Lillian
Hanly, Political reporter
Labour
says the Housing Minister has been undermined by his leader
and colleagues following the announcement
to lower the maximum number of houses in Auckland from 2
million to at least 1.6 million.
Meanwhile, ACT leader
David Seymour says “we’re not there yet” and wants to see
the location of the 1.6 million homes before supporting
it.
Chris Bishop announced the change to Auckland
leaders at the International Convention Centre on
Thursday.
Deputy leader and spokesperson for Auckland
Carmel Sepuloni said it’s a humiliating backdown for Bishop
and there’s been a relationship breakdown between government
ministers.
Sepuloni said there’d been “self-interest”
from some MPs, including Epsom’s David Seymour and Howick’s
Simeon Brown, and that they were “concerned with their own
leafy suburbs” and the feedback they’d got from their
constituents.
“This
is a humiliating backdown for Chris Bishop, who has spent
months talking up housing reform only to be forced into
swallowing a dead rat when Christopher Luxon threw his plan
under the bus,” Sepuloni said.
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She said Bishop had
been ambitious for Auckland, “he knows how important housing
is”, and called it a huge blow for Auckland families looking
for affordable homes.
She’s concerned about the
uncertainty the change brings, given council entered into
agreements with government in good faith and “this really
turns all of that on its head”.
The Greens were
similarly frustrated, with co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick saying
she’d call it embarrassing if it wasn’t
“harmful”.
“We’ve been having this debate for longer
than I have been involved in politics. Aucklanders and New
Zealanders deserve far better.”
She said cities
weren’t museums, and they needed to house
people.
Swarbrick said she found it “profoundly
ironic” that the government was capitulating to those who
own property at the expense of everybody else at a time
where the Infrastructure Commission called for “clear-eyed,
evidence-based criteria” for development in New
Zealand.
She
asked if Bishop was willing to show his spine and do the
things he said he believed in.
Neither Labour nor the
Greens would rule out making further changes or campaigning
to make further changes to the plan.
Nor did the ACT
leader give his full endorsement for the change, with
Seymour saying it was good progress the government was
making changes, “but we need to see what 1.6 million looks
like before we vote for it”.
He said when parliament
voted for 2 million homes, “we hadn’t seen the maps from the
council”.
“They had kept them hidden and basically
released them the next day. This time, we need to see what
1.6 million looks like before we vote for it.”
Seymour
said people did want housing intensification but they wanted
to see it being consistent and looking sensible, saying it
would be “crazy” to have a field of single family homes with
a 150 metre tower in the middle.
New Zealand First
leader Winston Peters was pleased the change was happening,
saying a lower number of homes was “doing better” and the
change was more “attuned to the actual realities of future
growth” rather than “wild speculation”.
“You’ve got to
compromise, in my view. I’ve talked to a lot of planners
there. We could have done better, and we still
can.”
Brown: ‘I’m not sitting up here to have David
Seymour tell me what to do’
After the speech,
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown fired a warning shot that he
would not be dictated by Cabinet.
Act leader David
Seymour said the reduced number is a decision in principle
and still needed legislation passed.
“The government
will now await Auckland Council producing a summary of how
the zones will change before legislating,” Seymour
said.
But Wayne Brown suggested
otherwise.
“We’re not doing this in order to go to the
government and to the Cabinet and ask for their approval,”
he said.
“I mean, the Cabinet mostly don’t even live
in Auckland, so that’s not going to happen.”
Brown
said the council would “stick with the two million and carry
on” if it had to do that.
“I mean, I’m not sitting up
here to have David Seymour tell me what to do.”
Wayne
Brown said both he and Chris Bishop were proponents of
intensification “in sensible areas” around train stations
and bus routes.
On the whittling down from 2 million
homes, Brown said peopel were focused on the wrong
thing.
“And that was, we weren’t going to have 2
million houses, and it was just a concept that was beyond
the thinking of most people.
“If it calms down some
worried elderly residents in Epsom, then that’s done its
job.”
Asked about Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown’s
comments that the change was an overreach from central
government, and he didn’t want to seek Cabinet’s approval on
another plan, Seymour suggested the mayor “be a bit of a
democrat” and help inform the public of what 1.6m looks
like.
“I don’t think he has the right to withhold
information that’s important to many
Aucklanders.”
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