Source: New Zealand Government
It’s great to be back here again, along with some of the ministerial housing team; Hon Willie Jackson, Associate Housing Minister and the Minister in charge Māori development, and Hon Marama Davidson, who looks after the area of homelessness.
Lastly thanks to the all the many housing providers represented here today including: iwi, our Māori Community Housing Providers, local government and Ministry officials.
I am very much looking forward to hearing more about what you are doing to support Māori housing opportunities. It is your commitment that will help us achieve a brighter future– and to flip what the statistics tell us. It is our job as Government to work with Māori to support and enable better housing, in genuine, active partnership so that all whānau have safe, healthy, affordable homes with secure tenure.
When we talk about housing being ‘decades in the making’ this is even more the case for Māori who were separated from their land, their communities, their way of life in the 19th century and further marginalised through individualisation and alienation of whenua Māori starting in the late-19th century, continuing through to the 20th and 21st centuries, with policies that have not looked to ‘by Māori for Māori’ solutions to a crisis that for Māori stretches the whole housing continuum – from homelessness to low rates of home ownership.
We are under no illusions – there is no single, quick, or easy fix to this. Rather what is required is a series of actions with interconnected policy and funding, that combines a responsive resource management system with more direct housing policies and solutions, including policies that that are effectively targeted to the needs and aspirations of Māori.
This is why we have Māori led housing projects using a ‘by Māori, for Māori’ approach under the ‘MAIHI Framework for action’ which puts whānau at the centre. This is what active and meaningful partnerships look like – if we are going to solve the housing crisis for Māori it is crucial – it is the only way. Our Labour Government will not resile from this despite the concerning race-baiting rhetoric we see coming from the National and ACT parties opposing partnerships with Māori in anything from health to the environment.
And with our recent unprecedented $730 million investment in housing and infrastructure through Whai Kāinga Whai Oranga, we are putting our money where our mouth is, with Māori in the driving seat.
We are also investing in good job opportunities through our trade training, apprentices, and school partnerships. One of the success stories is right here at Rotorua Boys High academy. Last year out of 18 boys in the programme, 12 are now in apprenticeships. The homes they have built locally have been used for housing locally.
Elsewhere in the Bay of Plenty Kāinga Ora has academies at Western Heights High School and Ōpōtiki College. The mahi done through Ōpōtiki College is part of a tri-partite with Te Whakatōhea to deliver local house builds utilising local people, including young rangatahi in their final school year. In the past four years hundreds of young people have been through our trade academies and have moved into apprenticeships.
Through Kāinga Ora the Government is also partnering with Māori businesses in a similar vein. Examples include: ICONIQ a regional build partner in Gisborne, building relocatable homes for the east coast, with a goal of creating 45 new Māori apprentices.
And Ngā Whare Tipu Limited in Hawkes Bay whose “Building Futures” trades training pathways are for 17 to 26 year olds – with more than 70 students passing through the programme last year.
Yet another example of the work underway with iwi is what Kāinga Ora have been doing with a group of Tainui affiliated trades organisations, guiding them to become a construction partner now registered as Tainui Trades Collective.
If you’ve seen the diggers – you’ll know we are also heavily investing in infrastructure to get land build-ready, so we can ramp up the housing supply. We are making good progress, including here in Rotorua – which I’ll come to shortly – but we have to do this together. Thank-you all for your part in this team effort.
However, I do know we are living in challenging times, with things like the rising cost of living and the impacts of climate change – as seen during Cyclone Gabrielle, hitting regions that were already hard hit by our housing crisis. Te Tai Tokerau, Tāmaki, Te Tai Rāwhiti and Takitimu. It has been amazing, but not surprising to see iwi and hapū coming together to respond, with marae bursting open their doors to help. But this isn’t something that should be taken for granted, as a nation we must be more prepared as severe weather events become more frequent. Already in Tairawhiti – through the Whai Kainga Whai Oranga partnership with Toitu Tairawhiti our focus has adapted to include a necessary pivot to temporary accommodation to whānau in need right now, alongside the significant build programme already underway.
That’s also why this Government is working on ways we can minimize damage from the future impacts of climate change, including increasing the resilience of our homes, buildings and places, and reducing our carbon footprint while keeping a lid on spending.
This is in addition to the immediate work to get whānau out of Civil Defence shelters and working with the Minister for Cyclone Recovery, to integrate the housing rebuild into the Government’s broader recovery plan through our Temporary Accommodation Service.
When we talk about active partnership and getting the job done – our work with Iwi and Māori right here in Rotorua is something worth shouting about. It is having real impacts. Last December, in response to a housing crisis, decades in the making, with new housing supply not keeping up with population growth, we established the Rotorua Housing Accord – an agreement between Government, Rotorua Lakes Council and Te Arawa Iwi, including Ngāti Whakaue, to work together to build a better housing and urban future for Rotorua using everyone’s collective insights, strengths and experience.
So how are we doing?
- Development has been sped up – with a huge uptick in new dwelling consents
- We’ve made making significant investments in infrastructure, including $55 million to enable residential developments, and $84.6 million for stormwater improvements,
- We’ve modernised planning rules to make it easier to move to higher density housing, including in papakāinga.
- We have around 300 public homes under construction or planned for delivery by the end of 2024.
Additionally, through Whai Kāinga Whai Oranga, we have invested:
- $19.8 million in Ngāti Whakaue Tribal Lands Manawa Gardens Development, to help enable over 100 homes including 20 affordable rentals.
- $12.5 million in Owhata 2B to support the development of 93 homes on Te Ture Whenua Māori.
- $4.2 million through a MAIHI Partnerships grant to support the delivery 17 public homes with Ngāti Uenukukōpako in partnership with Habitat for Humanity
We are also seeing significant progress toward reducing reliance on motels for emergency housing, with the number of motels used, the number of people in motels, and the number of people waiting for a public home decreasing over the last year.
We still have a way to go, but with our enduring Rotorua Housing Accord partnership and progress on a pipeline of new housing including Māori housing projects, we are well on our way.
We are also partnering with Iwi and Māori through the Land for Housing programme to support housing supply at scale, predominantly through commercial partnerships. In total, our Land for Housing programme has acquired more than 315 hectares of land that will result in an estimated 9891 more homes. Around 25 percent of those, will be sold at affordable prices for first home buyers or made available for public housing.
So to wrap up – thanks to this sustained effort, combining national, system-wide changes and local-level partnerships we are seeing the green shoots, and of course events like this National Māori Housing Conference help connect people and organisations across Aotearoa, to further drive change.
I am honoured to be a part of this kaupapa.
