Labour candidate contentious on home patch

Star MP-in-waiting Shane Jones is at the centre of an acrimonious property row for moving run-down houses and low-income tenants into the Far North's most exclusive communities.

Mr Jones is ranked at number 27 on the Labour Party list, which on current polling should see him waltz into Parliament after this year's general election.

But while a popular figure in Labour Party circles - and a man touted as a future Prime Minister - on his home patch in the Far North, Mr Jones is a contentious figure.

The millionaire landlord is embroiled in a messy property dispute with Doubtless Bay locals who have accused him of trucking in rundown houses and putting them up without the proper resource and building consents.

They are also upset that many of the tenants are low-income Maori, some with gang affiliations.

Mr Jones decided to disclose the "hostile" disagreements to the Herald on Sunday in a bid to clear the skeletons from his closet before the election.

Colin Spriggs, former chairman of the Doubtless Bay Ratepayers' Association, said he and other local residents had welcomed the torching of one of Mr Jones' rental houses two years ago.

"He's not part of the community, never was beforehand. It was an opportunist set-up for him to dump these houses for personal gain," Mr Spriggs said.

"Elderly people moved out of the area because at two o'clock in the morning these people were banging away, parties going."

The unsolved arson of a house that had just been barged from Auckland, spilling diesel into Doubtless Bay as it came ashore, is widely accepted to have been the work of one of Mr Jones' local enemies. A sign left behind threatened to torch any further houses that arrived.

Mr Jones' family was hit by arson again last week, when Kaitaia Primary School, where his mother works, was torched. The two attacks are not thought to be connected.

The Labour candidate, 45, is no stranger to controversy: as a student he was arrested for pitching a tent and protesting on the front lawn of the Governor-General's residence. "Not the church, not the state, Maoris must decide their fate," his banner read. As a rogue Waitangi Fisheries Commissioner his home was raided by police in a search for leaked documents.

But he was appointed chairman of the commission in 2000, gaining the Government's gratitude for settling the long-running Maori fisheries allocation battle.

Mr Jones said his companies had, or would be, engaging in about $1.8 million of contracts with Housing NZ Corporation to refurbish 14 old houses in Te Kao, Doubtless Bay and Mangonui, many relocated from Devonport Naval Base. He would then find Maori tenants for the state houses - including four he is "tidying up" for a planned sale to Housing NZ Corporation.

He also holds his own rental portfolio of 11 houses trucked on to sites in Mangonui and Whangarei.

Mr Spriggs said Housing NZ Corporation had promised residents there would be no more deals without consultation, and alleged Mr Jones got away without the resource and building consents because he was well-known and Maori.

But Mr Jones disputed that and said though there had been delays in some of the paperwork they were nothing significant.

Mr Jones said he was not a "slum-lord", but when he turned his back some of the tenants would get big dogs or park up wrecked cars, which "does have the effect of lowering the tone of a particular street".

"I am a profit-orientated person. It had a profit motive to it but there was an obvious social benefit," he added.

"There was a disturbance element that seriously disturbed the gentleman burghers of Doubtless Bay."

 

But Mr Spriggs said the small communities did not have the infrastructure to support the newcomers, and said that they were bad for property values.

"This will come back and haunt him," warned Mr Spriggs, who said he had not set the fire though his friends had called him "Little Flick" ever since.

"At every ratepayers' meeting, 'we'll put a match to them' was the story from a lot of people," he said.

"Housing Corp said there would be 'full consultation' for any more deals of movable housing - it shows how good they are at honouring what they say."

A Housing NZ Corporation spokesman said the corporation had promised to consult on any "significant" development.

The spokesman identified seven housing deals that the corporation had done with Mr Jones' company Castlerigg Holdings, valued at $117,000 to $127,000 each. He said negotiations were under way for a third house at Doubtless Bay, and that the corporation had purchased other properties by private treaty.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY