Press Release

Housing Crisis Worsens As Government Continues To Fudge And Lie

MANA Leader and MP for Te Tai Tokerau Hone Harawira

Thursday 8th November

MANA leader and MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Hone Harawira, addressed the crowd who marched on Parliament to mark the Housing Crisis Day of Action yesterday including whānau from the communities of Pomare, Maraenui, and Glen Innes currently subject to housing ‘renewal’ programmes.

“I support each and every one of those who turned up to make a stand for their whānau, their community, and their fundamental human right to a home”, said Hone Harawira, Leader of MANA. “They are fully committed to seeing their whānau housed in decent, affordable homes and holding this corrupt government to account, and I will do everything I can to help them achieve this.”

“The government simply does not care. They continue to lie and deceive and fudge figures to cover up the fact that they’re selling up and pulling down state houses around the country because they’d rather sell the land to their property developer mates – the very thing that makes the hole of the housing affordability crisis even bigger and deeper”.

Following the march to Parliament, Mr Harawira questioned the Minister of Housing about how the government’s policy will actually solve the current housing crisis for low-income familieswhen it’s focus is on reducing the number of state houses in favour of private rentals and property options for the rich, forcing people into homelessness.

“None of it adds up. The Minister says they’re building more state houses, and yet in relation in Glen Innes he quoted figures of taking away 156 state houses and replacing them with 78. Where I went to school, that adds up to less not more. And his line that having an additional 40 “affordable” private rentals makes the policy even less plausible not more. I don’t buy for a second that in Glen Innes, for example, ocean-view properties built by their rich developer mates will be affordable for low-income whānau. Does he think we’re dummies or what?

“I wonder, will the Minister consider resigning, as his colleague Kate Wilkinson has done, as the housing crisis continues to worsen under his watch?”

ENDS

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