Open for all
Yesterday, Luxon congratulated his government on a job well done with emergency housing numbers, but advocates have been saying it‘s likely many are on the streets and sleeping in cars.
Q&A featured some of the folks this weekend - homeless and in cars.
Yes.
The government’s also confirmed they stopped funding social service providers who were helping emergency housing tenants.
Now, back in April, when Luxon first announced 9 “highly ambitious” public service KPIs, it seemed obvious how easy the emergency housing target was - in particular.
800 less households in emergency housing?
People with predictable advocates, zero lobbying groups, and who are seen by many in society as expendable and are effectively voiceless?
Find me a bully and I’ll get you a successful KPI on that one.
Promise.
Well yesterday Luxon made it clear that his 9 KPIs were all in progress - but one in particular had made "particularly good progress,” he noted.
You guessed it: emergency housing. [Surprised Pikachu face]
Here’s how Louise Upton described the eligibility changes in March:
“MSD staff [will] assess anyone applying for emergency housing [and] increase their scrutiny of whether they have unreasonably contributed to their immediate emergency housing need, whether they have taken reasonable efforts to access other housing options [e.g. private rentals/hostels] and whether they have previously paid their emergency housing contribution.
"This will include escalating for further consideration .. and making a grant for one to four days - as opposed to the current options of seven to 21 days - to enable further scrutiny."
The pressure for applicants, I imagine, would be immense, and the first critiera - “whether applicants have unreasonably contributed to their immediate emergency housing need” feels like it wouldn’t involve much compassion or dignity.
For anyone with anxiety or who finds that level of external scrutiny stressful, I’m guessing many will avoid the process altogether.
National aren’t without other smarts too.
In March, Housing Minister Chris Bishop said that families with children would be prioritised for support.
After all, who needs photos of children living in cars or on streets on the 6 o’clock news?
Progress ensues.
Last month, nearly all government Ministers posted their ‘achievement’ of 1000 less children in emergency housing on their Facebook pages -
Unfortunately though, the Government doesn’t know where 20% of the children went to, and holds little visibility on those that went private (about 30%).
Community providers and charities have warned that a “tsunami of homelessness” is likely despite the short term ‘success’ of the numbers because of reduced staffing and halts to social housing under National.
And Labour’s McAnulty:
"They're not letting people in…”
“Make it harder for people to get into emergency housing - where are they going to go?"
"They're certainly not going to the houses that the government is building, because the government put a stop to it."
Singles or families without children are rendered homeless and off to a life of desperation, mental illness and/or crime many will go.
Talking about crime - Paul Goldsmith and Luxon spent time in the press conference responding to questions about their tougher sentencing and criminal justice regime.
Paul speaks Te Reo
Goldsmith also took time out to joke with reporters about learning phrases in Te Reo Maori - his one was “fighting like a shark”.
Related reading:
The Press Conference
To the content -
Yes, they expected more people in prison as a result of their reforms.
How many?
Goldsmith: 1400 - 1700 / year. Luxon later upped that to up to “2000 extra prisoners” a year by 2034
Cost?
Goldsmith: $160 - $190 million. But we already know each prisoner costs ~$200,000 per person (Ministry of Justice).
That would mean up to $400,000,000 more per year - not adjusted for inflation. i.e. $400mn per year and $1.2 billion over a budget period at max modelling
Luxon intimates money is no object when it comes to incarceration.
Seriously.
In an earlier column, I noted how NZ now has comparable incarceration rates globally - about 173 per 100,000 (Australia 157, and the UK, 145).
And under the last National governments, they acknowledged high incarceration levels were a “moral and fiscal failure.”
i.e. They were not only extremely expensive - but they didn’t stop crime, and only hardened the causes.
I won’t lament the point but observe how the Luxon led right wing government seems to be cherry picking the worst of failed models for NZ (trickle down economics, corporations over people, climate change protection elimination and now mega prisons and higher incarceration)
Achieving a KPI is easy - ask anyone who has worked with data what manipulation means and I think you will see them nod.
But genuinely helping a nation to improve is something altogether.
National is playing funny buggers with the crime numbers and statistics
The video (3:25) also shows that National are fudging their crime numbers sheen.
They used police data in opposition e.g. to claim ram raids increased by 80% during Labour’s term, but now in government they are using the “victimisation survey” instead.
This is obviously a marketing trick and Luxon looks down before coming back up to talk a lot about nothing. And this is how RNZ summarised it -
Yet, unfortunately it’s not that simple.
They are comparing apples while in opposition with bananas in government.
Luxon announced crime was coming down in Auckland but ignored the fact that crime - including violent crime - is going up across the entire country. This is how NZME covered it.
And yes - most people just remember the first headlines.
A Scourge, says Goldsmith
Finally, Goldsmith and Luxon were challenged on why they made a change to allow police to enter private homes to search for gang insignia, after the Select Committee closed.
Paul Goldsmith labels gangs a “scourge on society.”
And the PM’s defiant answer - “we back police”.
Yes, except when it’s the police versus an ACT gun lobbyist & Associate Justice Minister, who still meets with gun and firearms groups every single month.
Then he will ignore the 98% of all sworn police who were pleading for a chance to have input on gun laws. In that case, last month, Luxon told them squarely and publicly to get in line.
Flexible principles, flexible Luxon.
Not one extra dollar available for our health system, he said, but he will find whatever money he needs to to put more Kiwis behind bars, while simultaneously pushing more people onto our streets.
Related Reading:
National plan for 2000 more Kiwis a year in prison