Leilani Farha is visiting Aoteroa. Yesterday, she declared the housing crisis a "human rights crisis of significant proportions". Lillian joined us on The Wire today to give a report put together by bFM Wellington correspondent Ryan Mckee.
As part of our election coverage on housing, Bronwyn speaks to Greg Street, an Eco Design Advisor from the Hutt City Council about how we can make our houses more healthy, cheaper to heat and, as a result, more environmentally friendly. As well as talking about existing and potential government policy, the two pondered the question: why don't New Zealanders demand better?
Last week it was reported that the waitlist for public housing is up 50 percent on this time last year with 18,000 people currently registered. Jemima Huston speaks to Ronji Tanielu who is a lawyer and principal policy advisor for the Salvation Army about the increase in the public housing waitlist. They promises the current government made in terms of public housing and whether they’ve been met and what the Salvation Army hopes to see a new government do to combat Aotearoa's long waitlist for housing support.
Felix takes a look at the Stats NZ "Housing in Aotearoa" report which was released on Tuesday. The report covers New Zealand's current housing market and compares to data from previous years, with pretty dire implications for renters.
Yesterday the labour party announced where they would be building 8000 public houses, which was met by critism due to the slow pace at which housing is being built. New Zealand is currently in a housing crisis due to a number of factors, which has resulted in rising prices and empty households. James talks to the Nation party's housing spokesperson, Nicola Willis, about the announcement and Nationals stance.
Three-storied houses could be more common in Auckland under a new housing policy supported by both Labour and National.
The new policy, which was announced earlier this week, enables people to build up to three homes of three storeys on most sites without any need for resource consent, starting August twenty twenty three.
Analysis from consultants PWC told the government these changes would add between 48,200 and 105,500 new dwellings over the next five to eight years.
Professor John Tookey is a professor in construction management in AUT, and he said while the new policy is a significant step forward the devil is in the details.
University of Auckland Professor of Criminology Alice Mills recently conducted a study looking at the state of housing for those leaving prison.
Rawan spoke to Professor Mills about the lack of support that is available and how this can harm the rehabilitation of prisoners and their whanau. This included the strong correlation the study found between the lack of stable housing and prisoners ending up back in prisons.
They also discussed the impact on Maori and the even more severe lack of support for those communities and what support needs to be developed.
Many have criticised the housing sector as being largely inequitable, with people with impairments lacking the support they need, and often facing discrimination.
Olivia spoke to Chief Executive of Tiaho Trust - Disability a Matter of Perception, Jonny Wilkinson, about the need for improving accessibility in the housing sector, and his personal experience.
Last Tuesday, Broadcasting Minister Paul Goldsmith announced the Government would progress with the former Labour government’s Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill with amendments to "support our local media companies to earn revenue for the news they produce".
This announcement saw ACT invoke the “agree to disagree” provision of their coalition agreement by opposing the bill. Wire host Sofia spoke to the ACT Party’s Cameron Luxton about why the party opposes this bill, and what agreeing to disagree means for the coalition’s relationships.
Additionally, she asked Cameron about last week’s announcements about changes to housing policy by "flooding" the country with new homes where Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced six key changes. These include freeing up land for development, removing unnecessary planning barriers and relaxing standards.
Lastly she asked Cameron about his member’s bill, the Easter Trading Bill, which has been drawn from the ballot. The bill would liberalise easter trading laws, allowing New Zealanders who want to trade over Easter to do so.
Recently, the Ministry of Social Development changed its eligibility for those trying to access Emergency Housing.
On top of having tougher eligibility, the policy also means that those caught breaking the rules of their Emergency Housing needs will have a stand-down period of 13 weeks for a housing grant.
Kick Back, a youth development organisation, has condemned the government’s move, and is calling for the government to reassess the criteria, due to how the new criteria will significantly displace young people requiring access to Emergency Housing.
Joel spoke to youth worker and co-founder of the organisation, Aaron Hendry, about the shift of eligibility, and what this will mean for vulnerable young people
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