“Every day NZCCSS members see desperate families and whānau both in work and receiving income support struggling to provide food and shelter. Their income is simply not enough to cover both rent for housing and the basic essentials necessary for their health and wellbeing. Having a liveable income and a warm, safe home is fundamental to the protection of our intrinsic value and dignity as human beings made in God’s image” says NZCCSS President, Ian Hutson.
The New Zealand Council Christian Social Services (NZCCSS) has a vision of Aotearoa New Zealand as a fair and compassionate society in which everyone has a ‘liveable income’, a warm, safe home and can participate meaningfully in their community.
In order to manaakitia te ara whakamua and create a fairer future NZCCSS urges all political parties to implement policies that ensure all New Zealanders have a liveable income, and can access to good quality, affordable housing.
This is a “high-income nation”: No one should be worrying about how to afford essentials like healthy food, hot water or the internet. For decades, government has played a part in concentrating resources among those who are already doing well. There are policies that drive economic inequality, and there are policies that limit the life chances of those who need the most support. When government policy is the driver, none of these inequalities is inevitable or natural: they are all the result of bad political decisions. So every election, we have the power to create a government full of better politicians who can make good, fair policy. Politicians aware and committed to the households that are struggling, and will introduce new income measures.
Special thanks to the Tick for Kids coalition for rallying Raise Your Voices, a group of young voters to develop this video for election 2020
The Māori Party is promising to halt all immigration into New Zealand until housing supply catches up with demand, if it becomes part of the next government.
It is part of the party’s housing programme, Whānau Build, unveiled today by co-leader John Tamihere.
The party is also vowing to allocate half of all new social housing units to Māori, and build 2000 homes on ancestral land over the next two years.
It is estimated to cost of $600 million – tagged from the government announced $20 billion Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund.
“These houses will be funded by the state as a long-overdue investment that others have taken for granted,” Tamihere said.
“It will help in resetting and reorganising Māori whānau and Māori whenua by making available land for papakaīnga and ensuring that our land is used in the best possible way.”
Tamihere said there would be special exceptions for some migrants.
“If we’ve got skill gaps, only, we would bring in people. And family integration, we accept that, because we’re as human as all other people. But other than that, we will put the shutter down and say, we need to take a breather here.”
“We’ve had 50,000 new immigrants coming in per year in 2017 and 2018, and heading into 2019 … we need to build our supply side up for housing to meet our demand.”
Tamihere said vacant or empty houses would be taxed to force them into the housing market.
“In Auckland, there’s 38,000 of them and unless they are brought into the housing stock and used for rental – because they are by and large [of] good quality – we have a problem.
“The question is, why would people leave these houses vacant after they’ve bought them? It’s because they double in price every eight years, so you’re going into a casino where you can’t lose. So you have to, for the sake of all New Zealanders, tax foreign ownership of residential property, particularly if its left vacant. If we don’t do that we will never get out of the housing crisis.”
The Overseas Investment Act would also be required to apply to all residential housing purchases because many of these vacant houses were owned by foreign interests, he said.
“It is expected this policy will free up over 50,000 houses and ensure that an asset class people invest in, but can never lose, has some consequences for the greater common good of our country.
“Immigration must be stopped until the supply side of housing meets the demand side. Immigration is causing disruption and adding to the false elevation in demand and therefore elevation in prices.”
The Māori Party is also hoping to impose a capital gains tax of 2 percent of the appreciation per annum on any property not considered a whānau home.
It is also pledging to stop the sale of freehold land to off-shore interests.
A Government plan to charge people for emergency housing like motels was derailed by Covid-19, but will now come into effect two days after the election
Dileepa Fonseka, Newsroom, 22 September 2020
For most of us the biggest event of the last two years was Covid-19, but for one South Auckland family it was a home renovation.
A family of seven (two adults and five children) have lived beside rodents, been shunted to different corners of Auckland, and had their belongings flooded out in a garage they used for storage – after their landlord of five years decided to renovate the property they lived in.
There’s a shortage of social and transitional housing. Photo: Lynn Grieveson
Mary* spends her days looking for houses, making applications for rentals, getting rejected then taking those seven-eight applications in to Work and Income at the end of the week – where she waits in line for three hours – so she can prove she hasn’t been able to find a house.
“Most of the time I’m stressing out here trying to deal with housing every week. Reporting and following everything they tell me to do to keep us here for my boys to have a roof.
“I don’t know how to do this … I don’t sleep at night. Even if I’m tired. I can sleep for three hours and I wake up and I feel like tired, but I just won’t sleep.”
