my parents chose to live in Tāmaki-makau-rau, but my view may have been different if I grew up in Invercargill.

Traditionally, as I’ve said before, in towns and cities we have grown by turning neighbouring rural land into suburban homes. Second-generation, or brownfield, development is often difficult and risky with poor quality and ageing or at-capacity infrastructure. I speak from experience in terms of having families and people that every day I come in connection with who live in homes that actually reflected what Dr Liz Craig had said about the homes that were in that documentary. If we have this in place then we know for certain the future of New Zealand housing will be, as we’ve often said on this side, affordable, will be warm, and will be able to reflect the people living in that community.

So I am a grandmother of six, soon to be seven—I’m a grandmother of six, soon to be seven—I said before, I’m 50—[Interruption] Yeah. This is about building for the long term. This is about building beyond the 30 years. What I would want for my grandchildren, I would want for every person in this country, because we are building for generations and generations and generations.

I often reminisce on how we used to have a backyard and we had those round State house cement houses at the back where we fit the lawn mower. But the thing is—

💬 Hon Member: But everyone’s got one of those.

On Moana Avenue in Onehunga we did. The thing is that there was—

💬 Hon Member: Not these days.

Yeah, not these days. So now—now—it is about bringing in the future development and futureproofing it for every New Zealander—every New Zealander.

💬 Kieran McAnulty: Did they do that?

I don’t even think they thought there was a housing crisis. I don’t think they thought it was a housing crisis. I don’t know. I thought they were good at maths, but if one was selling off State houses, not building them, and if one were not building new homes, affordable homes, then—

💬 Hon Member: Minus one.

Minus one. Then why do we think there is a housing crisis? Because there’s not enough houses—there’s not enough houses. If you’re selling State houses—

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! It would be nice if the member actually talked about the Budget.

OK.

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: I have given a lot of leeway.

All right. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: It would be nice just to bring it to the Budget for the last bit.

💬 Hon Members: Kāinga Ora bill.

OK.

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: I’m sorry, back to the House. I beg your pardon.

OK, let’s come back to Kāinga Ora.

I want to take this opportunity to all those that contributed throughout the select committee stages. The bill—as I said before, if I didn’t say it before—lays out a set of operating principles for Kāinga Ora, which the board will be required to enforce. Having a group of people to enforce with a set of principles is always a good start when we’re talking about a bill. If we know what the board has to work alongside in terms of providing great principles for this building for the next 30 years, then that’s what Kāinga Ora will provide. It will also be supporting tenants. I know that every landlord wants to look after the wellbeing of the people within the homes that they’re actually getting a livelihood from. On that note I commend this bill to the House.

Thank you, and I do apologise for interrupting the member. I call Hon Ron Mark.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Well, it is my duty and privilege to take a call on behalf of New Zealand First to speak on the Kāinga Ora—Homes and Communities Bill, and I do so gladly. I think—just having a bit of a chat with my colleague here, the Minister of Finance, and jokingly saying to him, “Well, I am speaking, but someone might ask what does the Minister of Defence know about housing?” I will just start by saying that I am actually the New Zealand First spokesperson on housing as well, and building and construction, although I tend to play—

💬 Matt Doocey: Bring back Denis.

I’m glad “Mr Juicy” raised the question.

💬 Hon Member: Doocey, not juicy.

Juicy Doocey from Rangiora—my brother from another mother, as we often refer to each other—raised Denis O’Rourke’s name in the House here tonight, because, I think, when—

💬 Rt Hon David Carter: He was a good member.

A great member from Christchurch, and the Hon David Carter’s quite right.

I recall working alongside of the Hon David Carter’s brother, Philip Carter, and Denis O’Rourke when they were both city councillors of Christchurch. Both those gentlemen displayed one thing when it came to housing: a great understanding of the need for social housing—both of them. In fact, I know how committed Mr Philip Carter was, and the Carter family were, to providing social good, because as an MP down there I actually went to the trust which they run and gained assistance for some of my constituents on occasion, whom I could not otherwise get assistance for. I thank David Carter and his family for that sense of community and that commitment to community that they’ve always displayed in Christchurch over the 30-odd years that I lived down there and was privileged to be a list MP for New Zealand First.

I’m going to go back to that because Mr Doocey actually has triggered something that I think we need to talk about, particularly when we address the comments made by the Opposition speakers around the need for Resource Management Act reform.

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: Could we just relate that to the bill.

Well, we will come to back to that.

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: Relate it to the bill. We are on the third reading.

So the bill, so, right now, well this is housing and this is—I’m going to bring my comments to the contribution by the Minister, Minister Twyford, when he spoke right at the commencement of the second reading. He reflected on certain matters. I want to discuss those matters that he reflected on, with a view to better understanding the rationale and the thinking behind the creation of this bill.

