{"id":444341,"date":"2026-05-25T12:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T12:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/444341\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T12:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T12:04:15","slug":"on-the-social-housing-debacle-and-the-red-tape-fantasy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/444341\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Social Housing Debacle, And The Red Tape Fantasy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, 25 May 2026, 2:18 pm
Article: Gordon Campbell<\/a><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

Fair
\nis foul, and foul is fair. Truly, the witches in
\nMacbeth had a pretty accurate take on the
\ngovernment\u2019s new demands for social housing tenants.
\nHaving boosted homelessness by kicking people off emergency
\nhousing, government ministers Nicola Willis, Chris Bishop
\nand Louise Upton claimed last week that it is \u201cfair\u201d to
\nraise the rent on the 84,000 impoverished tenants in social
\nhousing.<\/p>\n

They aim to use some of that revenue to cross
\nsubsidise a smaller rise (circa $15 on average) in the
\naccommodation supplement paid to the 110,000 low income
\npeople renting in the private sector. As well, the changes
\nwill also cut $195.6 million from the funds currently
\navailable for hardship support.<\/p>\n

Already, these policy
\nchanges are setting one segment of the poor against another.
\nThis from a government that recently claimed to care so very
\ndeeply about
\nmaintaining social cohesion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Stuff reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Modelling
\nshows this will leave 111,000 families in the private rental
\nmarket better off by an average of $14.91 per
\nweek.<\/p>\n

Advertisement – scroll to continue reading<\/p>\n

But 45,000 families in the private market
\nwill be worse off by an average of $10.82 per week, and
\n84,000 families in social housing will be worse off by more
\nthan $30 per week.<\/p>\n

Willis said the changes are
\nabout making the system fairer.<\/p>\n

This is merely the
\nfirst stage what the government has in mind. In the name of
\n\u201cfairness\u201d it also intends to make living in social
\nhousing more unstable, via
\na second \u201c tranche\u201d of changes:<\/a><\/p>\n

Officials
\nwill also look into a second tranche of changes which could
\ninclude tenancy duration limits with exemptions for ongoing
\nneed, a responsibilities framework, support to get more
\npeople into private housing and more regular eligibility
\nassessments.<\/p>\n

[Chris Bishop]: \u201cThe second
\ntranche is more about making the system fairer and about
\noperationalising the different needs assessment and making
\nsure we get social housing for those who need it the
\nmost.<\/p>\n

This second step is being taken despite the
\nknowledge \u2013 gained from the justice system \u2013 that a
\ndisproportionate number of people before the courts endured
\nunstable housing as children, experienced learning
\ndifficulties and suffered other social development harms due
\nto the constant changes in where they lived and where they
\nwent to school, alongside other forms of insecurity and
\nabuse. Yet there is nothing in these social housing changes
\nto indicate that the provision of access to stable
\nsocial housing \u2013 free of constant churn and eligibility
\nchecks \u2013 is socially beneficial.<\/p>\n

The eternal
\nfairness of landlords<\/p>\n

Is it\u201c fair\u2019 for any
\ngovernment to rob one group of poor people to pay another
\nwhile also knowing that there is nothing to prevent private
\nsector landlords from creaming off that extra $15 by hiking
\nup the rent?<\/p>\n

Pathetically, Housing Minister Chris
\nBishop claimed last week that there is \u201cno evidence\u201d
\nthis would happen. Not that he\u2019s been looking. Perhaps if
\nBishop and his Cabinet colleagues had
\nbothered to consult the social housing sector
\nbeforehand,<\/a> he might have been better informed. But
\nconsulting widely would have meant he wouldn\u2019t have
\nplausible deniability with regard to how unfair this
\nindirect subsidy to landlords is going to be, for many of
\nthe most vulnerable people in the country.<\/p>\n

Even so,
\nthe foulest part of this \u201cfairness\u201d gambit came when
\nStuff reporters revealed
\nthat Upston creams off $1,000 a week from the taxpayer<\/a>
\nin an entirely legal accommodation supplement – on top of
\nher annual $320,600 ministerial salary, plus perks. She
\nqualifies for this $52,000 a year housing handout by dint of
\nliving away from home, even though she jointly owns what
\nappears to be a mortgage free flat in Wellington in which
\nshe does not live.<\/p>\n

Reportedly, Upston\u2019s planned
\nreforms to social housing entitlements will – for many
\npoorer families with children – decrease their supplement by
\n$42 a week on average. The
\ndetails:<\/a><\/p>\n

At the moment, households can claim an
\naccommodation supplement if their total cash assets are
\nworth no more than $8100 (or $16,200 for a
\ncouple).<\/p>\n

The maximum a household can claim, if
\nthey meet certain income tests, is $305 a week. But they
\nhave to contribute at least 30% of their income to housing
\ncosts before they are eligible. If Upston\u2019s bill passes,
\nthat threshold will increase to 40% for households that own
\ntheir home. For families with children, the estimated
\naverage reduction in entitlement would be $42 per
\nweek.<\/p>\n

Upston declined to tell Stuff whether
\nshe contributes 40% of her income towards her own
\naccommodation costs. It would seem that she – and other MPs
\nin receipt of the accommodation supplement \u2013 may not be
\nmeeting the eligibility criteria being forcing upon social
\nhousing tenants. There are no reports of government MPs
\nblushing at this gaping hole in the tent of
\nfairness.<\/p>\n

Footnote One: Keep in mind
\nthat landlords are already getting a $3 billion annual tax
\nhandout from this government. In the same week as the
\ncoalition was robbing one group of poor people (to the tune
\nof $375 million gross) to pay some of it to another similar
\ngroup, the government also
\nannounced a $6 billion spend-up on Defence.<\/a><\/p>\n

It is
\nembarking on this spending spree despite the fact that the
\nnew and upgraded equipment in question would be next to
\nuseless in defending this country, and despite there being
\nno credible military threat forecast to New Zealand (or to
\nour Pacific neighbours) over the next decade. Ironically,
\nthis spending package will also reportedly \u201ccontinue the
\nlong-term Homes for Families programme, which is
\nbuilding modern, healthy houses for [Defence]
\npersonnel and their whanau..\u201d [My emphasis].<\/p>\n

Maybe
\nwe should be asking: is it fair that Kiwi families are being
\nstarved \u2013 almost literally \u2013 so that our Defence forces
\ncan continue to tootle around the Pacific waving the flag
\nand playing war games with their allies, in the manner
\naccustomed?<\/p>\n

Jobs for the 6.5%<\/p>\n

According to
\nofficial statistics, only 6.5% of New Zealanders annually
\nearn $150,000 or more. Co-incidentally, that is also the
\naverage salary rate at the taxpayer-funded trough better
\nknown as the Ministry of Regulation.<\/p>\n

Shakespeare also
\nhad something relevant to say about the ACT Party\u2019s
\ncampaign against regulations. From Hamlet: \u201cThere
\nis nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.\u201d
\nMeaning: if you called it a \u201cprotection\u201d rather than a
\n\u201cregulation,\u201d would David Seymour be getting quite so
\nmuch political mileage out of attacking it?<\/p>\n

Probably
\nnot. In a classic bureaucratic power play, Seymour and his
\nRegulations Ministry have been intent on creating a problem
\nto justify their own existence. To ease the burden of
\nbureaucracy, they have added another layer to it. In the
\nface of endless reports without concrete outcomes \u2013 they
\nhave singled out the now-abolished<\/p>\n

Productivity
\nCommission for that sin \u2013 the Regulations Ministry
\nrecently issued a report on their work to date that
\ncontained no concrete recommendations.<\/p>\n

Like many bean
\ncounters before them, the officials in the Regulations
\nMinistry have recently counted the number of agencies with
\nregulatory powers. Yes we do have lots of agencies (267)
\nthat have the power to issue\/enforce regulations. Yet that
\nfigure tells us sweet nothing about the worth of the
\nregulations, who they protect, and how many people they
\naffect, annually. No, the world didn\u2019t have quite so many
\nregulations 30 years ago, back in the glory days of
\nde-regulation that led directly to the Global Financial
\nCrisis (caused by banking de-regulation) and the Pike River
\ntragedy here (caused by labour market de-regulation.) Most
\nus would call that \u201cprogress.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s largely
\nbecause most of us would prefer to live in a modern society,
\nwith modern standards of care. Is there some duplication to
\nbe found in our regulatory system? Of course. Yet should it
\nbe a government priority to spend vast sums of money to
\nbuild and staff an entire new Ministry to re-invent the
\nregulatory wheel? Of course not. The Regulations Ministry
\nwould surely fail the kind of rigorous cost benefit analysis
\nthat it seeks to impose on everyone else. More than
\nanything, ACT\u2019s ideological brainchild looks a lot like
\nElon Musk\u2019s hare-brained DOGE cost-cutting project, which
\nended
\nup doing more harm than good.<\/a><\/p>\n

Moreover, far from
\nchoking on red tape, the vast majority of us will never,
\never encounter many of the regulations currently on the
\nbooks. As Jack Tame recently pointed out by way of example
\non TVNZ\u2019s Q&A programme, most dog owners never
\nlet their dogs loose in kiwi sanctuaries. But IMO, it is
\nstill good to know that there is a regulation on the books
\nto discourage and punish anyone who does.<\/p>\n

