May 03, 2023
Housing policy failing Māori says Jones
New Zealand First Northland candidate Shane Jones says the Government needs to consider more innovative policies on housing.
He says the current state house building programme through Kainga Ora is pushing up building costs but not creating the opportunities whanau Maori want to own their own homes.
He says previous policies where the Department of Maori Affairs played an active role in financing and building houses was far more effective, and the crown has no excuse for not coming up with a way to fund papakainga housing after years of talking about it.
“Ngati Rehia, one of our hapu in the Bay of Islands, they’ve got 30 or 40 sites where the occupation licence has already been agreed to – by that I mean Maori Affairs enables someone to occupy the land and you get some putea and put a house on there and then you own the house. Sure, you can never sell the land, but you can move out, put someone else in there but you own the house. It’s astounding such developments have nto taken place up and down the country,” Mr Jones says.