The Green Party and The Opportunities Party have announced they will both support the introduction of rent caps which would limit the amount a landlord could increase rent.
At the Enough for All: Election Forum 2020 event in Wellington Central on Wednesday evening, a renter called Zoe told politicians about her renting experience in the capital city.
“In 2017, I moved into an eight-bedroom flat in central Wellington – nine of us lived there in order to make it affordable, and we shared a rent of $1600 per week,” she said.
“My rent for a room that could charitably be called a shoebox room was $205 a week which was more than half my income at the time.”
Affording the rent was stressful for Zoe and her flatmates – many had taken on one or more jobs while studying to cover it.
“It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence that me and my flatmates needed to often cover for our other flatmates because of the inability to pay rents on time.”
While they managed to make their payments every week, Zoe said their home was not warm or dry.
“In our first winter in the flat, I began to notice black mould on my ceiling.”
A month later, the roof in her room began to leak and later, pour, she said.
The flat was offered $200 in compensation.
Zoe said their rent was hiked up year after year – in 2018, it was $1700 per week and in 2019, it was put up to $1800.
To make rent affordable, 11 people were living in the property.
In February, the flat was told their rent was going up again by $200 – making it $2000 a week.
“Obviously we moved out because it was unaffordable and over that same period, my income and the same with my flatmates’ [income] had barely gone up.”
Renters needed action now, she told politicians.
“My question to you is: until the rental housing supply kicks up with demand, does your party support introducing rent caps to limit the amount by which landlords can raise rent?”
Green Party candidate Ricardo Menéndez-March says “we need to make sure landlords are not ripping us off in the middle of a housing crisis” (File photo).
Ricardo Menéndez-March from the Green Party said it supported “to legislate to ensure secure and affordable long-term rental accommodation”.
“I do think we need to we need to make sure landlords are not ripping us off in the middle of a housing crisis.”
It was “absolutely unfair” for people to be spending most of their income on rent and “people here are going without because of high rents”.
National Party’s Nicola Willis acknowledged that there was a massive housing challenge in Wellington but the party would not support the introduction of rent caps.
“We have to increase the supply of housing that’s why we’re committing to replacing and appealing the Resource Management Act … we believe that kind of systemic reform gets to the nub of our housing issue which comes down to not enough houses to keep up with demand. When we solve that, then rents and house ownership become more affordable.”
Taylor Arneil from New Zealand First said it advocated for the building of more homes instead of introducing rent caps.
Labour Party’s Andrew Little said it did not support introducing rent caps.
Labour Party’s Andrew Little says it had inherited a housing crisis from the previous Government (File photo)
“This Government has done a number of things. We have regulated what landlords can and cannot do or need to do in terms of quality of housing and many things are starting to kick in,” he said.
The Labour Party had inherited a housing crisis from the previous Government which had reduced the country’s state housing stock, he said.
The current Government had added to social housing, he said.
“There is more to do and Kiwibuild hasn’t been the success we would have hoped it might be, but we have built houses that are more affordable for more people, and we need to continue through things likes progressive home ownership schemes,” Little said.
The Opportunities Party leader Geoff Simmons said housing was the biggest issue facing New Zealand.
“To solve this problem we need to hold house prices and rents stable for another generation to allow our incomes to catch up,” Simmons said.
“So this is a massive, massive challenge – it is going to take lots of different actions to do that.”
Anna Mooney, spokeswoman for Renters United, a group that advocates for renters and has begun a petition for fair rent, said it was unfortunate “National, Labour and NZ First are offering no solutions to runaway rents other than increasing supply”.
“That will take decades, while renters fall deeper into hardship,” Mooney said.
“Renters United wants to see rent caps in which landlords cannot raise rent by more than inflation. This is the only way to stop rents from becoming more unaffordable.”
LABOUR REPRESENTATIVE ANDREW LITTLE SPEAKING AT THE ENOUGH FOR ALL ELECTION FORUM (ALEX BRAAE)
Campaign groups are trying to get issues around the welfare system, housing and poverty onto the election agenda. Alex Braae was in Wellington to see a deeply frustrating debate play out.
Many election forums give politicians plenty of room to speak about whatever they want. But at a forum on inequality, the onus was reversed, with candidates asked to account directly and specifically for how their party would help those with the least.
The Enough for All forum was held at Wellington’s St Peter’s Church, hosted by a range of poverty action groups and attended by representatives of five parties. With the nature of the discussion being heavy, the mood of the room was subdued compared to the rowdiness of many events that aim to make the election fun.
