Speech: Peters - Pt England Protest
Speech at Pt England Protest
Pt England Reserve,
Auckland
4pm, Saturday 13th May, 2017
STEALING A
CITY RESERVE A CHEAT’S SOLUTION FOR HOUSING
New Zealand
First is very concerned about the loss of one third of the
total of the Pt England reserve.
It should be kept intact
as a reserve for present and future generations.
Reserves
of this size are rare in Auckland. If lost, it’s gone for
good. And the edges will continue to be nibbled away for
housing.
While New Zealand First wants direct government
intervention to provide sections and houses we would use
suitable Crown land or local authority land for housing. We
would not steal a reserve.
Auckland needs well over
140,000 houses within the next 10 years.
This ham-fisted
and desperate proposal is for only 300 houses, a drop in
Auckland’s housing crisis.
Taking reserve land is
cheating. People need open spaces in a city.
This is
about National failing to deal with a housing crisis early
on.
Now the horse has bolted. It’s panic mode as
Election Day nears.
National has been helpless and
hopeless on housing in nine years.
First, it claimed
there was no housing crisis.
Despite the former PM
bellowing when in opposition that there was one.
Nick
Smith as Housing Minister has been worse than
useless.
He’s been in total denial and couldn’t even
get a launch of new development sites right.
Why he
wasn’t sacked a long time ago probably demonstrates the
lack of talent in the National Party caucus.
He kept
shrieking about consents as though they were
houses.
National has blamed everything and everyone from
the Auckland council, to the RMA and the former government.
On the former government they have a point, Labour continued
mass immigration and didn’t build houses to match
it.
The old parties have a pot calling the kettle black
on this issue.
National has tinkered.
IRD numbers and
account numbers were supposed to stop speculators.
Now we
find that land transfer documents are being filed with
incorrect IRD numbers.
That’s no mistake. Of course
not.
In fact there were 12,500 incorrect numbers filed,
or one in every 20.
National refused to turn down the
immigration tap.
It’s pouring a city the size of
Rotorua into NZ each year, over half settling here.
Now
Kiwis can’t afford homes, even if they are available.
Rentals are few, and costly. Many people are living in
garages, and cars, or worse.
The government shoves those
in desperate need of a roof over their head into cheap
motels as emergency housing.
Meanwhile, State housing is
being sold, or run down.
The big winners are banks, real
estate firms, agents and speculators, many from
overseas.
Our housing crisis is a story of wheeling and
dealing by National’s friends.
National is trying to
hoodwink the public into believing they are building and
have land ready.
Stealing a reserve off the people is a
low blow and a cheat’s way of trying to solve a massive
crisis.
It’s a super mess and people know it.
ENDS