May 29, 2017
Housing plan a gift for landlords
Mana leader Hone Harawira says a rise in the accommodation supplement is just a subsidy for landlords that will do nothing to address the housing crisis.
The rise was a major spending item in Finance Minister Steven Joyce’s first Budget, but Mr Harawira says it shows the Government has no fresh ideas.
He says the supplement goes directly to private landlords or motel owners.
"It was a policy designed specifically to make rich people richer and make all the rest of us think they have done some nice things for the people on the bottom. Well they have done nothing. It changes absolutely nothing. Housing is in crisis and increasing a supplement so motel owners can get richer is not going to change a bloody thing for anyone," he says.
Mr Harawira says less than one percent of the Budget went for Maori, which shows the low priority Maori are for National.
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