Grant Robertson

MP for Wellington Central
Finance Spokesperson

MEDIA STATEMENT

11 July 2016

National all at sea in face of Labour’s housing plan

Labour’s comprehensive plan to fix the housing crisis has left National Ministers flailing about, contradicting themselves and simply making things up, Labour’s Finance spokesperson Grant Robertson says.

“Steven Joyce has said in one breath that Labour’s plan represents a minor tweak of the Government’s current work, and also that it cannot be done. He is all over the place, because he knows that Labour’s plan is actually the clear and decisive response to the housing crisis that National has failed to provide.

“National is making an art form of so-called ‘post-truth’ politics, or as normal people call it, lying. Steven Joyce knows full well that KiwiBuild works by the Government fronting up to build affordable homes, and using the profits from their sales to re-invest in building more affordable homes.

“He also knows that National has failed to crack down on speculators. They are not brave enough to slap an outright ban on foreign speculators buying existing homes. They have no plan to put in place a five year speculators’ tax on those who flip investment properties or to tighten up on tax loopholes as Labour does.

“He is making up lies in order to avoid facing the obvious point – National has overseen a housing crisis that is locking out first home buyers and driving up homelessness.

“Every comment from Bill English and Steven Joyce focuses on how difficult it is to do anything about the housing crisis. National is the party of No and Can’t. They are out of ideas and out of touch.

“Only Labour has the plan to build 100,000 affordable homes, crack down on speculators and provide the social and emergency housing our country so badly needs,” Grant Robertson says.

ends

© Scoop Media