Minister Twyford said that public and affordable housing are at the heart of the coalition Government’s agenda. I’d say yes, but I’d go one step further and say it’s at the heart of our social wellbeing agenda. It’s at the heart of our more holistic social wellbeing agenda. Minister Twyford’s comments that public and affordable housing creates a space and place where young families and otherwise homeless people can be able to reside is very true, but it goes beyond that. It actually, I think, creates a space where these people can thrive—more than survive; thrive—and where they can raise their children in safety and security. When I reflect on those parts of his speech, it reminds me of another person, a great Prime Minister, as far as I’m concerned, who probably summed all this up very well. His name was Norm Kirk, and I quoted him in my maiden speech in the House, in 1996. If I look at what the Government’s trying to do here—cater for vulnerable New Zealanders who are homeless—

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: Look, I’m sorry to interrupt the member, but this is actually a third reading. Second reading is quite different from a third reading. A second reading is concerned with the principles of the bill, but this is a third reading, and—

💬 Hon Grant Robertson: Point of order.

Well, it’s the second.

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: —I’m speaking—you must address yourself to the principles of the bill before the House. You’ve been quite esoteric. We actually have a piece of legislation in front of us here. Oh, beg your pardon. Oh, God—it’s one of those nights, isn’t it! Beg your pardon. I’ll put it all away—and carry on.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. So this is the second reading. In Mr Twyford’s second reading speech, he spoke about these matters about social wellbeing—

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: Is that what you were going to say?

💬 Hon Grant Robertson: Yeah, it was.

—and catering for the House, which brought back memories of my speech in reference to Norm Kirk. Now, Norm Kirk probably put it better than Minister Twyford did—and better than we are—because, when you look at the social housing problem that this bill seeks to address, it does the one thing that Norm Kirk spoke of. He said, “Kiwis don’t want for much, they simply want someone to love, somewhere to live, somewhere to work, and something to hope for.” It is the acceptance of this by the Labour, New Zealand First, and Green parties, when we were in Opposition last term, that drove us to this point. That’s the thinking and the rationale that is behind the creation of this piece of legislation.

But, of course, to believe that you need to do this, we have to accept that there is a problem that needs addressing. Now, we, quite openly, said last term there was a—there is a—housing crisis. It seemed clear to us, with so many reports of people living in cars. We’re not talking about one homeless man living in a car; we’re talking about families in a van.

💬 Kieran McAnulty: What did they say?

Well, there was no housing crisis in their eyes, Mr McAnulty. The question is: if one believes there is a housing crisis, then one has a choice. One does something about it or one doesn’t. This coalition Government has decided to move on this problem through this legislation. I’m proud that we have done this.

Of course, if one disagrees with it, as the previous National Government did, one doesn’t move—which I find somewhat ironic in a way, because I do remember reading many articles where the former Prime Minister openly talked about the privilege he experienced of growing up in a State house. So there we have one man who’s a clear example of what can happen—of a young boy raised in a State house becoming successful, wealthy, and a role model for other people who likewise started in circumstances like that—not seeing the value of the very type of home that he was privileged to have.

I’m from a background which is a bit different. I am one of those people who see huge value in the State picking up its responsibility and housing people in an affordable manner. It is only by doing that that one gives those children the chance to grow and thrive so that they might also arrive at a place such as this—the same way that your Rt Hon John Key did and the same way that I have. Mind you, I didn’t live in a State house. My foster parents couldn’t afford one. There’s another story. But I think there’s more depth to this legislation as outlined by Minister Twyford that I’m very pleased to be able to endorse from the New Zealand First perspective.

The Government policy statement is probably an area, in my closing minute, that is worthy of mention. I think that will lay down some ground rules and ensure that the conditions that the community expects, that the Government expects, that developers and councils adhere to are those which provide for sustainable housing and which will also mitigate environmental concerns that may exist in those particular locales.

There was one other thing that does worth mention: mana whenua. Pleased to see, at the heart of these developments, we have the opportunity for Māori providers to enter into the stream. I’d just like to remind the House that this is actually not new. If we go back to the 2005-2008 Government, it was the Rt Hon Winston Peters who initiated the papakāinga funding, which the Hon Parekura Horomia advanced, and which I was privileged as a member of Parliament to turn the first sod on a papakāinga development at Hurinui o Rangi in Carterton a year or so ago, and unfortunately I missed the opening of those houses, but they are there for everybody to see. The success is there being enjoyed right now by our kaumātua and kuia, and for that I thank the visionary politicians in Government who can actually see the need for underpinning the social wellbeing of our communities.

The question was put that the amendments recommended by the Environment Committee by majority be agreed to.