The PREFU reveals an approaching Nicola Willis surplus based on inflation and fiscal drag. It has nothing to do with economic growth. Meanwhile our young adults are experiencing the joys of very high and sustained unemployment. The same kind of environment that stunted the generation in National’s recession of the 1990s. This time we have a rapidly ageing population. And Nicola Willis in fantasy land.
$250mn in emergency housing “savings” a year under National, while government increases corrections budget to ~$2b a year, and will surpass NZ’s ”moral and fiscal prison failure prison rate” by 2026
Critics have dismissed the Jacinda Ardern government as being one of style over substance. This is unfair given the challenges this government has faced and the policy achievements it has had. However, it is a government that has much work to do if it wins a second term. And its over-reliance on Jacinda as party leader is a huge strategic risk, especially when the governments front bench is perceived, rightly or wrongly, to be lightweight.
Idiot/Savant writes about empty houses and the homeless.
What lies behind the homelessness crisis in Aotearoa New Zealand? Is it a housing crisis or are the homeless to blame? If the problem is a housing crisis, why is there an assumption that the homeless themselves need extra services to secure and maintain rental housing?
The changing face of New Zealand.
This post is too long to read. Its purpose is to serve as reference material, a “one stop” snapshot of where we are as a country. The mess that the new government inherits. The consequences of the nine long wasted years of National. The magnitude of the challenge ahead of us.
This afternoon in Parliament during question time Paula Bennett showed clearly that this Government has no idea what to do about the housing crisis.
Labour MP Clare Curran has been camping in Dunedin’s Octagon to protest against the MSD’s treatment of two homeless mothers. Bravo Clare for putting yourself on the line to draw attention to this issue!
Did Jeremy Corbyn just cut through a whole pile of smash?
What have we become?
Apparently it’s “getting homeless people into homes”. Given the ongoing explosion of homelessness, just think how much scope she has to make herself proud next year…
National is borrowing another Labour-Green policy and has announced a lite version of Labour’s Kiwibuild policy.
Who would have thought that a surge in homelessness would result in a spike in crime, and that a dramatic increase in the number of people with no or compromised housing situations would cause an increase in burglaries, robberies and assaults.
New research on homelessness from Otago University sheds light on the depth and breadth of the problem. Naturally Paula Bennett says she doesn’t believe it, and that she won’t read it. Because of course.
National Labour and the Greens are all proposing to intervene in the market to do something about the housing crisis. What other policy areas are there where the parties can agree on active state intervention?
The Māori Party have joined Labour and the Greens’ Cross-party Homelessness Inquiry, which is now asking for public input into the crisis including from people directly affected.
National is flailing around attempting to divert attention from its failure to do anything meaningful about the homeless crisis.
Unlike our “government”, Te Puea Marae is trying to do something practical for the homeless. Madeleine Chapman spent a week volunteering there, and wrote about it for The Spinoff. Note that The Warehouse will match donations made through Spinoff.
It is tragic that a family working 80 hours a week cannot make ends meet.
An update on Te Puea Marae, a homeless teen cancer sufferer, and how to help.
Te Puea Marae, whose only “crime” in this the Brighter Future was to try and help the homeless, “has fears of ‘smear campaign’ “. Naturally Paula Bennett is the real victim here. And furthermore, it’s all Labour’s fault.
A very sincere good morning to the “Park up for homes” folks who have just spent the night in their cars, protesting in support of the homeless.
In the middle of a housing crisis the Minister of Social Housing Paula Bennett is nowhere to be seen.
* according to Nick Smith and Paula Bennett.
Eleven year old TA is bright, dedicated but homeless. She has challenged John Key to try walking in her shoes.
The homeless population of central Auckland has more than doubled in the last 3 years. That’s quite a legacy John Key. Meanwhile Te Puea Marae is still putting the government to shame, you can donate here.
Remember Key saying yesterday that the MSD and the Salvation Army knocked on the doors of eight cars that people were living in and no one wanted their help? The Salvation Army says nothing of the sort happened.
A petition: “As Minister of Social Development we call upon Minister Anne Tolley to urgently forgive all debts incurred by people who have been forced to stay in Motels as emergency accommodation….”
John Campbell is covering the homeless crisis with stories that highlight the personal tragedies that are occurring and the complete indifference of the Government to their plight.
That is how officials from the Ministry of Social Development described the emergency housing system to Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett – a year ago. What has Bennett done in the year since?
This is a massive market and moral failure. The problem isn’t going to go away, it’s going to get worse, and the media are going to stay on the case. Time for National to borrow some more Labour / Green policy thinking.
The Auckland local government race isn’t the only one where begging is becoming a top issue.
Two conservative mayoral candidates have proposed that people begging should be fined.
