Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
Work smarter with a Pro licence Learn More
Parliament

Gordon Campbell | Parliament TV | Parliament Today | Video | Questions Of the Day | Search

 

Political Games Are Not A Housing Solution - Dunne

Political Games Are Not A Housing Solution - Dunne

Parliament wasted two days this week debating the Housing Legislation Amendment Bill under Urgency.

An inept mixture of opposition political gamesmanship and Government organisation meant that the Bill was essentially filibustered by the Opposition.

"We spent 17 hours arguing about a Bill that has the potential to add up to 9000 additional houses to Auckland market," said UnitedFuture leader Peter Dunne.

"The Bill itself was fairly innocuous and was addressing a timing issue between previous legislation and upcoming district plans, as well as an obvious impetus to continue building more houses in regions that require additional supply.

"This was a Bill that most parties actually agree with, the argument was about if we could do more.

"The Government let the ball drop by putting this Bill up as an omnibus Bill, but the Opposition tactic of tabling unworkable housing plans that were ill-considered and hastily drawn up as Supplementary Order Papers, was simply a waste of time.

"It costs roughly $43,000 an hour to run Parliament, so this Bill cost us over $700,000 and you really have to ask if this was the best way to serve the people of New Zealand on the issue of housing.

"Let's put this in context, UnitedFuture advocates for a non-partisan housing summit hosted by the Government with input from all the relevant stakeholders.

"With the money we spent on this Bill, we could have flown in 100 housing experts from industry, social housing and regional government, paid for their flights and accommodation and hosted a housing summit at Parliament.

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

Are you getting our free newsletter?

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.

"The cost of doing that, if we take extreme approximations of $1000 return flights, and $1000 accommodation for a night in Wellington would have cost $200,000, less than a third of the cost of this Parliamentary time-waste we have seen and that’s an extreme estimate.

"I think it is high time that we realised that the issues around housing will not be solved by political point scoring and we need a long term approach guided by the sectors that will implement the housing solutions.

"That is why a housing summit that brings together all the interested and relevant parties is well overdue and, evidently, one of the cheaper alternatives available to us right now.

Ends


© Scoop Media

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
 
 
 
Parliament Headlines | Politics Headlines | Regional Headlines


Gordon Campbell: On The US Opposition To Mortgage Interest Deductibility For Landlords


Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don't think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of political capital by giving landlords a huge $2.9 billion tax break via interest deductibility, while still preaching the need for austerity to the disabled, and to everyone else...
More


 
 

Government: Concerns Conveyed To China Over Cyber Activity
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity... More

ALSO:


Government: GDP Decline Reinforces Government’s Fiscal Plan

Declining GDP for the December quarter reinforces the importance of restoring fiscal discipline to public spending and driving more economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says... More

ALSO:


Government: Humanitarian Support For Gaza & West Bank

Winston Peters has announced NZ is providing a further $5M to respond to the extreme humanitarian need in Gaza and the West Bank. “The impact of the Israel-Hamas conflict on civilians is absolutely appalling," he said... More


Government: New High Court Judge Appointed

Judith Collins has announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister Jason Scott McHerron as a High Court Judge. Justice McHerron graduated from the University of Otago with a BA in English Literature in 1994 and an LLB in 1996... More

 
 
 
 
 
 

LATEST HEADLINES

  • PARLIAMENT
  • POLITICS
  • REGIONAL
 
 

InfoPages News Channels


 
 
 
 

Join Our Free Newsletter

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.