Wow. This is what we’ve ended up with in NZ? Defining warm houses that don’t make people sick and don’t exacerbate death as ‘extreme’?
English won’t adopt Labour’s ‘extreme’ warrant of fitness for housing
The Government won’t support “extreme measures” like warrant of fitness checks for all houses because it will drive up rent and push housing stock out of the market, says Finance Minister Bill English.Labour is calling for cross-party support for its Healthy Homes Bill that would ensure every rental property in the country – state or private – meets a minimum standard of living, including heating and insulation.
And what is the reason Nick Smith gives as to why they will do nothing to mark homes safe?
But Housing Minister Nick Smith is reluctant to extend the warrants to all public and private rentals because if the Government prohibited the rental of home unless they were fully insulated, it would mean taking 100,000 homes off the market.
Soooo, what Nick Smith is actually saying here is there are currently 100 000 Kiwi families living in homes that are making them sick and cold, and because the problem is so large, we’re just not going to do anything about it.
What’s ‘extreme’ about warm houses that don’t spread illness and kill the vulnerable?
That ‘compassionate conservatism’ just evaporates when it’s aimed at landlords doesn’t it?
Oh my God, the market will be distorted, say it isn’t so. A Victorian response if I ever heard. So much so it sounds just like a throw back to the Irish Potato Famine where food could have been sent to Ireland to stop people starving to death but the free marketers feared the market would be distorted if such a terrible thing like saving exploited people’s lives happened. So greed of the day won out and market prices prevailed.
Maybe the greedy pricks who are renting out these places will be driven out of their “investments” through lack of tenants. I bet that’s all English really cares about.
Come on Bill, what about the much trumpeted $25 per week to the benny’s, surely that will cover it? Oh it won’t will it, it’s all bullshit!
1 in 5 New Zealand children have a respiratory disease, 25,000 of those children are admitted to hospital each year and the cost of just 1 day in a hospital is $1200,(in 2011 money),
The real cost, time off work for parents, the cost to get those kids to the doctor and the actual cost of multiple doctors visits along with the ongoing cost of medicines is huge, Green Party co-Leader Metiria Turei estimates this cost at 6 billion dollars annually much of which need not be spent with an ounce of prevention,
A refusal by this Government to adopt any form of minimum standard for rental property is not acceptable,
For anyone working with people suffering a respiratory disease brought about or aggravated by a cold damp Home the best means of both prevention and treatment is to have at least one room in the house heated to between 18 and 20 degrees C, along with this it is recommended that a robust dehumidifier be removing moisture from such a room at all times,
The disability allowance is available for both adults and children with a respiratory disease of up to $46 weekly for adults and children, and, that payment is for the individual so if 2 or more adults or children in a household have a respiratory disease then each of them is entitled to such a payment,
In addition to this there is a specific Child Disability Allowance which also requires a doctors sign off, this child disability allowance can be paid in addition to the child receiving $46 weekly from the disability allowance paid to both adults and children,
This: ”this allowance can help with extra costs that you, your partner, or Child may have because of a disability. it can help pay for things like regular visits to the doctor, medicines, or extra heating for your home”, from WINZ,
http://www.msd.govt.nz>publications&Resources>Brochures
And this: the certificate/application form a doctor must fill in says that no child,(or adult for that matter),need be living in cold damp conditions if they have a respiratory disease,
http://www.workandincome.govt.nz/documents/forms/disability-certificate.PDF
it is obvious to me that such information concerning financial help that would make at least one room in any Home fit for habitation for those with respiratory diseases is being deliberately withheld from those who suffer such diseases and the parents of the children with such,
For a fraction of the cost to the health system, an estimated 6 billion dollars yearly, at least one room in every home where respiratory disease is present should have both a dehumidifier and heater along with the paid electricity costs which would prevent the sufferers of such diseases from needing multiple doctors visits and 25,000 child admissions to our hospitals,
That does not in any way excuse either the State or private renters of property from having such property meet a Legislated minimum standard, but, as i will continue to stress, such proposed minimum standards have been met in the HousingNZ property i currently reside in,(the Mansion), and, during the Winter months such minimum standards make NO difference to the internal temperature of the Home,
In fact, during colder periods, followed by a warming day, such insulation actually keeps the temperature inside the Home lower than that of the atmosphere outside the Home….
Much as it pains me to defend the indefensible Nick Smith, he has a point here. Only one of the places I lived in while renting would have met Labour’s WoF proposals, and the first house I owned wouldn’t have either. I wouldn’t rather have had those rentals meeting middle-class ideals of what constitutes a comfy home, because they would have cost a hell of a lot more to rent, and I didn’t need comfy, I needed cheap. Tenants with kids require higher-quality rentals than tenants operating a drunk-people-don’t-require-heating policy, but their requirements are better addressed on an individual basis. What Labour’s suggesting is the end of cheap rentals, so they can fuck right off.
yeah right, we need slums, lots of slums
In 2009 National actually did something positive about this by implementing Greens policy to insulate a lot of homes by offering a subsidy. But of course that was early in National’s first term – Labour’s fiscal prudence had produced surpluses that National couldn’t resist spending like wastrels. They thought that putting some money into a scheme that made a lot of sense (they wouldn’t have thought of it themselves) might regain them a few brownie points after wasting more money on tax cuts for the rich.
But that was then, this is now. National has just won its third election in a row and is bursting with cocky right-wing arrogance. It doesn’t need to do anything more that is socially sensible for at least another two years so it won’t be implementing wofs for rental homes.
National has its middle finger up and it is pointing at you folks!
If we need wofs for cars so they are safe on the road, then why don’t we need wofs for houses so the inhabitants can live in safety?
Because National regards cars as more important than people, judging on the billions of dollars it pours into roads of national stupidity.
Ah Rainbow !!
– a cold day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emtRz9TcDBE
Brings back memories – surprised Nick Smith hasn’t suggested the exercise bit !!
‘It’s a cold and snowy day and the heating has broken down in the Rainbow House. To keep warm Geoffrey, Bungle, Zippy and George put on lots of wooly jumpers and scarves, do some exercises, and sing “The Hokey Cokey”. Bungle and George make a model of a snowman.’
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