A condemned house with a cracked roof may well let in more light than a frost encrusted car on a Christchurch street. National did promise a brighter future for all last election, but that is definitely not the type of upgrade they want government ministers like Pita Sharples advocating. The Minister of Maori Affair's suggestion was damaging, not so much because he is actually advocating illegal acts, but more because he has shattered the Government line on Christchurch housing of 'there is no crisis' - see Olivia Carville and Vernon Small's Hardship but no housing crisis, says Key. With much of the housing quake damage going back nearly two years, the admission that some residents still face a choice between living in dangerous and condemned houses or freezing to death in the cars isn't, as they say, a good look - see Olivia Carville's Abandoned homes preferred to cars.
John Key and Gerry Brownlee had much success portraying themselves as action heroes, slashing red tape, sidelining a dysfunctional City Council and setting tight deadlines for action plans. They have certainly been given the bureaucratic equivalent of super powers. And they've certainly used these super powers when it comes to the central city and high profile infrastructure like rugby stadiums. When it comes to housing, however, the action is less impressive. Although most affected residential owners finally know the fate of their homes after many months of anguish, there are many more economic casualties of the earthquakes. In particular, it seems that those with the fewest resources who have been pushed out of the rental market by those, not with greater needs, but simply with bigger bank accounts. That's the clear picture painted by Liz McDonald's Rental rises called obscene. She says that landlords are chasing short term gains: 'The investors are trying to cash in on a premium short-term market created by companies housing earthquake rebuild staff, and insurers putting up displaced homeowners'. It isn't just do-gooders complaining. With numerous cases of rents being doubled, McDonald quotes real estate agents and property managers describing such activity as 'obscene' and 'price-gouging'.
Steven Cowan wonders where the Maori Party leader has been for the past year, detailing a number of warnings about the problem in his blogpost, Never fear, Pita is here!: 'Rather than political grandstanding, Sharples and the Maori Party should be publicly challenging the Government for its failure to accept that a massive social crisis has unfolded in the eastern suburbs of Christchurch'.
The Rebuilding Christchurch blog argues that the top-down structures may well speed up action for known issues but at the cost of preventing problems being identified in the first place - see: Crisis? What Crisis?.
Sharples' comments raise some interesting contradictions: Can party leaders who are government ministers say one thing while wearing their 'leader hat' and another thing while wearing their 'ministerial hat'? The Minister of Maori Affairs appears to be saying that he is a) apologising, but b) still stands by what he said?. Here's what Sharples has said: 'It is an irresponsible comment as a minister, but you know as the leader of the Maori party I meant every word because I've got people out there whose job is to pick up people in the street who are in a bad way, and they work non stop, and they were very emotional about their reports' - see Barry Soper's Sharples suggests homeless sleep in red zone.