Weathertight Homes Resolution Service: Notice of motion

Tariana Turia; Housing Spokesperson, Maori Party

WEDNESDAY 8 AUGUST 2007

The Maori Party will be supporting this Notice of Motion, as we believe it needs to be resolved as soon as possible.

When the Thursday six o'clock bells ring it is one moment when the House is united, all thinking of one thing, 'Home Sweet Home'.

But for far too many New Zealanders, their thoughts of Home are anything but sweet.

While this Bill addresses, rightfully, the need to ensure that remedies provided by the Weathertight Homes Tribunal include general damages for mental distress and anxiety; the Maori Party has continued to raise the issues of the ongoing mental distress and anxiety occurring in too many homes in Northland, East Coast and Bay of Plenty.

Homes where Maori whanau try to live the sweet life despite the building failure they live in.

We have, with consistent regularity, profiled the low quality workmanship which has seen too many homes in too many Maori communities end up rotten, leaking and ripe for a public health disaster.

Worse still - the question must be asked about the building inspectors who work for councils. Who is it that approves the substandard workmanship?

We have written to the Minister of Housing, attended local meetings, talked frankly about the state of mould and damp in homes labelled as sub-standard.

We have shared stories from the Far North, from Ruatahuna, Morrinsville, Waitahanui, Ruatoki.

And we will keep profiling these stories until we are heard.

Because as this House will know we are not a political party that refuses to face up to the challenge of conflict.

We will always stand up, proudly, despite the numbers being against us, to defend Maori rights, and uphold Maori aspirations, for the best interests of Aotearoa.

Every family has the right to a warm home, built out of quality materials to a quality standard. Sad to say, but many Maori homes fall short of this requirement and no-one takes responsibility. Not inspectors, not builders, not Housing New Zealand.

And so it is with the Weather-tight Homes and sub-standard housing.

We have stood throughout this debate, and supported the amendments to ensure that deficiencies caused through the penetration of water into a building, and the associated damage or loss of value caused by these problems, is properly dealt to.

And we have acknowledged how such amendments are necessary to give adjudicators and the tribunal the same ability as the courts of law to make awards for general damages for relevant mental distress.

And we can not stand up for the rights of those affected by leaky homes syndrome, and turn a blind eye to the crisis of sub-standard or overcrowding which is collapsing around us.

Mr Speaker, more and more New Zealanders are going home to caravans, garages, low quality boarding houses where health and well-being is compromised.

The Child Poverty Action Group has identified the particular implications of over-crowding in South Auckland homes, on the children.

And they have pointed out that the admission rates at Starship Children's Hospital for readily preventable diseases - the diseases of poverty - are a national disgrace.

And there are national and international studies which show a high association between the prevalence of certain infectious diseases and crowding and sub-standard housing.

We know if your house is not weather-tight your home is likely to be cold and damp, resulting in poorer health status.

There are also educational impacts - if you're jostling for space in an overcrowded, sub-standard home, chances are there's not going be a place to study nor a warm safe environment to help the young achieve.

And who are the New Zealanders most at risk of the Substandard or Overcrowded Houses Syndrome?

The 2006 Social Report makes it clear:

41% of those living in more severe crowding situations - that is, requiring at least two or more bedrooms - are made up of Pasifika families; and 38% are Maori.

A quick calculation makes that 79% of New Zealand families living in severe crowding situations are Maori or Pasifika.

So............one standard for all? I don't think so.

So much has been said about violence this year.

I would remind the House of the words of the Great Soul of India, Mahatma Ghandhi, who believed that "poverty is the worst form of violence".

Is it not time to consider the housing crisis as another manifestation of the violence of poverty which impacts, adversely, upon our children?

Because children are more likely to live in low-income households than any other group of New Zealanders, children bear a disproportionate burden of the costs of sub-standard and overcrowded houses.

And because Maori and Pasifika families have far higher likelihood of being low income, it is therefore their children who are faring worst from the housing fallout.

The Weathertight Homes Resolution Service Amendment Bill is primarily forward looking. The Bill will apply to claims that are currently lodged but have yet to be determined.

And it is likely that the majority of those claims will be from middle class applicants.

In much the same way, wouldn't it be a great day in the House, if we could be forward looking at addressing the chasm of despair that currently sits between those who HAVE and those who HAVE NOT.

Wouldn't it be a great day when we could look forward to a time when caravan parks aren't overflowing; when Starship was only seeing children whose health was compromised by unpreventable conditions; when families were stable rather than constantly shifting to find a place to live?

We will support this Bill.

And we will also continue to speak out about housing affordability, over-crowding and the sub-standard housing that our relations, our whanau, our constituents, our people live in.

Na reira, tena koutou.

ENDS

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