Briefly in the news in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Thursday, November 6:

* Charities are scrambling in response to signs the Government is planning a ‘move on’ law to push hundreds of homeless out of city centres, despite only adding two (repeat TWO) new Housing First places out of a planned 300. (RNZ)

* PM Christopher Luxon told Parliament Aucklanders wanted the CBD ‘sorted’ before opening the new International Convention Centre and City Rail Link stations, adding: “Visitors are coming into Auckland. We need to make sure it’s a good presentation.” (RNZ)

* Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson said an enforcement approach was not effective, saying: “All it simply does is either delay or literally move the person, and therefore all the needs associated with that person down the road - both literally and metaphorically. The answer here is more homes and more support.” (RNZ)

* A former Climate Commissioner and climate change academics described Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ late-night changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and proposed changes to the Zero Carbon Act showed it wasn’t serious about reducing emissions and was gutting the act and the bipartisan consensus that created it piece by piece. (Science Media Centre)

* The carbon price in ETS markets immediately fell 20% to NZ$41.50/tonne yesterday morning, before recovering somewhat to close down around 10% at NZ$47, which compares with NZ$166/tonne in European markets last night.

* The changes disconnect the ETS from the Paris Agreement and end the need for the Government to receive advice from the Climate Commission.

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Government may outlaw homeless from CBDs

Charities helping the hundreds of people sleeping out in the open in city centres scrambled yesterday to publicise signs from within Government it is planning to legislate to allow councils to ‘move on’ homeless people from city centres to make them more attractive to tourists, conference-goers and shoppers.

Representatives from Auckland City Mission, Visionwest, Lifewise, Kāhui Tū Kaha, Te Matapihi, Community Housing Aotearoa and Housing First Auckland told RNZ yesterday morning they believed the government was taking an urgent, “move on” approach to homelessness. This followed a meeting with Minister for Auckland Simeon Brown and after National MP Ryan Hamilton put a members’ bill in the ballot titled Policing (Direction to Move On) Amendment Bill. It would give Police the power to ‘move on’ people in a specified area they deemed a ‘public nuisance’ for 24 hours. It is backed by Police Minister Mark Mitchell.

Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson said any enforcement approach would be “totally and utterly ineffective”.

“People who are rough sleeping are human beings, and any kind of enforcement approach is not only not good, but it’s also ineffective.

“All it simply does is either delay or literally move the person, and therefore all the needs associated with that person down the road - both literally and metaphorically. The answer here is more homes and more support.” Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson via RNZ

In September the government funded an additional 300 social homes through Housing First, but only two houses have been delivered.

‘We need to clean it up to make it look good for the visitors’

Asked during Parliamentary question time yesterday about the plans by Labour Housing Spokesman Kieran McAnulty, Housing Minister Chris Bishop initially denied legislative change was planned, but said the Government was doing work.

“The Government is considering a range of different things in relation to the CBD. It is 8 percent of the country’s economy; it is of national significance; and, with the City Rail Link opening next year, the International Convention Centre opening, and an increased push for tourism—for example, from cruise ships—the Government, as well as Auckland Council, is of the view that we can make the CBD a more desirable place for everyone to be than it currently is.” Chris Bishop (Question #9 Hansard)

Luxon did acknowledge the work being done on the “move on” proposals.

“Aucklanders want the CBD sorted. Visitors coming into Auckland, you know, we need to make sure it’s a good presentation. And yes, move on orders would be one of the things that you’d want to be considering.

“But obviously, when you consider them, you’ve got to make sure that you’ve got the right support structures in place to support people as well. So I’m sure that’ll be part of the conversation.” Luxon via RNZ

Bishop said he was not aware of the “move on” bill, while Mitchell said a decision on whether the Government pulled the private member’s bill from the ballot to become a Government bill was up to Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith and the Cabinet.

‘Hysteria is not helping’

Green Party Co Leader and Auckland Central MP Chloe Swarbrick said she had written to Mitchell asking him to visit the Auckland CBD to examine the homelessness issue.

“They have intentionally chosen to make more people homeless. We are left with a situation where many of my constituents in the city centre, and particularly a number of city centre businesses, have noticed that fact.

“Where are we moving these people to? My experience, as the local MP in Auckland Central over the last five years, where police have been brought in to move people along is that it doesn’t actually resolve the problem.

“It merely moves the problem along to another place and pops up in another part of the city. I would just ask that everybody who has an interest and a stake in Auckland city centre calms down. Hysteria is not helping.” Swarbrick via RNZ

‘Criminalising whānau for sleeping on the streets’

Housing advocates in Auckland, including Kick Back co-founder Aaron Hendry, criticised the “move on” legisation as criminalising the act of sleeping rough, which had been worsened by Government measures.

“If the Government goes ahead with this ban, what they will be doing is criminalizing whānau for sleeping on the streets as a result of the political decisions they themselves have made to deny people shelter.

“Our whānau experiencing homelessness are not the problem, the problem is that we have human beings who are forced to sleep outside because they have been denied access to their most basic human right to housing.

“Homelessness is a direct consequences of the political choices our political leaders have made over decades, political choices which have seen housing commodified, and the financial interests of investors and landlords elevated over our people’s most basic human need to access a safe and stable home.” Kick Back co-founder Aaron Hendry in a statement.

Chart of the Day: Reinsurance costs quintuple in 15 years

My Pick n’ Mix of links elsewhere

A few subscribers asked for me to continue the Picks n’ Mixes, even in limited form.

Politics and the Economy

* Deep-dive Cushla Norman for 1News: Ditching NZ for Oz: Kiwis at departure gate reveal why they’re leaving. ‘This year was meant to be the one when New Zealand closed the income gap with Australia and stemmed the exodus. Instead, more Kiwis than ever are leaving for a better life.’

* Susan Edmonds for RNZ: People manipulating KiwiSaver hardship withdrawal system - providers

* Phil Pennington for RNZ: FENZ aims to save millions: ‘We can’t keep doing everything for everybody’

* RNZ: Nailing rogue salons: Fears over money laundering, trafficking

* RNZ: Inquiry finds Carl Bates followed rules in declaring property interests

* Liu Chen for RNZ: Minister accused of ‘driving a wedge’ between migrants and locals

Housing, Climate & Poverty

* Phil Pennington for RNZ: Company researching forestry road safety after trucker’s death

* Layla Bayley-McDowall for RNZ: Diluting history curriculum risks ‘leaving our past to chance’ - Academic

* Good news via Ruth Hill for RNZ: Nearly 60 midwives trained to deliver pregnancy vaccination programme

* Pokere Paewai for RNZ: Crown breached Treaty principles with te reo policies - Waitangi Tribunal

* Good news via Samantha Gee for RNZ: New dialysis unit to save patients hours of travel

* Susan Edmunds for RNZ: Should we be paying $3 per km to fly domestic?

Cartoons: Double happy? The bonfire on Guy Fawkes night.

Timeline-cleansing nature pic

Ka kite ano

Bernard

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