National’s Urban “Demolition” Programme

Thanks for coming today to listen to MANA’s plan for Maori housing.

I want to begin by paying tribute to the community of Pomare, where government has demolished homes and pushed whanau out under their urban renewal programme, without even talking to them about what their plans were.

People who had lived next to each other for 30 years were separated; the local school roll dropped by over half; and the community was ripped apart - whanau by whanau, home by home, street by street.

And those wanting to buy one of the new homes have been simply priced out of town – at $300,000 a house, 65% of the new homes will be too expensive for whanau to buy.

Unfortunately this story is nothing new to other communities who have come under the state’s sledgehammer of ‘urban renewal’.

Just up the road in Maraenui we’ve got another Maori community being torn apart. Kaiti, in my home town of Gisborne, faces the same soul destroying treatment. And in Auckland, the people of Glen Innes have been in the headlines for daring to fight back.

MANA has been heavily involved in the campaign to save GI; MANA Vice-President John Minto has been arrested countless times, and even MANA leader and Taitokerau MP Hone Harawira, has been arrested for daring to stop money-hungry property developers (the first MP arrested on the picket lines since the 1951 Auckland Waterfront Lockout).

Housing for Maori is a huge issue, not just here in Pomare, but in other parts of Ikaroa-Rawhiti. In fact, housing for Maori right across the country is at a crisis point, with only 45% of Maori owning their own homes compared to 70% for Pakeha.

It doesn’t matter where I go, the message is the same – we need the state to build more homes that we can rent and that we can own.

MANA’S HOUSING PLAN FOR IKAROA-RAWHITI

So what’s MANA’s plan when it comes to housing for Ikaroa-Rawhiti?

HOUSING WARRANT OF FITNESS

A lot of the houses our people live in are simply not up to scratch. The home insulation scheme is great, but it doesn’t mean anything when the house you live in is falling down around your ears.

MANA wants government to take landlords to task for renting substandard homes to whanau who have no option but to take them.

MANA supports the Housing Warrant of Fitness scheme for both state and private rentals, and we want to see it enforced like they do with cars; if the house isn’t warm and dry then the owner must be made to get it up to scratch.

EMPTY STATE HOUSES

Another thing I’ve noticed is the number of empty state houses in Ikaroa-Rawhiti.

Based on Housing NZ’s statistics, there are nearly 1000 empty state houses in our electorate. In communities such as Gisborne and Hawkes Bay, government is selling nearly 200 state homes, at a time when people are desperate for a home to live in.

MANA calls for a halt to the sale of state houses; we want them fixed up; and we want whanau moved into them, immediately.
MORE STATE HOMES

The shortage of state homes is another major issue.

Housing NZ tell us there is still a waiting list of 500 whanau needing a house in Ikaroa-Rawhiti, even after the list was slashed by National.

It’s hard to believe that here in the land of milk and honey, in the country where the modern state welfare system was born, people can’t even get a house to live in, but it’s true.

That is the responsibility of the state, and government must stand by its obligations to assist those in need.

MANA wants to build 10,000 state houses a year, 500 immediately in Ikaroa Rawhiti, as a first step to ensuring that every whanau that needs a home can get one, either to rent or to own.

Everywhere I go, people tell me they like what they hear from MANA; it’s simple, it’s direct, it’s easy to understand, and it’s easy to see. It aims to fix the houses we live in now, to improve the houses we may choose to buy, and increase the number of houses to cover all those in need.

HEALTH

And of course, one of the main reasons for getting out of poor housing is the massive health problems they cause.

Housing related illnesses continue to increase as government simply patches up problems as they arise rather than preventing them by fixing up the homes.

It was actually the tuberculosis crisis in East Coast communities in 1935 that gave rise to the original Maori Affairs Housing scheme; it’s an absolute bloody disgrace that 80 years later Maori are facing another health crisis, rheumatic fever.

And that of course is why I want to talk today about MANA’s policy for first home owners.

MAORI AFFAIRS HOUSING SCHEME

MANA wants to update and extend the former Maori Affairs Housing Loan Scheme because we want Maori to have the opportunity to own their own homes again.

Home ownership brings with it a sense of long-term commitment, pride and purpose that is a core element of good citizenship, and yet only 45% of Maori own their own homes compared to 70% for Pakeha.

