The Wire with Joel

For our regular interview, News and Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins spoke to the Green Party’s James Shaw about the National Party’s foreign buyers tax policy, and the renters advocacy group, Renters United, scorecards ranking the major political parties on their policies for renters.

As home ownership is on a constant decline, the elderly are often left out of the discussion. Though with 8.1% of those above 65 homeless, and a prediction that half of New Zealanders will enter retirement without a home by 2053, the issue is both prevalent and alarming.

Josh Black spoke to Ollie Neas, a journalist who wrote about this in his piece "Where Will You Live When You’re Old?" for North and South, to learn more.

For our weekly catch up with the ACT party Rawan spoke to MP Simon Court about some of ACT’s policies to battle the housing crisis.

They started off by discussing their incentive for councils to increase the building of residential housing, looking at why it's important and how it will work. This incentive aims to take a 50% GST from the revenue of new residential buildings and give it back to councils.

Simon then discussed ACTs plans to scrap the Resource Management Act, taking out what they believe to be an excess of consents and regulations and focus more on development. He also talked about the reforms they plan to make to the business ACT and how this links into the housing crisis

This week on The Wire we are continuing with our election coverage, where we speak to politicians, academics, activists, experts, and more about different policy areas leading up to the election. This week we are focusing on housing. 

Rawan spoke with ACT MP Simon Court about the party’s housing policies, including their council housing incentives, their building act reforms, and their plan to scrap the Resource Management Act.

She spoke with University of Auckland Professor of Economics Susan St John about what this election could mean for low-income households.

She also spoke with Associate Professor of Criminology Alice Mills on her research looking at housing support for ex-prisoners.

News and Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins spoke to Stop the Space Waste organiser Sam Murphy and Aerospace New Zealand President Mark Rocket, about the aerospace industry in Aotearoa.