Dear NZ – The sooner we realise National have no interest in solving the Housing Crisis, the sooner we can organise to vote them out

1. The problem here is not the government not wanting to build. It is that the rules and regulations make if difficult to build. This is something the left fail to grasp. It is all very well talking about the State building 100,000 new houses but where will these houses be built? If Nick Smith has difficulty getting spare land then where is Labour going to find it?

   • once upon a time Governments made law/policy for the benefit of the country…..back in the mists of time.

     There are numerous options open to any administration with the will….and it may take time as we have allowed the situation to deteriorate to such a degree and have deliberately exacerbated it however the solutions are relatively simple….reduce the demand, build the homes and tax the speculation.

     It of course won’t be popular with many and it will cause a property crash but that is going to occur anyway….better to have a modicum of control over how and when…and bonus!…people may actually have somewhere to live.

   • Gosman they ain’t gonna tell you anything because you and your tory mates will steal their policies just as they did with their new police policy get your crony mates to do some work and think for a change instead of stealing others ideas and expecting others to come up with solutions when they have been in power for how many years. Bloody hypocrites and parasites

   • shit Gosman you are so bloody wrong again sorry.

     Remember Nick Smith and his earlier “Minister of Building” Maurice Williamson (the shifty guy selling Chinese money bags the house next door then repairing it without permits) Do your remember that?

     Well it was Maurice Williamson that rammed through the controversial “Building act” which stopped owner maintenance repairs and he put a whole bunch of new regulations on the industry that throttled the building industry, all while he himself was merrily fixing up the Chinese client next door illegally by his own rules!!!!!

     Of course Nick Smith took the portfolio over and made t even worse now.

     It was Nactional that totally screwed the building market, I should know, I was a tradesman in the industry but like many others now are not because the rules are terrifyingly restrictive.

     • That’s why you should support ACT because we want to remove those restrictive and terrifying rules stopping people like you from doing your job.

       • Sorry Gosman we cant see ACT as a good way to go because it was ACT that wants rail abandoned and trucks rule.

         If you live by any truck route you would be driven out f your home now.

         see the problems now? what would ACT do now to fix the overuse of trucks and rundown of rail (that was started by Richard Prebble) a rouge labour turned ACT minister.
         21st February 2017.

         Subject; Restore regional rail freight & passenger services.

         Since 2000 are studies have concluded that far to many people have been killed by heavy trucks on our N.Z. narrow winding roads, so rail must now be used to move the balance of freight now increasing un-checked.

         Central & Local Government must now adopt as rail policy similar to the N.Z. Rail Strategy 2004 that National Government has now scrapped.

         More deaths are dramatically occurring now attributed to the massive truck traffic expansion averaging 6% increase annually (twice that of the 3% of other road users) every year over year in the last decade. Cyclists and other road user’s lives could have been saved.

         Simply by a plan to move more freight back to rail, as present less than 6% is carried by rail.

         This is compared to (HGV’s) road freight vehicles now move a dramatic unbalanced share of 92% of Land transport freight.

         These are tangible reasons for the Government to adopt a more balanced rail/road modality land transport policy, rather than relying on only a failed Kiwirail 10yr “turnaround plan” which is instead of encouraging rail freight, is embarking on a clear policy of closing down provincial rail freight and moving former customers’ freight back to road.

         The N.Z. Rail Strategy adopted by Government in 2004 was a good example of what is urgently now required to reverse this unbanced massive 60% increase in road freight while witnessing a 50% reduction in rail freight over the last decade.

         We urge you to now regard these issues as a valid reason for funding the repair and reopening of the Napier Gisborne rail services for freight & passenger services.

         Residential suburban community public health & safety issues.

         Residential suburban communities located close to truck routes all over N.Z. especially in export producing regions, and large cities, are now in peril according to latest (WHO) World Health studies.

         These residential communities near heavy road traffic routes, have been linked heart disease and many other medical damages to the increasing exposure to heavy freight truck noise, vibration, & air quality degradation from truck tyre/diesel particulate pollution.

         One truck produces 100 times more than one car in air pollution. Source – several studies including U.S. & N.Z. studies. (NIWA)

         These public health damages to residential communities has also been confirmed by several other studies including a large N.Z. study produced in 2004 by the N.Z. Ministry of Transport showing 980 early deaths annually in N.Z. is attributed to vehicle air pollution alone.

         This heavy traffic noise, vibration & pollution exposure to residential communities near truck routes, coupled with cyclists deaths caused by trucks must all be mitigated, and a N.Z. Rail Strategy must be produced to combat these premature deaths increasing due to our failing current Land Transport road freight policy.