In the same way that we want to rectify the imbalance in health and education through strong policies and targeted funding, so too do we want to rectify the imbalance in home ownership through a loan scheme that encourages and enables Maori to become home-owners and not just renters of dumps owned by property developers.

HOW DID THE OLD SCHEME WORK?

Between 1935 and 1987, Maori Affairs built 23,500 new houses and bought 5,000 others under the Maori Housing Act. That scheme was killed off by the Labour government of 1989.

The Maori Affairs Housing Scheme was simple – houses were built on Maori land, or purchased through Maori Affairs, on a low deposit.

Many Maori families continue to live in those homes today and builders comment often on the quality and strength of those homes. They were solid and reliable and resulted in better health for the whanau.

Reintroducing the old scheme would be difficult for a number of reasons: most Maori now live in cities, far away from rural Maori land blocks; nearly half of the Maori population in Ikaroa-Rawhiti earns less than $25k; real wages have decreased by 20%; and property investors and developers have driven up house prices; meaning Maori simply do not have the ability to save for a deposit.

MAORI LAND / CROWN LAND

MANA’s proposal changes that scenario by not relying on Maori land.

MANA wants land available for Maori in the same way that land is being made available by government and local bodies to ease the Auckland housing market crisis.

Maori are as much a part of the history and infrastructure of our urban centres as anyone else; our mokopuna deserve the opportunity to be as much a part of that future as anyone else.

HOW WILL MANA’S SCHEME WORK?

MANA would run the scheme through a restructured Te Puni Kokiri, in the same way that Maori Affairs ran the scheme in the past.

Government finance would come through Te Puni Kokiri, effectively cutting out banks and their mean-spirited attitude to Maori homeowners.

Only Maori first home owners would be able to apply.
There would be no deposit.
Interest rates would be no higher than the rates government pays on money it borrows.
Applicants can either build new or buy an existing property
Applicants will be able to negotiate mortgage arrangements that suit their circumstances.

MANA’s policy is aimed at my generation, people who often work several jobs for little pay, sacrificing time away from their children to make it happen and yet for whom even joint incomes fall short of deposit requirements in an overheated housing market.
MANA’s policy would make it easy for whanau to get into a home with less stringent mortgage conditions.

MANA’s policy would fully restart Maori Trade Training in all the housing apprenticeships – carpentry, electrician, plumber, glazier, painting, roofing and drain-laying – and provide direct employment to hundreds of young Maori, reversing unemployment of 5,000 in Ikaroa Rawhiti and sending a positive message to those in Australia as well.

It is a win-win – our people get jobs building decent homes for our whanau.

LABOUR’S HOUSING PLAN … FOR AUCKLAND!

Labour’s plan to build 100,000 houses, mainly in Auckland, for $500,000, will do nothing for Maori home buyers in Ikaroa-Rawhiti.

But in truth, that has always been Labour’s way – to talk big about things Maori but to deliver little.

Labour talks about trade training, but it was Labour that ended the country’s most successful apprenticeship programme, the Maori Trade Training Scheme.
It was Labour that killed off the Maori Affairs Housing Scheme that had successfully housed tens of thousands of Maori families.
It was Labour that stole our rights to the foreshore and seabed.
It was Labour that got rid of targeted funding for Maori.
It was Labour that launched the terrorist raids on the people of Tuhoe.
It was Labour who said that Maori don’t own the water.

The sad fact is that Labour has held the seat of Ikaroa-Rawhiti for 62 years and yet Maori employment, health, education, justice and housing have all suffered under their watch.

The people of Ikaroa-Rawhiti deserve better than that.

CONCLUSION

You’ve heard what MANA’s plans are for Maori housing, and I’ll back them against any other candidate. But we know that housing is not just an issue that affects Maori; it affects every family on a low income. That’s why John Minto, will be announcing MANA’s wider housing policy on 23 July as a part of our MINTO FOR MAYOR Campaign.

Maori speak positively about the old Maori Affairs Housing Scheme and wish it was still available to help today’s whanau. It created stability, it created commitment, and it gave children a solid future in a healthy home.

All we want to do is take the good bits from that scheme, bring them up to 21st century speed, and present a policy that meets that need and offers a positive future for our kids, our whanau, our hapu, our iwi, and our society.

Kia ora tatou katoa

ENDS

© Scoop Media