Ae Marika! 15 October 2013

Posted on October 15, 2013 by admin in Ae Marika

During the recent local body elections in Auckland, Mayor Len Brown and Housing Minister Nick Smith made a bit of a splash when they announced a couple of new housing subdivisions in Weymouth and West Auckland. Unfortunately however, very few of the houses on offer will be available for those in greatest need. Of the 282 “affordable” new homes to be built at one location, 113 will be unaffordable ($325,000 and $475,000) to many who need homes, and the other 169 will be rented out at market rates where the neediest families will have to pay much more than 25% of their income to move in (current rentals in Auckland are taking between 60-90% of the incomes of beneficiaries and low-wage workers).

One proposal that John Minto suggested that I intend to follow up on is for Auckland City Council to put up 300 hectares of its own land to build up to 9,000 homes specifically for quality rental properties for low-income families.

One of the biggest costs for housing in Auckland is the exorbitant price of land. Council putting up its own land takes that cost right out of the equation. Homes for low-income families won’t have to be the ugly plastic and plywood jobs that some people think poor people are happy to live in, but safe, warm and affordable council rental homes that will help immediately reduce the third-world diseases such as rheumatic fever which haunt our children in slum-landlord housing.

The Auckland super city now reaches right up to Rodney and covers more than 30% of the Tai Tokerau electorate. Getting a good housing deal in Auckland will have a positive spin off for everyone, and the innovations in housing development there will provide a boost for local housing initiatives as well.

And while I’m talking about local body elections, congratulations to John Carter, our new mayor up here in the far north.

Wayne Brown’s tenure as mayor was all that I predicted it would be – tempestuous and forthright, challenging and demanding, confrontational and aggressive, and when you look back on what he achieved, surprisingly positive. Brownie wasn’t the kind of mayor you warmed to, but if you were prepared for brutal honesty coupled with a bit of hard talk and fast decision-making then he wasn’t that hard to deal with.

John Carter? I didn’t have much to do with him back in his time with the Council over in Hokianga but I have seen him in action as an MP. I remember him making a real dickhead of himself by ringing up the radio and pretending to be a Maori and saying all kinds of outrageous stuff, earning himself the ire of many Maori and the ridicule of a lot of his parliamentary colleagues. But I also remember him as a very active electorate MP, getting around to many places in the Northland electorate and talking to (and sometimes even listening to) what people had to say. That’s a good sign, so give the man a clean slate and let’s see how we roll.

AE MARIKA is an article written every week by Hone Harawira, leader of the MANA Movement and Member of Parliament for Te Tai Tokerau. You are welcome to use any of the comments and to ascribe them to Mr Harawira. The full range of Hone’s articles can be found on the MANA website at www.mana.net.nz.