Labour’s disgrace – the housing catastrophe for low-income families rolls on…

By
John Minto
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156
2392

There are no excuses – there is nowhere to hide – there are no figleaves. Labour’s disgrace is in plain sight.

The latest figures for the state house waiting list were released late last week and no amount of fudging or dissembling can hide the fact that Labour continues to preside over the largest explosion in the state house waiting list in the history of Aotearoa New Zealand – AND IT IS DOING NOTHING ABOUT IT.

No wonder these figures were released three months late. They are horrendous. They are shameful.

The state house waiting list has increased five fold since the 2017 election which brought Labour to power– from around five thousand to over 25,000.  

There were 25,524 applicants on the Housing Register as at 31 December 2021, an increase of 13.3 percent from the same time last year (i.e., December 2020) 

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If there was ever any doubt that Labour governs for the corporate and the comfortable it is the graph above. 

Māori are just over 50% (50.6%) of the wait list while Pasifika families are 15.3%

Covid 19 is NOT to blame.

The problem is with Labour government policy settings which pretend there is no catastrophe. 

  • Labour has continued building and funding state houses at the same rate as the previous National government – 1600 places per year. This is for 25,524 tenants and families living in desperate housing conditions!
  • Labour policy is to keep state house number at 3.6% of the total housing stock (the same as National) rather than increase it to its 1990 level of 5.4%

Labour wants struggling families on low incomes to continue paying the mortgages of middle-class landlords through unaffordable rents.

And to fund the miserable number of houses Labour is building, it is forcing Kainga Ora to sell crown land. This is the largest privatisation of state assets by Labour since the 1980s.

Housing Minister Megan Woods should hang her head in shame.

156 COMMENTS

  1. Labour simply MUST be voted out. And because they and National are so firmly on the same page you can’t even use the excuse that National would be worse.

    I’m wondering what the reprehensible Megan Woods will be doing for a job after 2023? Or her Prime Minister? I’m sure we will still have to keep paying for them somehow and paying for the mistake of trusting them!.

    • Problem is – and I never vote for either main party – National will be worse on lots of things. Not that I want to shout how successful Labour have been, I remain appalled at this ‘transformational’ government, their pulling kids out of child poverty……………..

  2. This government does not deserve re-election. I hope they get decimated, take stock and come back with a bit of courage and true left wing policy.

    • Courage, not sure they know what that means.

      Poto Williams should be sacked as police minister, totally out of her depth.

  4. It does sound like a ponzi scheme and a pretty uncreative one at that. I don’t mean to be flippant but where I live there are a great deal of retired nz rail carriages which could be converted into liveable spaces; also where are the retired Air NZ planes? I read that air nz just downsized it’s fleet and a Boeing 737 would make quite a comfortable apartment.

  5. Interesting that just using the stated book values of Nga Tahu ($1.6B) and Tainui ($1.0B) suggests that some of these Iwi’s have substantial holdings and income.

    Seeing as they pay no tax on this, perhaps they should build houses for the 12,500 Māori in need of social housing? If you answer no to this, then surely they should pay tax?

  6. Was never a fan of MMP. The promise of proportional representation more often delivered disproportional power to the minor parties. So was actually pleased when Labour managed a majority. Like them or loath them at least there was an opportunity to do something substantive for a change. And Covid aside you would have to say they have been a dismal failure.
    My two adult children are both looking to leave as soon as they can and I can’t blame them. All the things that attracted me here many years ago are now the same things pushing them away. And it’s not only the young ones, already had a number of friends return to the UK as they were disillusioned with life here in NZ.

    • We don’t want to go backwards mc kiwi if your two adult children ( how they can be adults and children) want to leave then nobody is holding them back. As for people coming here from the UK many are still coming here from the UK so it cant be as good as you say or they wouldn’t bother

    • Your UK PM raised the white flag 2 years ago and did a shit job on Covid. He is now charging his citizens for RATs and as a consequence he has halved the daily cases to 100,000 cases but still has the highest death rates in Europe. Labour is the only government in the world to have defeated Covid. You should be grateful for the leadership of Jacinda in saving you, me and 15000 other NZ citizens from foreign invaders – COVID. If you and your whanau don’t like being treated as a governor or middle class in Aotearoa then you should go back home into the low class.

