August 25, 2014
Different recipes on show for housing crisis
Labour’s Maori spokesperson Nanaia Mahuta says National’s election housing giveaway misses the mark as far as Maori families are concerned.
John Key kicked off his official campaign yesterday by promising to tweak Kiwisaver so savers could get a grant towards the deposit on their first home of up to $10,000.
Ms Mahuta says many Maori and Pacific workers are still not on KiwiSaver, so they’ll miss out.
She says without a supply of new houses the grant will only force prices up.
"We’ve given a commitment and National are poo-hooing it, that we will build 10,000 homes a year. The last time that Labour made a commitment of this sort was when a lot of Maori saw home ownership increase around about the 1950's when you could capitalise on the family benefit. We think we can do it again and we have to because in Auckland, in particular, it's just getting out of reach," she says.
Nanaia Mahuta says home ownership gives whanau and communities the long term security they need.
FOR THE FULL INTEVIEW WITH NANAIA MAHUTA CLICK ON THE LINK
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