English wants to flog state houses to Aussies
English wants to flog state houses to Aussies
Bill English’s admission that he would sell hundreds of New Zealand’s state houses to the Australians is the latest lurch in the Government’s stumbling, half-baked housing policy, Labour’s housing spokesperson Phil Twyford says.
“Bill English should face reality and admit his state house sell off policy has collapsed. The Salvation Army didn’t want a bar of it. Iwi leaders said they’d only take them if they got them for free.
“The Government has had to admit that opening up this multi-billion dollar public asset to property developers and banks is the only way it can make it work.
“Now Bill English is so desperate to keep his failed policy afloat that he’ll even flick the houses off to the Aussies.
“The finance minister fancies himself as a reformer. The Minister has admitted “a lot of money has gone into these houses” but said the tenants more important than the houses.
“In reality his state house sell-off is just a warmed over version of National’s 1990s ideological burp that saw 13,000 state houses flogged off.
“It is old-fashioned privatisation because of Bill English’s ideological view that the Government should not be in the business of providing decent housing for the most vulnerable Kiwis.
“Bill English has yet to provide a scrap of evidence that Australian companies in cahoots with property developers will do a better job of delivering state housing.
“It is time Bill English gave up his nutty crusade to sell off state houses and got on with the job of fixing up state houses and building new ones,” Phil Twyford says.
ENDS