Press Release

MANA Vice President John Minto

Monday 19th November

Housing Policy Helps Middle Class Kids But Leaves Low-Income Families Out In The Cold

MANA welcomes Labour’s commitment to build 100,000 homes for sale at $300,000 each over 10 years.

“This will be a welcomed by middle-income families who are struggling to get their children into their first home” comments MANA Vice President John Minto.

“It is a worthy policy and we will support it. But where is affordable housing for families on low-incomes? This entire group has been disregarded in Labour’s announcement today”.

“No low-income family will be able to afford $300,000. These families struggle from week to week and will never be able to save a deposit or meet the mortgage repayments required for home ownership. They are caught in the vicious squeeze between high private rental costs and the government’s impossible criteria for eligibility for a state house”.

“The most desperate need for housing is state rental housing which is why MANA’s first policy priority in housing is to build 20,000 new state homes within two years”.

“Helping the children of middle-class families get into their first home is a worthy objective but should never be the first priority”.

ENDS

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Arguably Reassuring: Inspector-General Finds GCSB "Arguably" Legal

Of the 88 individuals:

• 15 cases involving 22 individuals did not have any information intercepted by GCSB.

• another four cases involving five individuals were the subjects of a New Zealand Security Intelligence Service warrant and the GCSB assisted in the execution of the warrants. The Inspector-General is of the view that there were arguably no breaches and the law is unclear.

• the Bureau only provided technical assistance which did not involve interception of communications, involving three of the individuals, so no breach occurred.

• the remaining cases involved the collection of metadata, and the Inspector-General formed the view that there had arguably been no breach, noting once again that the law is unclear.
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