Southland MP Joseph Mooney’s hoping a broad cross-section of Queenstown’s community turns up to today’s public meeting on housing, noting it’s a ‘‘whole-of-community challenge’’.
Mooney and National’s housing spokesman Chris Bishop have organised the meeting at the Salvation Army’s Gorge Road premises, from noon, to hear from the community and share some of their ideas for short- and long-term fixes.
He won’t be drawn on what those ideas are yet, though: ‘‘It’s Chris Bishop’s area, so I want to leave the air clear for him to say what he thinks.
‘‘No one individual or group has the answer, but there certainly are things we can do to make it better, I think.’’
However, the one-term Southland MP notes ‘‘there’s been a lack of urgency from the government on these issues, generally’’.
He points to last year’s work to bring attention to inequities for the Accommodation Supplement, because boundaries haven’t been adjusted in 30 years.
Mooney, Salvation Army Queenstown community ministries director Andrew Wilson, former mayor Jim Boult and others tried in vain to get that ‘‘relatively simple issue’’ on the government’s radar.
‘‘Nothing happened to the point we ended up jumping out of a plane to try to get their attention.’’
A petition on the issue was handed to Parliament earlier this year — the minister responsible’s now Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni.
‘‘You’d think they could do something, but they haven’t addressed it at all to date.
‘‘I think there’s a track record, in terms of a lack of urgency, in addressing the issues facing our region.’’
At a Queenstown Business Chamber of Commerce Q&A session with Housing Minister Megan Woods in Queenstown last week, Housemart Queenstown owner Hayley Stevenson pointed out a quirk within the existing Residential Tenancies Act legislation, which essentially prevents property owners from renting their houses to seasonal workers.
That’s because at the end of the period, if a tenant decides to stay on, there’s no protection for the property owner.
While Woods maintained legislative changes take a long time, Mooney doesn’t believe that’s entirely accurate.
‘‘I’ve watched Labour over the past two-and-a-half years rapidly change law when they feel like it, under urgency.
‘‘If the will is there, it is possible to address these things relatively quickly.
‘‘Accommodation is made much more challenging by settings that haven’t been well thought through, that don’t work very well in our region.’’