  8. The usual tory sheep shaggers above have some explaining to do; what is your glorious Baldrick proposing in terms of public housing then?

    No excuses for Labour though. We need a state house and apartment mega build with a rejuvenated fully publicly owned Ministry of Works Dept. The local industry showed what scummy traitors they are over Kiwibuild–yes a flawed scheme–but the developers and suppliers basically went on strike because they only want high margin jobs.

    –State House mega build
    –Tiny houses for homeless
    –Emergency housing in every city and town
    –All MSD/WINZ debt related to emergency housing (e.g. motels) be wiped forthwith
    –Occupy empty residential and commercial properties on a militant, disruptive, rolling basis till the politicians get the message

    I raise these points for obvious reasons, so get politically active people and make it so.

    • Only came out on Friday and the MSM are slow at picking things up. Minto was on the radio this morning talking about.

  10. The cuckoo sneaked into power by empathetically, frowny, head tiltingly looking directly into the poors eyes and promising them a healthy affordable home and a future where they are finally acknowledged and respected, once in power she did a complete 180, turned her back on the poor, disregarded their woes and threw wheel barrows full of cash to those rich enough to already own multiple homes. If that is not one of the most cynically disgustingly cruel things I have ever seen then I don’t know what is?

    • Not as sneaky and smarmy as John Key. His legacy was property speculation and a corrupt dirty politics government. He is not remembered for anything else. He was a nobody internationally. It is interesting that all the people around the world except for the 30% right wing in Aotearoa recognise and respect Jacinda and her successes. Despite the rogue morgan poll, Australia voted for Jacinda as PM.

      I say to you crazy nasty “Hate Jacinda” right wing tories, rejoice and be grateful that Jacinda is the only world leader to have saved the lives of NZ citizens (you, me and 15000 others) from foreign invaders – covid.

      • Successes plural – please explain.

        I am not a tory, way left of the Labour party and am deeeeeeeply disappointing in their performance.

        Good on covid forget the rest.

  11. This is a disgrace also 10% or a maximumm of $20,000 grant too buy the state house you live in. Not of course available in the main centres.

    The Tenant Home Ownership grant is a gift of 10% of the purchase price of selected Kāinga Ora houses up to a maximum of $20,000. The Tenant Home Ownership grant is not available in areas where there is high demand for state houses. These areas include:
    Auckland
    Wellington City
    Christchurch
    Hamilton and
    Tauranga.

  12. 7.5 million for sending more weapons into a war zone.
    4.0 million for spy satellites

    Money for murder. Nothing more.

    I feel sick.

    • Agree, has this government learnt nothing from the tragedy and waste of the Middle East this century? They must be either really stupid, have a depraved murderous streak or are happy to use the Ukraine people as cannon fodder in the West’s proxy war. Maybe Ardern is looking for a poll bump from being a war president, and showing solidarity with war mongers, arms dealers and the far right is how she thinks she may get the adoration she desires. She could have picked a bunch of other conflicts to support and fight the big meanie (the oppressor is typically the war criminal Five Eyes and hangers on in these invasions), including Eastern Ukraine in the past eight years, but she chose this one for some reason, dragging Kiwis into a region and history we have only just learnt about, and wasting money on war fetish while she should be spending it on the economic crisis in this country. She has the same crazy eyes as Blair.

  13. The problem now with Labour is that they have stuffed up mightily, have progressed on a primrose path that has more potholes than flowers and are stuck in the cogs of the system. They think that they are going to get away with it and have got family to start a book on them winning, counting on us to be so stressed at facing two awful retail agencies that we have no choice. It’s a cold callous decision showing no concern or consideration for supposed values we all hold. So Cullen never said ‘We won, you lost, suck on that’ or the like, but he thought it, and that is a black mark against Labour.

    They are in a peculiar position, talking up being progressive, abandoning the workers who they calculated will be a millstone, and the benefits of open slather bringing cheaper workers and goods will nullify the unions value to the workers. Supporting the unions and the workers would be like trying to race a dead horse, and Labour would be that nag.

