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A proposal to pay people on the Auckland state house waiting list a cash incentive to move to a provincial town has been described as ethnic cleansing of the super city.
Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett suggested the policy may particularly appeal to Pacific Islanders who want to join families in places like Oamaru and Ashburton.
Former Green MP Sue Bradford from Auckland Action Against Poverty told Radio Waatea host Willie Jackson it’s as if Ms Bennett woke up with a bright idea without doing any research or connecting it with other government policy.
She says it seems to send a message that only the rich and the white should live in Auckland.
"Yeah let’s just get them out of here because that's the trend of big cities like London and a number of other big cities overseas, where it becomes so unaffordable in the big city that the council and the government push low income people out to other parts of the country," she says.
Sue Bradford says letting people on state house waiting lists apply to move to other towns isn’t a bad idea, but it needs to be supported by regional development and employment programmes.
Copyright © 2016, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
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