Election 2020: Maori taskforce on housing in Northland mooted

The One Party candidate in Te Tai Tokerau is proposing to set up a Maori taskforce to address problems around housing shortage and affordability which she thinks is the biggest issue in the region.

Janice Epiha said the taskforce would consist of people on the ground without any involvement of government agencies or funders because people were more at liberty to talk about the issue when money is not an issue on the table.

Discussions around the implications of people not living in safe and secure homes would also be held, she said.

"The housing crisis is something that's really huge and to be honest, there's so many different strands to what is happening within families. It's more than your family issue, it's more than your local runanga issue, it's more than a housing issue.

"No one realised the shortage and inequality would be so great. It's so hard for Maori to get mortgages. It's so hard for people who have been in unsafe situations for so long to even know what it's like to actually have a home and look after it.

"They don't know the consequences of paying rates and those sorts of things which you don't do when you rent and so for them, it's a whole new learning curve," Epiha said.

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Investment into small businesses so they were able to survive post Covid should be encouraged, she said.

She supports moving Ports of Auckland to Northport because it will increase jobs and lessen the wear and tear on the road with trucks carting logs long distances to Auckland and Tauranga.

Northland councils coming together would be good, she said, as ratepayers would be able to utilise the skill from each and bring them together.

Epiha doesn't know much about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) to be able to say whether or not they should be released into New Zealand's environment.

Her party sees any type of drug use as a health issue and thinks meth has gotten out of hand because it was cheaper and more accessible than marijuana.

The biggest influence in her life has been her father.

"Growing up in a home where it was predominantly girls, I am number 18 of 20 children, he still took the time even when he was unwell to get up to make sure the house was warm, the washing was done— all sorts of things that you just take for granted when you get older.

"And he also ensured that we always had a meal on the table. But he pushed us to get a good education and he also said before we got married we should all have our own homes. All my children own their own homes, they've had a really good education."