    Yet they need to go back to the past, pick out the useful policies, find a way to present them again with a white, green or pinkwash but just enough to bring colour to the people’s cheeks and not affect the wealthy b….s who dangle them on their big-game fishing lines. Starting mortgages for approved young people with a two-year savings history from Kiwibank for instance. A 10 year low-rate mortgage for a low-level house purchase. That is what used to happen – a starter. They could make it flexible in some ways to get started. Perhaps the young could buy some of the old housing stock , be paid to do a housing apprenticeship, join a gang of repair and maintenance people, professionally well managed and supervised, that worked on these houses, their own included in the work schedule. They could buy what they had rented possibly if it suited, which the owner wpuld be willing to let go at a low price or face expensive house repair costs. Good eh.

    Killing two or more problems with one maneouvre. Labour can saw the problem in half for its next magic trick. Back to the future, go back to the 1980s era and fix a few things to get the caboose rolling on the right rails. This story is getting interesting – I’d like to see it on the big screen with the young couple walking into the sunshine with their toddlers hanging onto their hands. A few other improvements and Labour might be cheered in instead of fronting up with a showman’s fake smile and crawling away to get boozed – ‘we knocked that bugger over.’ Let’s keep it good and clean Labour and do your legwork so you can show the peeps what you are made of – integrity, brains, muscle and that added extra, cunning.

  14. It is an ongoing issue and I think that, despite the pandemic, the government could certainly have done more in order to solve part of the problem to do with the housing crisis.

    Jacinda Arden has had massive popularity but has never been a hands on Prime Minister. Her popularity was due to social appearances at rock music concerts and various festivals, and nothing to do with her ability to solve this nation’s mounting list of issues. This is unfortunate but true.

    • Daniel Lang,

      The saddest aspect of your incredibly shallow input is that you appear sincere.

      Regardless of what you think of Ardern, she has been the most hands on of any NZ PM of my 60 years. She’s done it all under extremely trying circumstances and while enduring a tidal wave of unprecedented and often misogynistic personal abuse.

      Where you paying attention during the previous Governments 9 years? If so, you will know their focus was all about $$$$. Almost the only time “people” were given priority was when they were talking about “hard working kiwi’s” who just happen to be their supporters. Everyone else who was doing it hard were supporters of the enemy and invariably treated as such. Who suffered under their low wage economy? Who benefited? It was also during that time the gap between rich and poor reached new record levels. ….. this occurred at the exact moment NZ was incessantly being told about a farcical rock star economy in a brain washing manner. This was the same Government that denied there even was a housing crisis and only discovered child poverty in NZ two weeks from election day in 2017 when they realized Ardern was getting traction campaigning for child poverty.

      NZ was ready for change. The time of the wealthy stale pale male was coming to an end. Ardern stepped up at exactly the right time. She’s clearly a caring empathetic people person who puts kiwis ahead of $$$$. The people she cares about are across the board, not just those that vote Labour. This was well overdue. People resonate toward Ardern and that has fuck all to do with her involvement with music. She went to venues including universities etc where she could connect with people. Winston Peters did the same as did John Key who also attended Gay Pride events.

  15. The waiting list has increased five-fold because rent has increased to levels that your average renter can barely afford. Labour do not set rents, landlords do. Greedy landlords have been putting up rents over the last ten years as mortgage rates have fallen and now that they’re on their way up again, landlords are gouging renters even more. Labour have tried (and failed) which is more than what National did. The rules/laws around investment home ownership need to change, if you own more than one investment property (the vast majority of us need to rent at some time in our lives) you’re running a business and they need to be treated as such with taxes paid on the profit, including capital gains, simple!
    Here’s the problem:
    Homes owned by investors by portfolio size
    Investor with 1-2 dwellings-223,051
    Investor with 3-5 dwellings-264,366
    Investor with 6-20 dwellings-96,107
    Investor with 21-50 dwellings-11,944
    Investor with over 50 dwellings-10,254
    Source: Valocity

  16. Housing is clearly Labour’s biggest fail.

    The implications of what’s unfolded are enormous.

    1) Many Kiwi’s were totally disillusioned with the previous Government’s performance on housing. This spurred them on to vote for Labour. I sincerely believe many people were so desperate for “hope” in this area that they voted for the first time in 2017.

