MEDIAWATCH: Waatea’s Homelessness Expose with Claudette Hauiti

I have had the privilege of working with Claudette for decades at Waatea, and I believe she is doing the best journalism of her entire career down at Parliament as Waatea’s Press Gallery Journalist.

She has fast developed a reputation for asking the hardest questions on Māori issues inside the Press Gallery and she is feared for her tenaciousness.

I think she’s fucking incredible.
 

I’m not alone, Bernard Hickey referred to her interview with Luxon this week as a must watch…

…Claudette’s most recent expose last week on homelessness in Rotorua where she slept the night in her car alongside them is harrowing and horrifically insightful journalism at its best.

She has highlighted the truth of the experience for so many whanau in NZ right now and it is must watch journalism…

…in a first world country like NZ, no one should be forced to live in their car or be homeless FFS!

ANZ Senior Economist Miles Workman in a research note this morning warns the unemployment rate could rise to 6%!

ANZ’s Business Outlook survey for July found house builders’ expectations slumped to their worst levels in a year and ANZ NZ Chief Economist Sharon Zollner said last week the building sector was ‘tanking’!

National will say they are dealing with Labour’s overspending during Covid, but much of this bitter economic harvest is a direct result of National’s policies!

The Salvation Army launched their half-yearly update of their National Homelessness Data Project last week, which showed the Ministry of Social Development’s rejections of applications for emergency housing rose 386% in the last year!

Social Housing Minister Tama Potaka last week blamed homelessness on people losing touch with their families! After amputating public house builds and throwing people out of Kianga Ora, he can’t pretend his own Government’s policies aren’t driving homelessness!

We need more journalism like Claudette’s, we are a better people than this!

Surely you can’t hate Jacinda, vaccines, Māori and Trans people so much that you are gleefully willing to allow your fellow citizen to rot in the cold?

 

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