Nats lose plot with incoherent & racist state housing initiative

Paula Bennett appears to have suffered major plot loss over the summer with a brand new policy aimed at pushing the poor out of Auckland and into the provincial South Island.

“The latest step in National’s ongoing war on the poor is both incoherent and racist,” says Auckland Action Against Poverty spokesperson Sue Bradford.

“In a surprise statement released this morning Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett says the Government plans to offer cash incentives to prospective state house tenants willing to move from Auckland to regions where state houses lie vacant.

“Oamaru and Ashburton were given a special mention as likely destinations, of particular interest to Pasifika families on the state house waiting list.

“I am stunned that after all her years as Social Development Minister Ms Bennett now seems to have forgotten the relationship between the availability of paid work and housing.

“With all the efforts of Work and Income focused on getting the same cohort of people into paid jobs she now wants them to move to regions where there are unlikely to be a plethora of work opportunities.

“While some parts of the provincial South Island have been doing comparatively well in recent years, the 2016 outlook is not great given the fall in dairy prices and the lack of any Government commitment to active support for local economic development and job creation.

“It is also startling that Pasifika families are deemed to be a priority target for the new initiative. Government usually refrains from quite such overt racism in its policy announcements.

“While people on the Auckland state housing lists should have the option to move to another centre if they choose, this looks very much like a deliberate strategy to push poor, brown people out of the country’s economic powerhouse.

“If this policy is pursued to its logical conclusion Auckland will end up like London where the poor, low paid and unemployed are increasingly driven out to other parts of the country, and the urban conglomerate becomes the preserve of the wealthy.

“The sensible fair answer to our city’s homelessness crisis is for government to immediately accelerate the building and acquisition of state houses while also doing much more to enable the local government, iwi and community housing sectors to reach their potential.

“Our underlying fear is that today’s announcement is just the thin end of the wedge. National seems to love taking the lead from the UK on welfare, jobs and housing and if they continue down this path New Zealand will become even more unjust and exclusionary than it is already.”

ENDS

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