Hone Harawira - Weather Tight Homes Bill
te-pati-maori
Fri Jul 20 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Hone Harawira - Weather Tight Homes Bill
Friday, 20 July 2007, 10:02 am
Speech: The Maori Party
Weather-tight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Amendment Bill
Hone Harawira; Maori Party - Thursday 19 July 2007
“If this was a White middle class community, there would be hell to pay”
The Maori Party welcomes this move to change the law so that the Tribunal can make awards to those families who have suffered mental distress as a result of the leaky homes saga of the past few years, and It’s really appropriate that it’s coming up now because of the trauma and distress being suffered by victims of the recent storms and floods that have hit the Tai Tokerau, Whitianga, Kahungunu and Taranaki over the past few weeks, but it’s really sad that this Bill won’t help them at all.
This current proposal came out of a court decision which noted that the Weather-tight Homes Resolution Services Act did not allow for awards for mental distress and anxiety. This Bill will allow such awards to be made, which will be a big relief for those with claims relating to weather-tight deficiencies.
Mind you, it’d be better if people could get decent, affordable, good quality housing, rather than trying to claw back compensation for shoddy construction later.
And while the Maori Party acknowledges the genuine distress caused by deficiencies, damages, destruction and loss of value that this Bill deals with, we also want to widen this debate to deal with housing stress more broadly.
We support any move that acknowledges the stress of having and losing a home, and like the Law Society we also see this Bill as being ‘forward looking’, and in the best interests of those who have suffered mental distress and anxiety caused by damage and loss of value.
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But we are also aware that government has spent nearly $76m on the Weather-tight Homes Resolution Services since 2002, and we’re wondering when government is going to fund a Sub-standard Homes Resolution Service to respond to the desperate needs in those homes where there is no bathroom, where a long-drop toilet hides behind a shabby wooden door, where the wind whistles through paper-thin walls and ill-fitting windows and doors, where there is no heating or protection from the cold and damp; where there are no hot water cylinders, and where only the tap that works, is a cold one.
And if you think I’m making this up, just ask John Carter, Parekura Horomia and Pita Paraone; they’ll tell you it’s true and that there are way too many for Government to continue to ignore. Indeed all members will be aware of quotes such as this one from a regional health strategy which states that:
"Hospitalisation for preventable diseases among Mäori is high, along with health issues associated with poverty and poor housing."
and which confirms an ongoing reality of housing stress for Maori; a reality which includes over-crowding, sub-standard housing and poor heating further impacting on Maori health.
So it’s hard to think about this Weather-tight Homes Bill, separate from the impact of wider housing policy on Maori; the fact that up until World War Two Maori were specifically excluded from mainstream state housing; and the fact that in a study completed just last year, by theFamily Centre Social Policy Research Unit and the Massey’s Research Centre for Maori Health and Development, we find that there are still problems, and I quote:
“Local councils and government departments are reported to have struggled to meet changing housing demands for Maori”.
Mr Speaker, it seems to me that if legislation can be fast-tracked through to allow for awards for mental distress for leaky home victims, then there’s no reason why legislation cannot be fast-tracked to cater for Maori housing needs.
The research has already been done into housing discrimination, and there are a whole host of recommendations for affordable home ownership; communal housing designs, and innovative rental deals.
And if I might be so bold, I’d ask this House to think about the societal status of those New Zealand families affected by this Bill, and to ask whether there are certain suburbs, income brackets, and socio-economic categories which benefit mostly from the work of theWeather-tight Homes Resolution Service?
And I’d ask this House to then think about those communities in my own electorate where poverty often determines housing choice, where people live in houses built from polyurethaned weetbix, where septic tanks have been put in below the level of the water table, where sewerage runs over the sections, where poor workmanship is grossly evident, and where one senior Pakeha policy analyst was so shocked and disgusted at the conditions she saw, that she was moved to say:
"if this was a White middle class community there would be hell to pay".
And then a few years ago the middle classes went into shock over the leaky home saga, and to no-one's surprise, we now have this legislation.
Different treatment for two groups of people? One brown, rural, low income; the other white, more affluent and in a higher income bracket. Maybe the criticism of my comments about John Howard was right. Maybe I should have been firing my bullets a lot closer to home. Why indeed, has this government treated these two groups, so very, very differently?
We know from the leaky homes saga, that deregulation of the building industry led to cowboy operators, and a lowering of standards.
But what about those Maori houses built before then; houses built on swamp land because the whänau had been moved off their original papakäinga; houses approved by Housing Corp over the past twenty years which have already been condemned; houses that whänau can’t sell because their homes were built of inferior materials – none of which are eligible for the weather-tight homes resolution services that those other folks will get.
We know too, from theSocial Report 2006, that there are parts of this country where household overcrowding is rife; like Manukau, Opotiki, Porirua, Wairoa, Kawerau and places in the Far North where 25% of all homes need more bedrooms, and where to no-one's surprise, the populations are primarily Maori and Pasifika.
This Bill to allow for awards for mental distress for those suffering through the leaky-homes saga is a good idea. No question.
But let us not be so blinded by this saga that we do not see a real crisis, rotting in our country for generations, a crisis of shoddy homes, of people in desperate need, and a government in denial.
ends
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