Waatea News Column: Another Housing failure – why 100 day plan post 2023 is so important
Another Housing failure – why 100 day plan post 2023 is so important
The announcement of a massive sell off of public land to private land developers in Auckland is the latest nail in the coffin of expecting something meaningful on housing.
When Labour became the Government in 2017, 5,844 New Zealanders were on the emergency housing wait list.
Last week there were officially 26,868.
Labour claim to have built 9000 state houses since coming to power, the truth is that number doesn’t include the state houses Labour demolished.
When you include how many Houses Labour demolished, the total number of State Houses is actually 5561.
That’s barely 1100 state houses a year while those on the emergency housing wait list has ballooned.
Selling public land to private developers isn’t a solution.
The danger for the Left is that as tough as things are economically right now, they will be far worse in 2023.
The war in Ukraine is causing far more economic damage than is being appreciated, China’s zero Covid policy will continue to shut down supply chains and the Trillions printed by central banks to stave off a financial collapse in 2008 are all combining to cause inflation the likes we haven’t seen in our collective memory.
This time next year this bitter harvest will be producing a toxic fruit of insecurity. Voters will want to know the Government they elect will actually do something transformational, which is why the Greens and the Māori Party must threaten Labour with a clear 100 day plan post the 2023 election to immediately pass legislation to radically implement real poverty and housing laws.
The Māori Party and Greens should meet now and have a list of bottom lines for Labour to show voters that a vote for them will produce actual change.
If progressive politics can’t implement real solutions, the Right will capture the backlash.
First published on Waatea News.
The Greens and Maori Party can have all the bottom lines they like, but it won’t matter because they won’t be in government.
The *actual* long term solutions to housing are to:
1. Force Auckland Council through legislation to abandon its rural urban/boundary so allowing large new multi-use suburbs to be built to the north and west of the city.
2. Force councils to accept European and American building product standards in building plans. That would end the cozy little supply monopoly in the building industry.
3. Stop wasting money on bike lanes, instead steering capital to double tracking the rail line out to Helensville.
4. Allocate a portion of the government’s GST take to local infrastructure projects.
All can be found in ACT policy statements 😉
Did anyone actually vote for this bullshit?