Kerre Woodham: Labour should stay away from housing policy

When I look at Labour's campaign and I look at National's campaign, it's like, look, I'll do it for you next time. Seriously, when something is being done so badly, you think, you know what? I can do that so much better. They've had shocking campaigns, both of the main parties. Just negative, silly stuff. And yesterday, Labour had an absolute clanger. Of all the issues and all the policies that Labour could have come up with to attract voters, to point out deficiencies in the Coalition Government, why on earth did they have to decide on housing as one of their last big pushes before the election?  

You'll have heard Kieran McAnulty yesterday announcing a new rent to buy scheme that would allow public housing tenants to save for a house deposit. $100 a week from their taxpayer subsidised rent would be credited towards a house deposit with the funds held in a trust account. The scheme would help people save $5,200 a year, Labour says, and allow tenants to accumulate enough to put down a deposit on a home. Public housing tenants would have the option to buy the home they're living in. Labour said that for each house sold, three more would be built in its place. Really? What's your track record like on building houses, Labour? Pretty damn poor. Three more would be built in its place? Labour would have been turfed out after one term were it not for Covid last time round because of their failures of execution when it came to policy.  

One of their biggest embarrassments was KiwiBuild, the building of houses. 100,000 houses were promised. Remember that? And everybody went, oh, I don't think so. No, no, I think you've got that wrong. And it wasn't just people like me having a rick and going, I don't think you'll be able to do 100,000, it was people in the industry going, no, that's not going to happen. No, they knew best, Labour did. They went ahead, they promised it. 100,000 houses would be built for hardworking Kiwis. Total amount of houses built: 2,003. Quite a big differential. 100,000 promised, 2,003 delivered. So forgive me if I call BS on Labour's ability to build three houses for every one sold, unless they go down the Kāinga Ora route where they damn near bankrupted the country building houses at any cost. We've only just got Kāinga Ora under control after the build at any cost order was given by the last Labour government.  

There are two policy areas Labour should be staying well away from: law and order and housing. They are proven failures in both areas, unless they're willing to spend anything at all and lock other young people out of the housing market by buying up, spending money we don't have, and paying it down on the never never. This latest announcement, if you are living, say, in GI in Auckland in a state house, which is being gentrified, a little suburb that's being gentrified, how long would you have to live there before you'd saved even for a 5% deposit? If you're living in Greymouth in a Kāinga Ora house, you might in seven and a half years have enough to put down a 5% deposit loan on your home. But it's sticking two fingers to hardworking young people who are working and who are renting and who are saving for their first home. And it is nothing like the capitalisation of family benefit that McAnulty referred to when he was talking to Heather du Plessis Allan last night. 

"There'd be many people listening to your show who bought their home or their parents bought their home by capitalising the child benefit. And that set them up for life. Now, we haven't had a scheme like that for a very long time. And the announcement today to expand the 5% deposit and also have a scheme to actually get Kāinga Ora tenants out of state housing, out of a poverty trap and into home ownership, I think is something that will benefit the whole country. And I reckon it'll actually get broad support across the political spectrum." 

Will it? I'll be fascinated to find out. If we look at capitalisation of the family benefit, that came in in 1958, the rate of unemployment was virtually non-existent. I think they had it down at 0.1%, just to put something down on paper. People were working, mostly men. They had a good working wage that could look after a family. They had steady employment. There were good prospects. So they were able to service a loan, they were able to make improvements on a house, and yes, it did set them up. But they were working. As we all know, buying a home is only the beginning of the expense. The maintenance, the rates, the insurance, it's all got to come from somewhere. And if you're not working, where's it going to come from?  

I think home ownership is a very, very good thing. I think state housing is a very, very good thing. My dad grew up in a state house in Christchurch. My grandmother still remembers the day they qualified and came out of the transit camps and into a state house. It was like winning Lotto. But neither my brother nor his five siblings, my aunt and uncles, needed the Government ever again. They were very grateful, they were, thank you very much, they bought their own homes using their own money, working three jobs. That's what you have to do. You use the state house as a base from which to launch your kids to do better. Or at least that's what used to happen in the olden days.  

I love that first home buyers right now are the biggest players in the market. They're young people who've paid off their student loans and saved and scrimped and lived with their parents and forgone the trips overseas to get the money together for their first house. Nobody's giving free money to these kids. All of this hoo ha, all of this bringing back the spectre of Labour's dumpster housing policies for 1,100 Kāinga Ora tenants who may or may not be interested in buying their state house. They sure as hell couldn't if they're living in Auckland, no matter how long they live there. And who may or may not be able to afford to continue living there once they've bought the bloody thing.  

Look, let me do Labour's election campaign next time. I could not do a worse job. Chris Hipkins had a zinger of a line in one of the debates when he said to Chris Luxon, no, you are certainly not John Key. Well, right back at you, Kieran McAnulty, you are certainly no Michael Joseph Savage.