June 2016

RMA to blame for falling Maori, Pacific and European home ownership

“The fall in Maori, Pacific and European home ownership rates is the result of Resource Management Act, which impedes development, punishes those on lower incomes and reduces upward social mobility,” says John Palino.

“Data released today from Stats NZ clearly shows that the downward trend in home ownership began in 1991, the same year that the RMA replaced growth planning with effects based NIMBYism.

“We’ve spent a quarter of century in this country punishing growth and those who want to develop.

“Obscene housing prices are the result and it’s only to be expected that higher prices have penalised those on lower incomes the most.

“Unfortunately, those at the bottom continue to be manipulated by apologists for the status quo, like Phil Goff, who publicly lament inequality on one hand, while holding on to multiple properties on the other.

“Phil’s not saving his powder for closer to the election, he has no policies for increasing housing supply because it’s not in his interest to do so.

“Auckland needs a leader with a clean slate who’s not part of the RMA old-guard and who has the leadership experience to cut costs and remove unnecessary regulation.

“The RMA should be replaced with something which encourages and supports growth and tears down the culture of objection and interference in property rights.

“As mayor, I’ll be doing my part by removing key RMA barriers, including metropolitan constraints, and I’ll make it possible for the private sector to build the largest number of homes in NZ history by opening up land for development,” Palino says.

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