MEDIA RELEASE

4 September 2015

Government right to come to the party over iwi housing agreement

The Māori Party is happy that its challenge to the Government to honour RFRs has paid off with the announcement yesterday of an Auckland iwi housing agreement.

Māori Party Co-leader, Te Ururoa Flavell, says the Housing Mahi Ngātahi Agreement signals a big step in the right direction and it’s just a shame that Court action had to be initiated”.

“Working in a good faith partnership with iwi can only help to improve the housing crisis in New Zealand’s biggest city. The Māori Party was outraged when it looked like the Government was trying to side-step its obligations”, he says.

The Housing Mahi Ngātahi Agreement outlines an Iwi-Crown objective to work together in good faith to increase affordable homes for whanau.

Māori Party Co-leader, Marama Fox, is delighted with the unique opportunities that this type of social housing agreement presents and hopes that agreements of this kind can be a template for the government and other iwi to follow.

”The agreement includes a shared commitment to build some new homes for community housing providers to buy, and some affordably priced homes for first time buyers”, she says.

ENDS

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