         Pollution Residential bad planning pollution hotspot.

         For example Napier has now the N.Z. dubious title as among the largest volume of truck freight movements through a 12,000 populated residential community.

         All 12 000 residents live within 300 meters of the busy truck route called H.B. Expressway.

         With a daily average of almost 2 000 trucks a day.

         Along with 23 000 other vehicles.

         Also within 300 meters two residential city traffic corridors are situated.

         Kennedy Road & Taradale Road who have a combined total of another 50 000 vehicles a day.

         This residential pollution hot spot produced by bad planning, has generated a total of over 80 000 vehicles a day in a 300 meter radius.

         Now this is a public health crisis, that was highlighted in a year long (PCE) study in 2003.

         The report entitled “H.B. Expressway noise & air Quality issues 2004” is a report generated by the (PCE) Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, and amongst the 9 recommendations can be mitigated by a movement back to rail freight.

         Gisborne also as similar residential communities exposed to 24/7 truck traffic pollution issues due to reliance on road based heavy haulage rather than rail freight from inland port facilities not established.

         If the rail was re-established we see the health benefits are complimentary to providing safer roads for other users and cheaper freight for our export producers.

   • Gorman – I’m sure that excuse is getting a bit old now after 8 years. Even the stupidest Nat supporter can see that you should be able to organise a house in that time frame – especially if you have created the housing crisis by allowing in 70,000 migrants and 250,000 temp workers in and then cry – it’s someone else’s fault!!!

     Not to mention selling off the state houses and leaving them empty.

   • National have problems finding land because they waste transport dollars on last century’s form of transport – the car.

     If our govt invested in quality public transport, then space opens up everywhere. Useful land is only useful because of a range of influences – transport being one.

     You really need to stop repeating the half-wits from Kiwi Blog. They don’t know how to think critically.

     • You raise a very valid point there, go to many shopping centres, and see how vast the parking spaces are, there is parking everywhere, because the city has been built for cars. If we would radically shift to a closely knit public transport network, and make car driving too expensive, then we would suddenly find ample spaces to use for more residential building.

   • Hey, stupid, have you not heard, the Auckland Council’s Governing Body did late last year vote for most of the recommended PAUP, that is the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan. The supposedly “independent” hearing panel actually adopted a strong pro developer, virtually laissez faire ACT Party kind of position towards rules and objectives and policies for Auckland.

     So while that was pushed through, most rules being thrown out, we are still waiting for any significant number of affordable homes to be built. They will not be built, even under the new Auckland Unitary Plan, as the rules are not really the main problem, it is the main issue that the “market” only caters for those rich enough folk who can participate in an overpriced housing market. Even with the new Plan, building and construction costs have exploded, labour is short, and speculation is still rife.

     There is NO affordable housing being built, with or without the Unitary Plan, as the developers and investors will not build anything that costs less than nearly half a million, and such units may only be studio or one or two bedroom apartments, with little or no garden and perhaps not even space for parking a bike.

     This country is run by idiots for mostly idiots, and that is the main problem. If there were less idiots and more informed and educated voters, deciding on facts and sound policy, we would have the state being given a strong mandate, to push ahead with a major construction scheme, for years to come, to build thousands of state and social houses, and to also offer significant housing for those able to buy, at affordable prices. The market has long failed, it is idiotic to cry for the market to sort things out, that market does not include half or over half the population under present conditions.

     So there you are, the rules are the lesser problem, there are many other more serious issues.

   • Land tax, capital gains tax, rent controls and tenancy laws like in countries like Germany, that is what is needed here, so speculators will have no air to breathe and space to germinate and grow more serpent heads. Once controls are in place, and taxation is rejigged, there will be sufficient funds to start off a major housing development program.

   • 1991, 43rd NZ parliament – Jolly Jim Bolger and the Resource Management Act.

     And they’ve had nine long years etc, etc to make it and the local government diehards work for the protection of the land and waters, and the greater well-being of the country’s citizens.

     Where does National get the idea that it has both comprehension and competence for governing?

2. No Martyn, I haven’t been duped.

   When people -traditional moderates and socialists- were saying to me that that they were going to vote National because they couldn’t stand any more of Helen Clark, I did suggest that would be a very bad choice and that there were better option. And it was a very bad choice.

   But never forget that the bulk of the populace are totally uninformed and haven’t got a clue what they are voting for. So we end up with a kind of mob rule.

   As for the housing crisis, it can never be ‘solved’ because it is a symptom of industrial living and the stampede to NZ that we knew would come (forecast in 2002) as the rest of the world rapidly turned to shit.