Back to
\nSeymour\u2019s folly. It is not as if regulations and red tape
\nhave never been subject to scrutiny and revision before the
\ncoming of David Seymour. In effect, the Ministry for
\nRegulation has added another layer of administration to the
\nwork of evaluating\/renewing\/revoking regulations that the
\nlike of Treasury and MBIE and DIA have always done before,
\nas a matter of course.<\/p>\n

That being so, the new body
\nlooks like nothing more than a bog standard bureaucratic
\npower play. Seymour and his pet Ministry aim to become the
\narm of central government to which all others must
\neventually bend the knee, lest they embark on anything that
\nprotects the consumer, at the expense of corporate
\nprofit.<\/p>\n

Finally, while railing against the evils of
\nbureaucrats sitting around on fat salaries doing nothing
\nworthwhile…the lucky libertarians at the Regulations
\nMinistry have
\nbeen enjoying salaries well in excess<\/a> of the public
\nservice average, in order that the Ministry can continue to
\ncosplay as a feisty crusader against the very same waste and
\nduplication that it embodies in
\nspades.<\/p>\n

Footnote One: To be clear
\nabout the lucrative make work that this right-wing charade
\ninvolves: Seymour and the Regulations Ministry did not
\ninherit an economy choking on unnecessary red tape and
\nregulation. Quite the opposite. How does Seymour explain
\nthat New Zealand scored number one on the World Bank\u2019s
\nEase of Doing Business rankings in 2017, 2018, 2019,
\nand 2020?<\/p>\n

New Zealand\u2019s stellar rating as the acme
\nof de-regulatory freedom was based on factors like the ease
\nof (a) starting a business (b) getting construction permits
\n(c) obtaining an electricity connection, (d) registering
\ncommercial property (e) gaining credit, (f) protecting
\ninvestors (g) paying taxes, and (h) trading across borders
\netc. Furthermore, despite the clear evidence that we are
\nplagued by very high levels of market concentration in the
\nsupermarket \/banking\/electricity sectors, our anti-trust
\nregulatory powers have rarely, if ever, been used in New
\nZealand to break these damaging strangleholds. Arguably, we
\nuse too little of what few regulatory powers we have. Even
\nso, Seymour is out to reduce them.<\/p>\n

Since the Doing
\nBusiness surveys were discontinued, there is little sign
\nthat New Zealand has lost any significant ground in
\nregulatory freedom. Unfortunately, our corporate sector has
\na persecution complex about red tape that is not grounded in
\nreality. And David Seymour makes a lot of political capital
\nout of fostering that fantasy.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s
\nChildren<\/p>\n

Karly Hartzman is the lead singer of the
\nmuch-loved US band Wednesday, namesake of the spooky kid in
\nthe Adams Family.<\/p>\n

During their sold-out gig in
\nChristchurch on the weekend, she reminded the audience that
\nunlike her own homeland, New Zealand still has a good
\nreputation around the world, so treasure it. Even so, she
\ncontinued, what she\u2019d found during the band\u2019s incessant
\ntouring, was that racism and trans-phobia occur everywhere,
\nin every country in the world.<\/p>\n

That being so, she
\nurged, we have to help each other out to defeat ICE over
\nthere and transphobic legislation right here, and \u201cfuck
\nDavid Seymour!\u201d someone in the crowd yelled out, to wild
\napplause from the young audience. Hartzman grinned before
\nadding, \u201cAnd free Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wednesday pull off a
\nrare combination. They\u2019re a great, noisy, mosh-pit
\ntriggering, screaming emo-ish guitar band. They\u2019re also a
\ngreat country music band lit by pedal steel guitar. Somehow
\nthis combination gets fused together successfully in the
\nsame set. Elsewhere, Hartzman has called the band\u2019s music
\n\u201ca country sandwich with a crunchy outer layer.\u201d
\nExactly.<\/p>\n

First, here\u2019s one of their country songs,
\nand the band\u2019s closest thing yet to an actual radio
\nhit…Sweet song, as she says at the outset, is a long
\ncon:<\/p>\n

Nothing on record can convey how
\nbig and propulsive this band is in live performance. Yet
\nhere\u2019s an older track, which has also been the second to
\nlast song on their recent setlists before the throat
\nshredding closer \u201c Wasp.\u201d Key sentiment: \u201cGod make me
\ngood, but not quite yet\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u00a9 Scoop Media<\/a><\/p>\n

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