The Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt is the keynote speaker at a public meeting in Christchurch on Monday to discuss “Housing as a human right” (see poster below)
The meeting is organised by the State Housing Action Network and takes place on Monday 12 December, 7pm at the Transitional Cathedral on the corner of Hereford and Madras Streets.
The meeting will be chaired by Jill Hawkey, Executive Director of Christchurch Methodist Mission, who has an intimate knowledge of the crippling housing issues facing people on low incomes in Christchurch and around the country.
State Housing Action Network will also speak at the meeting promoting our solution to the housing catastrophe.
“Our solution to the housing catastrophe facing low and middle-income tenants and families is simple” says SHAN Convenor John Minto. “We want an industrial-scale state house building programme”
“Only the government has the capacity and the resources to address this housing catastrophe – we have done it in the past and we can do it again”
“Unfortunately the Labour government has been moving in the opposite direction – selling hundreds of millions in state house land and building piddling numbers of state houses for the huge waiting list”
“Only the government has the capacity and the resources to address this housing catastrophe – we have done it in the past and we can do it again”
Let’s analyze this is a more depth.
Firstly, are Jacinda & friends going to put on a tool belt and pick up a nail gun? Clearly not, so the government itself is not going to build any houses, is it? Instead, it’s going to rely on the tradesmen & contractors that already exist in the industry and who are already fully occupied doing work the private sector.
Secondly when government last got involved in house building, there was no zoning restriction on land, the scope of their construction generally excluded sealed roads, phone lines and even wastewater reticulation. Extensive use was made of native timbers.
So whatever government did in the past, it cannot do again.
Thanks for publishing my comment. Completing my thought:
If the government really wants to assist in this matter, it should concentrate its efforts on removing the impediments to constructing houses, of which there are many, rather than inserting itself in the process and becoming an impediment in its own right.
like confiscating nimbys and land bankers assets that kinda thing andrew…they are a big break on new developments.
Of course it can do it, stop flogging off land for a start.
They are gutless they don’t have the will.
bbbuuttttt andrew I thought the poor put upon building sector was collapsing…theoretically freeing up tradies for perminent jobs with a govt sceme where they aren’t sub sub sub contractors for a fly by night who folds and steals their tools.
The trajectory and path successive NZ Govts have taken us down will have the modern version of ‘the company town’ being established and entrenched within a generation…. this is true in all 5 eyes neo-lib nations.
The old version of the company town would be a coal mine or large mill owning the employment/jobs ,,, owning the stores their workers had to shop in ,,, owning the houses in which they lived …
The workers were trapped in dirty dangerous jobs which could kill them through accidents, and which shortened their lives through diseases caused from their working conditions ,,,, No matter how hard they worked they could never get ahead in life in company town conditions.
The modern version of this differs in that their will be a few more corporations/company’s exploiting the workers .,,,, Home ownership is priced out of average income earners ( let alone those below that) reach ,,, rental conditions are and will be substandard, due to the multiple jobs/incomes needed to pay the high rents stemming from high property values.,,, all created and formed by Govt policy’s ,,,, such as being against solution’s like increasing state housing/state house building.
The Labour Govt of Ardern signed the TPPA in one of their very first actions as the new Government of AoNz ,,,,, This is the true Co-Governance of our country ,,,,
Corporations can sue our Govt, meaning suing us/our society,,, conducted in overseas courts/tribunals, prosecuting us for making or enforcing NZ laws which hurt corporate profits in a manner that breaks the TPPA rules,,,
Tppa rules which SUPERSEDE our laws,,, but only once we signed our sovereignty away ,,,, Labour just did that,,,, and National would have too ,,,, both of them corrupt as.
Anyway there could be something in the 1200 odd pages of the TPPa making the building of state houses deemed anti-competitive to the ‘market’,,,, some corporations in the finance sector for instance, would see less profits with less speculation and exploitation.,,
,, Plus lets not forget all the profiteering from our MP’s rental property portfolios,,, some of which had their mortgages paid for by the extra money they connived with ‘double-dipping’.
The right to housing helps our disadvantaged, our vulnerable, our poor and our old,,,, but they are definitely not who our Governments work for ,,,,
Especially with our international uber rich corporate Co-Governance.
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There are no human rigths. There are rights we as people give each other because it makes life easier. But like women who know have to include men into the pool of women have lost their rights to single sex spaces, you don’t have a right to a house or a flat. You might be smart enough to build yourself some shelter, get a job and keep it and find something that you can afford, be lucky enough to live on the land/house of your parents but that is about it.
