Who profits from state evictions? | The Jackal

23 Aug 2017

Who profits from state evictions?

It was pretty clear that the National party intended to sell off New Zealand’s state houses when they started evicting long-term tenants in their first term and then parachuted their former MP Tau Henare into the Housing New Zealand Corporation's board of directors. What wasn’t so clear was the sheer audacity of National’s plan to rip the taxpayer off.

Before people start getting the wrong idea, I'm not racist. In fact quite the opposite. I think a diverse culture is one of the best deterrence to war and it should therefore be encouraged in every country. However that doesn't include selling state assets to a private company in what looks like one of National's worst abuses of power ever.

Yesterday, Voxy reported:

Mt Albert state housing land now in Chinese hands - NZ First

Why did a Mt Albert Housing NZ development end up in the hands of a Chinese company?

"New Zealand First is asking questions as to why Housing NZ sold land in the Mt Albert electorate to a developer who under the Special Housing Areas (Hon Nick Smith’s plan) the developer received government and council housing incentives to provide accommodation for Auckland residents, which is exactly what didn’t happen," says New Zealand First Leader and Member of Parliament for Northland, Rt Hon Winston Peters.

Hold the phone Bill.

"The evidence that we have shows that the houses concerned went to China Southern Airlines people from China and not to ease the housing shortage for Auckland residents.

"New Zealand First wants to know why the SHA scheme was abandoned despite the National Party boasting for years how critical it was to meet the Auckland housing crisis.

"Meanwhile, at least 14 families were kicked out of the old Housing NZ houses for this development to take place," says Mr Peters.

It appears that the National led government evicted Kiwi families, demolished their state houses, sold public land to a private company and then helped pay for private housing to be built to accommodate people involved in China Southern Airlines.

China Southern Airlines is an entirely Chinese state-owned company, and therefore National has essentially evicted New Zealand families for the Chinese government.


Using taxpayers’ money to help build houses for a company with ties to the Chinese government is bad enough, but evicting New Zealand families to do so is even worse.

Personally I don’t like seeing cases like this in the news. Therefore I won’t be voting for the National party or its candidates this coming election. I would encourage all my Chinese friends to do the same.

Yesterday, the NZ Herald reported:


Winston Peters accused of 'race-baiting' attack on Chinese air crew

National list MP Melissa Lee, who is based in Mt Albert, said the statement was "typical Winston Peters race-baiting".

"He doesn't understand housing developments or special housing areas and is simply firing out ill-informed press releases when he sees the word 'Chinese'," she said.

Housing NZ confirmed that it sold the land in April 2013 to a private developer for a reported $8.76 million.

The property was given Special Housing Area status in May 2014, allowing fast-track consenting with a requirement that 10 per cent of the homes must be "affordable" - priced below 75 per cent of the median Auckland house price.

Auckland Council said at the time that 33 new homes would be built on the land, replacing 19 former state houses.

However the special housing areas were disestablished when the new Auckland Unitary Plan came into force last September.

None of those properties need to be “affordable” now because there’s no proper provision provided for that in the Auckland Unitary Plan. Instead, affordable housing is just listed as a challenge Auckland faces.

Peters said he wanted to know why the special housing areas were abandoned "despite the National Party boasting for years how critical it was to meet the Auckland housing crisis".

"Meanwhile, at least 14 families were kicked out of the old Housing NZ houses for this development to take place," he said.

Which is the crux of the matter. National can scream until they're blue in the face about racism but it doesn’t change the fact that they sold state owned land that was being used to house low income New Zealander's, property that ended up belonging to a company that has ties to the Chinese government.

The National party must be held to account for depriving Kiwi's of affordable housing. Let’s see some hard questions being asked of Bill English and Nick Smith this election campaign over what is clearly an abuse of power. Let's see the media question National about the homelessness crisis they have caused.

This will be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the National led government's secret deals to privatise state-owned assets… an iceberg that looks set to sink National’s hopes for re-election.