7. MOANA MACKEY (Labour) to the Minister of Housing: What new affordable housing initiatives has he implemented since becoming Minister?

Hon PHIL HEATLEY (Minister of Housing) : We will now underwrite loans for building on Māori land, which banks and the previous Labour Government refused to do. The Housing Innovation Fund has been boosted to $20 million. Well, what is new there? We now build houses, not simply fund administration systems, capacity building, and reports. Tenants can now buy their State houses if they choose to. Community housing groups have fed back into the Gateway Housing scheme how it can best provide for them. I thank colleagues for making it cheaper for builders to build, with the changes to the Resource Management Act and the Building Act. I thank the Minister of Finance for better managing the economy during a difficult time for those with mortgages and rents. I have more but—

Mr SPEAKER: The House has heard quite sufficient.

Moana Mackey: We love the court jester routine; it is fine.

Hon Rodney Hide: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I think you know what it is, too. The member was called to ask a supplementary question, not to take an attempted cheap shot at a Minister answering questions.

Mr SPEAKER: We do not need to waste any further time on this. The point the member makes is a perfectly valid point of order, and that should not have happened. However, when Ministers go on for a little too long like that, they do invite comment, and it would be helpful if they did not do that. At the same time, the member should not have done that.

Moana Mackey: How does he reconcile his claim in the House today and back in August that by extending Labour’s Welcome Home Loan scheme to Māori multiple-owned land he had fixed the problem and “solved it in 9 months”, with the statement of the Housing New Zealand Corporation chief executive, Lesley McTurk, to the Social Services Committee last week that “We haven’t worked through the detail of the policy work.”, and with the fact that she was not able to provide any details or even a time-frame for completion?

Hon PHIL HEATLEY: We currently offer a policy for Māori wanting to build on multiple-owned land. They cannot borrow at the moment; the banks will not loan to them, because they have no security. Labour ignored this problem. The Māori Party got talking to me, it asked us to do that, and now we will. It is a great result.

Moana Mackey: If this policy is currently in place, as he claims, and is not still being worked on as the Social Services Committee was told last week by the chief executive of the Housing New Zealand Corporation, how many houses have been built on Māori multiple-owned land under the extension of the Welcome Home Loan scheme?

Hon PHIL HEATLEY: At the moment Māori are engaging with the Housing New Zealand Corporation on their ability to borrow. Obviously, as the policy was only just announced, they are not building houses at the moment.

Moana Mackey: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I asked how many houses, and the Minister did not answer that very simple question.

Mr SPEAKER: The House is very noisy and it is very hard for me to hear. However, I did hear the member’s supplementary question, and it asked how many houses have been built under this policy. In trying to hear the Minister’s answer under a lot of noise I did not hear the substance of the question answered. I invite the Minister to indicate to the House how many houses have been built under the policy.

Hon PHIL HEATLEY: I do not have on hand how many houses are being built at the moment.

Moana Mackey: Can he confirm that of the 40,000 State houses available to be sold to tenants, one is being prepared for sale, as reported by Television New Zealand, and does he stand by his statement that this is “meeting our expectations”, meaning that, at his expected rate of uptake, fewer than 10 homes would be sold to tenants under his Government; and how much taxpayer money has been spent on this aspirational policy?

Hon PHIL HEATLEY: It is true that we are offering State house tenants the opportunity to buy their own homes, and 1,300 have shown an interest. At the moment no tenant has bought a State house, but the National Government is offering State house tenants an opportunity. We are not so condescending that we would say to State house tenants that they could never own their own home. This is not a condescending Government.