People who had lived experiences of coming up against the more difficult and punitive aspects of the welfare system first outlined their stories, before follow up questions were directed at particular politicians. The stories were personal, deeply involved and bleak, illustrating the way many experience government policy as something that’s done to them, rather than for them.
Over the course of the evening, it seemed to become a particularly frustrating room for NZ First’s Rongotai candidate Taylor Arneal and National’s education spokesperson Nicola Willis, who faced more follow-up challenges than other candidates on stage.
The event also illustrated the gap between Labour and the Greens. Labour’s Andrew Little was repeatedly questioned on his statements by the Green Party’s Ricardo Menendez March, particularly on issues of raising core benefit rates, and relationship rules for beneficiaries. His needling was never really responded to by Little, who also took the opportunity to direct some barbs to his right at NZ First’s representative.
The first question came after a demonstration of wealth owned through the slicing of a pavlova. A tiny slice was shaved off to represent the 2.5 million New Zealanders with the least. When a massive slab was given to the top 10%, candidates were asked if they supported the wealthiest paying more, with a wealth tax being an example of how that might happen.
Answers all had to start with a simple yes or no. Willis came out with a no, before speaking about how people had to pay their fair share and that a growing economy would lift all. Taylor was also a no, saying that IRD needed to be properly resourced to make that happen.
Menendez March, joining the meeting through Zoom, was the first yes on that question. He talked about both a wealth tax at the top 6% and how a tax-free threshold of $10,000 was necessary to rebalance the tax system.
Little talked about the party’s policy of a new top tax rate and called that a yes, but didn’t go near a wealth tax in his answer. Opportunities Party leader Geoff Simmons said the devil was in the detail and said rather than a blanket wealth tax, there needed to be a tax on property.
Despite the best efforts of the organisers to pin politicians down with yes or no answers, the slipperiness still showed through. An example of this came in a follow-up question from Stacey Ryan, who has spent years living with chronic pain, making her unable to work. She asked candidates if their party’s policies would force her into work, even if she was too sick to manage.
Each candidate began their answer in much the same way – no, nobody should be forced into work if they have an illness or disability that makes it impossible. However, as Ryan’s question made clear, the hoops that she has to jump through to remain on the sickness benefit (like being required to provide regular medical certificates at her own expense) makes that something of a moot point.
After each question, moderator Susie Ferguson asked the questioner whether they felt they had got an answer. “I got answers, but they weren’t necessarily the ones I was hoping for,” quipped questioner Zoe, who asked about extortionate prices for substandard rental housing.
And that rather summed up the state of the evening. Poverty remains endemic for thousands of New Zealanders, with the downturn from Covid-19 ensuring that many others will soon join them. Progress on alleviating poverty over the last three years has largely been piecemeal, focused on addressing specific facets of the existing welfare system rather any sort of systemic change. With house prices tipped to continue rising amid everything else falling apart, those with wealth will continue to get wealthier.
While the questions that were asked gave Menendez March room to discuss the party’s significantly more ambitious policies, he was hamstrung by the political realities of the Greens having weak polling and having little leverage over Labour. At one point during his pitch, he even noted that Labour had recently ruled out raising core benefit rates. It came in the context of asking for votes, but illustrated just how difficult even a stronger Green Party would find sweeping welfare reform as part of a Labour government.
Picking up on that, Ferguson took a moment to ask Little why so few of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group recommendations had been brought in, particularly on the raising of core benefits by 47%. “We could not do that in one fell swoop because it’s expensive and there are competing priorities,” he said. Nicola Willis agreed, saying “we simply can’t afford that as a country” and argued that incomes from benefits shouldn’t be too close to incomes from jobs in order to incentivise work.
Audience polling conducted over Zoom by Action Station showed that an overwhelming majority of watchers backed what the Greens were saying, with TOP coming in second place, and Labour in third. Not a single person watching online voted for National. Regardless, Willis thanked those who had questioned her for sharing their stories.
“Maybe take some of these stories and kōrero back to your teams,” said Ferguson in closing. But these stories weren’t really new. They were unique examples of what thousands of people have experienced for decades. With candidates sticking closely to their party lines, the biggest frustration of all was clear – that not enough would be done to prevent these same stories needing to be told all over again in three years.