   Just wait till things start turning really nasty in Australia (it’s coming): then you’ll see a crisis.

3. It isn’t just the National government that has no interest in solving the housing crisis A significant proportion of the New Zealand electorate is equally uninterested.
   Reasons:
   1. they are profiting from it so why should they want it “fixed”
   2. Crisis! What crisis?
   3. Sleepy hobbit syndrome, yawn!
   New Zealanders are sometimes their own worst enemies. Even when they recognise a problem, too many of them can’t be bothered to take action if it means having to get their arses off their armchairs.

   • … and a million others are so politically disengaged they can’t be bothered voting, let alone critically thinking about each parties policies.

   • … and a million others are so politically disengaged they can’t be bothered voting, let alone critically thinking about each parties policies.

   • You are so right, I must say.

4. these dicks have had 8 long years plenty of time to magic up the houses
   your right having blown up a dangerous property and debt bubble there is no exit plan only the sound of bubbles popping

5. We may have to face a very unpleasant fact; that ultimately, the Housing Crisis cannot be fixed without closing the Immigration floodgates.

   We love our immigrants, but there is no question, immigration is the direct, root cause of our constant housing pressures.

   We can tinker around the edges, trying to fix supply, but to do that, we have to change the entire system, and that isn’t going to happen.

   Turn off the immigration firehose however, and the crisis goes away. Prices fall, rents fall, unemployment goes down, wages go up, housing affordability improves, and home ownership rates increase. Ultimately, an entire nation of Middle Class workers learns to give up on the dream of a rentier lifestyle, and finds better uses for their KiwiSaver money. The Middle Class can finally turn its attention back to alleviating poverty, which is its historic role.

   All this from reducing immigration. But immigration has been turned into a Sacred Cow. We on the Left have been conditioned to trigger and foam at the mouth every time it’s mentioned. But there is nothing racist about reducing immigration, as long as it is done equitably and without discrimination, and with respect for those who have already established themselves here in good faith.

   The bottom line is, nobody has a sacred right to come to NZ, and we are not obligated to keep immigration levels at record highs, year on year. If the price of allowing a quarter of a million new long term visitors and immigrants into the country every year is creeping poverty for the majority, insane wealth for a few, and a Lost Generation of Kiwi youth unable to afford a home, the price is too high.

   • “We love our immigrants, but there is no question, immigration is the direct, root cause of our constant housing pressures.”

     You are absolutely right, it is a major cause of the housing affordability crisis, next to speculation by multiple property owners based in NZ, and by some overseas based buyers, some of them using locals as a front for buying up housing stock.

     Wherever I look for immigrants, they tend to either work in the lowly paid jobs, the jobs that are perceived as unpleasant, dirty and underpaid, or on the other hand they work in the very complex jobs, where high level skills and qualifications are essential.

     It seems that many Kiwis are comfortable by having a newly created servant class catering for them at restaurants, supermarkets and in many service jobs, and also comfortable with letting the really too difficult work get done by the high end experts.

     In between is the majority of Kiwis, living it as they see fit, but betrayed are the many working poor and those unable to work for whatever reason, and we see, that Maori and Pasifika are over represented in that category, as they were mostly never given a fair start in life.

     When do Kiwis realise they need to learn to do things themselves, or with the people already here, which requires educating and training all capable people to their abilities and potential, which again requires some resources in education, free education, I would say.

     As most only care about their own wallet and nest, they do not want to front up to that responsibility, and rather let employers get endless numbers of immigrants do the job.

     So the population grows, and one day resources will get scarce, that is when they all start complaining, when it hits them.

     Housing is just one are where this is now showing.

6. What’s not happening in housing and other areas of neglect is what you get under a National government who only govern for the elite and pretend to have a conscience.

7. There has been a fundamental shift in NZ to the right with a strong constituency intent on keeping the status quo in control and that includes the media we relied on to honestly inform us who have abandoned the country and its citizens and have become a powerful weapon in this governments continued dominance.
   I predict as I have for some time watching politics for 30 years in NZ that we have the perfect conditions for a fourth and the real possibility of a fifth term for this government.
   Our country as we knew it is gone and it’s happened with the consent of our fellow New Zealanders who like in 2014 came out to vote for corruption, deceit , greed, and there own mercenary advantage oblivious to the suffering of so many of their countrymen.
   This ruling class won’t give way without a serious organised challenge led by a Kirk or a Bernie Sanders.
   I don’t see a leader in NZ that fits the criteria and can inspire and lead a real “changed” government and give me and others hope we are all desperate for.

Comments are closed.