Dr Parmjeet Parmar
Wellington, February 5, 2019
The Government’s flagship Housing Policy has been flaky from the get-go, last week we saw it completely crumble.
Housing & Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford finally admitted that KiwiBuild is not all it was cracked up to be, and he is not going to reach his target of 1000 homes built in the first year.
In fact, according to the Prime Minister, we should not measure the progress of KiwiBuild at all and just trust that there will miraculously be 100,000 homes ready to go in ten years’ time.
Targets dropped
This is from the same Prime Minister who last week said, ‘what gets measured gets done.’
Clearly that’s only when it suits them because they have also dropped the Health and Better Public Services targets which measured progress across the public service and ensured the Government was accountable for the services they delivered to New Zealanders.
Targets keep a Government honest. Among the targets this Government has so far scrapped are; reducing long-term welfare dependency, reducing serious crime, improving the way the Government interacts with the public, having mothers registered with a lead maternity provider, reducing the rates of children who are hospitalised and now how quickly it will deliver its houses.
Embarrassment for Government
Labour first proposed KiwiBuild in 2012. But halfway through their term they’ve only delivered 47 houses, while the whole policy seems to change from week to week.
This is a major embarrassment for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Government.
The Government created an expectation New Zealanders were going to get access to a significantly subsidised first home but that’s not happening.
Not only are they struggling to build the houses, those they are building are too expensive.
The Labour Party spent years in Opposition talking about its solution to New Zealand’s housing woes. We’re not denying that there was a problem – under National we were in the middle of a record residential building boom but we should have done more.
False Claims
The difference between us and them is that they mislead New Zealanders by falsely claiming to have a magic bullet.
In what’s become a trend from this Government, KiwiBuild simply isn’t living up to the promises this Government made to New Zealanders.
They are all talk.
The work wasn’t done in Opposition, so now the Government has been left with a policy that doesn’t stack up.
KiwiBuild isn’t delivering the types of homes Kiwis want and that’s why we have seen such a woeful uptake. Even the Minister isn’t confident that should KiwiBuild deliver more houses, all of them will sell.
What is the point in delivering houses for first home buyers, if first home buyers don’t want them?
At the end of the day, the Labour Party campaigned on delivering 100,000 homes in 10 years. But if the Government can’t organise 1000 homes in one year, how do they expect to achieve 100,000 over 10?
The need to know
While KiwiBuild topples over, the Minister should be looking at redefining his housing policy. KiwiBuild needs to go, and Mr Twyford should set the Resource Management Act (RMA) in his sights.
In Opposition, Labour rallied against sensible RMA reform.
However, as we have seen, New Zealand needs a bold solution to a law that has proven to be a planning nightmare, and KiwiBuild isn’t helping in that aspect.
National will this year put forward a proposal to reform the RMA which will allow us to get on and build the houses New Zealanders need.
The issues with KiwiBuild are more systemic than teething. New Zealanders want to see real change and a plan that will actually deliver what New Zealand needs – more houses.
Dr Parmjeet Parmar is List MP based in Mt Roskill and National Party’s Spokesperson for Research, Science & Innovation and Associate Spokesperson for Economic Development