CPAG urges an immediate policy extension to allow all low-income families to have the full Working for Families support (i.e. making the In Work Tax Credit available to all families including recipients of benefits)
It would deliver at least another $72.50 a week to the very worst-off children in low-income families to help parents keep their children safe and well. The cost (around $450m) is about what could be saved from requiring superannuitants to opt-in to the winter energy payment. It would also accord with the principle of valuing the activities of caregiving and volunteering as work, greatly simplify child payments, and importantly reduce the worst child poverty in a highly cost-effective way
Online Election Forum September 16, 6pm. Hosted live at St Peter’s on Willis, Wellington.
As rising rent and housing costs hit and incomes take a dive, politicians will be challenged to deliver on the transformational agenda that has been promised to ensure that Aotearoa New Zealand is the best place to live in the world.
Anglican Movement has partnered with ActionStation, the Equality Network, Child Poverty Action Group and Tick for Kids to host an election forum for party candidates at St Peter’s on Willis, Wellington, September 16 at 6pm. The event will also be broadcast live online.
The focus of the event is to hear from party representatives about what they promise to do to ensure every individual and family has enough.
“Our communities are concerned about income and wealth inequality and how it’s hurting those with the least in our society,” said Kate Day of Anglican Movement. “Before everyone votes, we think it’s important to give people the chance to hear what each party proposes to do to close the gap between the rich and poor. We know this will be a deciding factor for many people.”
CPAG representative Dr Nikki Turner said they are deeply concerned that the economic fallout from COVID 19 will disproportionately affect families in poverty.
“Our baseline child poverty-related indicators are already unacceptable,” says Dr Turner. “So we wish to hear from each party as to how they can genuinely shift the paradigm to a focus on supporting those who are suffering the most severely”.
The Tick for Kids network has enlisted a diverse group of young people to be involved in the forum. These young people plan to engage the candidates with a live demonstration of New Zealand’s distribution of wealth.
“As a first time voter I’m excited about having a say on the future of our country,” said Norma Mclean, a Youth Caucus member. “I don’t think enough voters know how unfair the distribution of wealth is in New Zealand. It’s really important young people have a say. It’s our future at stake.”
Confirmed party representatives for the event are Marama Davidson, Co-Leader of the Green Party, and Geoff Simmons from The Opportunities Party. Other representatives will be announced shortly.
“We want to support and inform good decision-making at election time, so that we vote for people that are actually motivated to do something,” said Jo Spratt, Equality Network Convenor. “It’s policy that will make the difference and we want to see who’s committed to that policy.”
If Wellington is at Alert level 1, the event will proceed with limited seats at St Peters on Willis Street and by livestream on Facebook and Twitch. At level 2 only the politicians, media and those hosting the event will be in person. If we are at level 3 or above, everyone will be online.
The Green Party has launched a policy aiming to eliminate the oversubscribed social housing waiting list within five years, reports Interest. Effectively, they want to greatly extend the borrowing limit for social housing agency Kainga Ora, so that it can ramp up the number of houses built each year. The social housing waitlist has been hitting new highs with numbing regularity over the last few years, even as more houses get built. The party’s wider housing policy also includes significant new protections for tenants, reports Newsroom.
See full articles below:
Greens turn focus to housing crisis
The Green Party has launched a policy aiming to eliminate the oversubscribed social housing waiting list within five years
In its third major policy announcement, the Green Party has revealed a suite of plans to subsidise community-provided rental housing and boost the state housing build programme, Marc Daalder, Newsroom reports:
Greens will allow Kāinga Ora to borrow $5 billion more to build 5000 homes a year and clear the social housing list within five years
The Green Party has launched a major housing policy, which would see the state housing provider borrowing more, and ramped up house building.
The party says it would extend Kāinga Ora’s borrowing limit from $7.1 billion to $12 billion over the next five years to allow it to scale up the Crown build programme to 5000 new homes a year.
It says the borrowing would be accounted for on Kāinga Ora’s balance sheet, not as core Crown debt. David Hargreaves from Interest reports.
Wednesday, 26 August 2020, 6:00-7:30 pm St Peter’s on Willis, Wellington
Join us to hear from political leaders how their parties plan to deliver a thriving and equitable Aotearoa. Now more than ever, Covid-19 has shown us that we are dependent on each other and no matter where we come from, what we look like, or how much money we have, it’s time to pull together to demand decent homes, support and income for everyone.
But right now, the people with the least in Aotearoa are being left behind. Come listen to the political parties answer the demands of people living and working on the frontlines of housing, welfare and tax issues.
The political forum will go from 6 – 7.30pm, with doors open and refreshments served from 5.30pm. There will also be live entertainment
