State house protesters will fight on

Merivale Community facilitator Harry Ormsby (second from left) and other local protesters as they prepared to march on Parliament yesterday. Photo / Supplied

A group of Tauranga state house tenants and their supporters plan to fight on after marching on Parliament to protest against the Government's plans to sell off state houses in the city.

Vanessa Kururangi, who co-ordinates the Tauranga branch of the State Housing Action Network (Shan) which organised yesterday's protest rally, said an eight-strong group from Tauranga was among the 40-50 protesters at the rally.

That included six state house tenants from Gate Pa, Greerton and Merivale who represented 80 to 100 local state tenants who had attended two recent public meetings in the city.

Ms Kururangi said the protest organisers had expected up to 100 people to take part in the march, but in the end only 40-50 braved the cold, rainy weather to protest the Government's plans.

Tenants from Tauranga, Invercargill, Gisborne, Hamilton, Christchurch, Auckland, and Wellington participated in the rally.

Ms Kururangi said among the speakers outside Parliament was Tauranga NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell, who ended up speaking first.

"It was a really nice surprise as Clayton wasn't on our list of speakers but he was kind enough to come out of the Beehive and met us on the steps of Parliament."

Labour's Housing spokesman Phil Twyford, Green Party MP Jan Logie and NZ First MP Ria Bond and Annette Sykes from Mana Party also spoke calling on the Government to stop the sales.

There are about 1250 state houses in Tauranga, with the Government looking to sell about 1000 and another 280 in Invercargill to community housing providers.

The Treasury was due to call for expressions of interest this month from parties who would buy or lease state houses in both Tauranga and Invercargill.