And if we could go way from ‘human rights’ to ‘human needs’ and ‘societal needs’ and ‘social cohesion’ we might actually get something done.
But then building houses is hard work, really really hard work, and sprouting about rights that can’t be enforced, will not be enforced due to lack of available housing, is much easier and one looks so progressive.
And then, someone comes by and declares that living in a box under a bush is that right being fulfilled, a bit like men are now women and must be locked into womens prisons cells, must be allowed into womens changing rooms, women sports, women awards, women rape counseling services, womens short lists, women showers and so on and so forth. All human rights to dignity and safety abolished in order to allow some fetishistic males to get a load off, in public, cause, rights are for some to have and others to give.
And the last one to talk about anything in regards to human rights, is that Paul Hunt. the one who wants to tell people just what is and is not hate speech, particular the women who may or may not be keen on seeing people with penises naked in their formerly ‘single sex’ (as per rights as a protected category) in the name of kindness and inclusion to the worst of the worst.
Find someone better and less sexists, misogynistic and homophobic then that dude to lament on Labour being unable to build anything. Surely by now he or is it they – have they declared themselves to be a ‘man’ – must know that Labour is useless at building but excels at destroying.
The only rights you have, are those you can defend. If you can’t defend your rights, you can almost guarantee that they will be taken from you, if it is deemed necessary or expedient to do so by those in power. If you don’t stand up, you’ll be on your knees forever.
Reactionary Bratwurst. Thanks for that. My initial reaction in seeing this coming from Hunt was disinterest, as he seems to me to be just another University of Waikato drongo, maybe more patronising than many, and not terribly succinct or smart. Didn’t he issue instructions a while back telling everybody to be kind to each other ? Deep sigh. Still if he can generate dialogue, that’s fine.
I didn’t know that he expects women to be comfortable seeing naked blokes’ penises all over the place. Not sure that real woman wouldn’t think him a bit of a perv thinking that way, and I hope he doesn’t flash his near me or my daughters.
RB. Does he say that we have to hug people too ? Is he a man or what ? I mean how would he know what non-men want if he/she/it/they isn’t one ? What right has she/ it/ he/they to speak on behalf of what it/ they/ he/she isn’t ? I never abrogated my right to him and neither did anybody else of whom I know.
In Chch the property buyer for a large firm used the fact they were building State homes in the area to drive the price down of the properties close by .. This is an endictment of how State housing is being run . Another home owner was forced to sell and move to a motor home after years of harassment from State tenants next door . I understand no tenants have been removed in the last eighteen months . I am sure most state tenants are good tenants and realize how lucky they are and it is a minotity that tarnish their reputation.
The bad tenants have to be rehomed and perhaps they should all be put together in a group of homes far removed from others.
trev bad lax policies and bad tenants is not actually an argument about social housing but of how it’s administrated.
Nope.
It is bad enough that there is a significant section of the population that are completely incapable of providing for themselves the most fundamental of needs.
If they then the most ungodly nuisance to the rest of society, they need to be banished from it with no support whatsoever.
People who live off the backs of other people’s hard work should be grateful and express that gratitude. The problem with social programs is that it is presented as a right when it should very much be a privilege that can be lost through bad behavior.
Is that treating them somewhat like children? Yes, because they are are acting like children by not meeting their obligations in society.
Time to reconsider eugenics Trevor. With an over populated and climate change afflicted world it makes sense to get the numbers down and who better to cull than those who are unable to live by the standards of common decency or contribute to society. They are generally one of the same.
and of course your idea of a good neighbour would have a lighter tint syl…?
if the current alleged private sector building collapse is real, surely that means a raft of tradies who would be glad to work as employees on long term govt contracts rather than sub sub sub contractors…we could even have the pick of the best and most skilled.
Make no mistake, Hunt has no care for human rights whatsoever, only what is popular, which is currently big business and government working together to silence dissent.
Having people advise on how its meant to be done is one thing, getting politicians to do anything about it is another.
Didnt seem to matter what parties we have put in charge, all of them have dropped the ball on housing and poverty.
Houses have been allowed to be a vehicle to avoid tax by politicians meaning investors make more money investing in houses than they do investing in business, this has to change.
I have lost faith in our political system to fix this, I dont see a point in voting now either as a disabled person reliant on my wife to support me, the system has let me down throughout life and I will be renting till I die, politicians haven’t lifted a finger to fix the situation. Can’t be bothered with any of them anymore, walking away and turning my back.
If it is prohibited to live on DOC land in a bush shelter where can people actually legally live and defecate? Would they be classed as refugees and be taken in by another country?
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