I can understand National’s desire to divert attention away from other events.
From the sounds of it at least three National MPs have major issues to sort through. Labour is doing the right thing by letting them do it all by themselves.
So what does National do?
It attacks Labour’s response to the housing crisis. And hope the mud sticks.
National’s initial strategy was to say why was it taking so long? Why hadn’t Labour built 10,000 or 10% of the total build in the first year?
Of course this comment completely ignores the reality of building homes. It takes years to just get subdivisions through, let alone resource consent for the build and the actual construction.
But this reality is for losers. National and its supporters are incredulous that Jacinda Ardern and the Labour team have not built lots and lots of houses already.
They do not appear to understand the forces at play that helped cause the problem and which arebeing addressed. Like rampant immigration that has slowed down. For a while it did make all of us Auckland house owners feel like we were rich but it was causing huge damage. For instance rampant homelessness. And talented 11 year olds having their futures blighted because they and their families were sleeping in the family car. And remember when Te Puea Marae gave this family somewhere to live and Paula Bennett’s office then replied by smearing the Marae’s chief?
And not to mention teachers moving elsewhere because they could not afford to buy in Auckland.
Labour has been keen to celebrate the early successes of its policies as it has turned the problem around. So it held an event on the weekend to celebrate some more Kiwibuild houses coming onto the market.
To break with tradition there was not a team of Labour ministers helping to move the furniture into the property. The symbolism of the first Labour cabinet doing this lasted for decades and set them apart from the tories whose purpose was to clear the house out, not get it ready for ordinary families.
And times are different. There has been some angst and a whole lot of social media doxing because one of the lucky people is a doctor. A just qualified doctor with no doubt a huge student loan but nevertheless she is a professional.
And the doxing has come from those who should know better and who don’t understand social memes.
These comments completely miss the point. Auckland’s real estate market is that stuffed that newly qualified doctors, and teachers and police officers, not to mention factory workers and cleaners, cannot afford to buy new homes. If the Government has corrected the market so that at least young doctors can afford to buy new houses then things are on the improve.
And shame on National. To create the crisis and then complain that Labour is not fixing it up quickly enough involves so many levels of boneheaded stupidity.
If you want to see the effects of National’s policies on the housing market at least in Auckland this graph sets it out clearly.
Kiwibuild is not the only policy to address the housing crisis. There is the supported living apartment announcement, 1,500 additional places for homeless this winter, tenancy law reform, resourcing infrastructure needed for growth, and 6,400 new public housing places by 2022. And removing the need for Housing Corp to pay the Government a dividend has freed up much needed resources. To name a few.
It took years to get us into this mess and it will take years to get us out of it. For National to complain that the Government is not doing enough quickly enough or criticising the Government because one policy does not specifically address all issues is crazy.
Besides the best solution to all of these problems is to build houses, lots and lots of houses. And this is what Labour intends to do.
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