    2) Labour showed right from the get-go they were NOT serious about resolving the devastating housing crisis by having the inept Phil Twyford as their Minister of Housing.

    3) When Labour’s farcical Kiwibuild and Twyford were brutally exposed they had a one time only opportunity to get it right with a “reset”. Ardern appointed her friend Megan Woods to be the new Minister of Housing. This was an even bigger epic fail than Twyford. What a sad reflection it is on the Government that Woods is seen as their heavy hitter. She hasn’t got a clue. Four things have increased since she took over. 1) Housing issues have worsened considerably to unprecedented hopeless levels. 2) Inequity is now extreme. 3) Woods bank balance will have dramatically increased. 4) Her own level of morbid obesity has obviously increased. I refer to this issue as the housing portfolio requires a highly motivated energetic person. That is so obviously not Woods. She installs zero confidence yet retains the portfolio. This is a very telling reflection on the Labour Government.

    4) People already had issues with trusting politicians. Under Labour, that number will have increased.

    5) Disillusionment robs people of hope. As a result we will lose thousands of young kiwi’s and be poorer as a result. John Key promised no more empty chairs around NZ dinner tables after many thousands left NZ. The fact we are about to see another exodus is extremely disappointing. No doubt their numbers will be quickly replaced with yet more Chinese and Indian national’s despite the fact NZ has already suffered an enormous demographic change over the last 20 years. I welcome new Kiwi’s but the change has already been way too much and way too quickly.

    6) The CGT was the main tool Labour intended to control the housing market. Winston Peters threatened to cause a constitutional crisis if Labour pressed ahead with the tax. Ardern was clearly rattled by the threat and burned the CGT as long as she was PM. The best weapon they had no longer existed. I understand why Ardern made the decisions she did but they amounted to putting her own political survival as the only priority. The housing crisis was then left to explode under Megan Woods.

    7) Ardern has been stuck in a hopeless position. She knows housing affordability is huge but doesn’t actually want house prices to drop as that will negatively impact many kiwi’s.

    8) Housing priority must go to kiwi’s ahead of new immigrants. New kiwi’s obviously need a home but as long as that is provided ahead of long established kiwi’s the problem will only worsen. The best we can hope for is to just tread water.

    9) Government support for first home buyers is totally unrealistic….unless you want to leave your loved ones and employment behind and move to behindtheblackstumpsville……..the exact place new immigrants should be steered toward.

    10) Back in the day, Kiwi families could use their family benefit as a deposit for a family home. What do we have now? In the UK, the Government matches your deposit to help families into their own home. Our Government needs to look into this with urgency.

    11) I’m so sick of hearing about the poor old “investors” and them losing tax breaks on the 10 to 100 homes they own. Cry me a river. There needs to be a requirement which can’t be circumvented that every purchaser of a NZ residential property must reside at that property themselves or suffer a significant penalty.

    • 3. A problem was conflating the Kiwi BUILD with affordable first family homes. First homes are rarely new builds. So they limited the builds to those who could afford to buy a new first home.

      The obvious buyers were couples were those trading up from a first flat/apartment to a family home or older couples trading down from a larger home and section or couples buying a one bedroom starter to get onto the market.

      11. Yeah and matching deposits as an equity share is an asset on the governments books. It’s an obvious policy to bring in once the market is post peak.

  17. Yes , the right to free tertiary education being removed and fees introduced was maybe when the government had figured it was “cheaper” to bring in trained and qualified people than train our own in the numbers our country needs. Right now they are trying to steal other countries essential workers – doctors and nurses – to make up for the nurses and doctors they should have ensured NZ had trained in the near-past years.
    This kind of approach over the last 30 yrs has made NZ an unhappy fractured country.

  18. Yes , the right to free tertiary education being removed and fees introduced was maybe when the government had figured it was “cheaper” to bring in trained and qualified people than train our own in the numbers our country needs. Right now they are trying to steal other countries essential workers – doctors and nurses – to make up for the nurses and doctors they should have ensured NZ had trained in the near-past years.
    This kind of approach over the last 30 yrs has made NZ an unhappy fractured country.

    • And paid them properly – the nurses, such an underpaid profession. A degree is required and at least 3 years study.
      The pigs get paid the same after 3 months training it is totally ridiculous.

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