Aerial footage shows the severity of the damage caused by flooding in Auckland.
Video / Pool
OPINION:
There’s no good time for a natural disaster, but the recent flooding hit Auckland at a time many across the city are battered by more than the elements. The long pandemic hangover and related cost-of-living crisis feed a pervasive sense of uncertainty.
As per usual, working-class families, are doingit toughest. They’re the ones who spend every cent they earn to keep afloat, copping the full brunt of inflation. If the Reserve Bank gets its way on “cooling” the economy, they’ll be the ones left out in the cold. And, as night follows day, working class neighbourhoods will suffer the worst from the floods.
The damage to my own home from the floods is heartbreaking. Lots of precious, sentimental things ruined. But we’re lucky enough to have insurance and most things are easily replaced. In the poorer parts of Ayckalnd, flooding victims won’t have it so easy – especially renters. While Mayor Brown keeps trying to make this disaster all about him, other leaders are doing the mahi on the ground.
Members of Fenz Urban Search and Rescue working with structural engineers are assessing red-stickered homes in Titirangi after the devastating floods that hit Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell
Led by the Greens’ Chlöe Swarbrick, a group has come together to call for a rent freeze, to protect families from being exploited. As a landlord, I support that move. It’s not right for property investors to be able to exploit a disaster to jack up rents on desperate families. I hope Labour will pick up this idea as part of its new focus on “bread and butter” issues.
New Prime Minister Chris Hipkins gets it. Jacinda Ardern hesitated on valid policy grounds when it came to extending the petrol tax discount and half price public transport but Hipkins saw that immediate relief to struggling households mattered more in this moment than high-minded economic principles.
This new energy and focus from Labour under Hipkins has National rattled for good reason. The confidence and self-belief they exuded last year has vanished. They’re not at panic stations yet but it’s now back within sight. In a head-scratcher of an own goal, National opted to oppose and attack Labour for extending the fuel tax cut – a tax cut they supported last year – perhaps in the vain hope the offended sensibilities of academic economists will for once translate into popular groundswell. I don’t like their chances.
I won’t dwell too much on Luxon’s remarks at Waitangi where he called the Treaty, something his own party describes as the nation’s founding document, a “little experiment”. Plenty of others will be rightly offended – so much so Luxon walked it back, as he now seems to do on a near daily basis – but what struck me wasn’t that he’s a bigot or a racist (not for me to say); it was that he really doesn’t get it. “Little experiment” is just weird framing if you know anything about the history, from the perspective either of Crown or Iwi.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and National leader Chris Luxon led the parliamentary contingent onto the Treaty Grounds
It didn’t feel like this was his first outing to Waitangi as Opposition Leader, but that it’s the first time in his life and career that he’s paid it any attention at all. But Hipkins is spot on with his bread-and-butter focus. Where both parties stand on the annual minimum wage increase will be a big test. It tells you a lot about whether a politician sees workers as people, with families to support, or just as troublesome overheads to manage.
The tax packages the major parties put forth will be another big guide on who gets it. National was forced to go back to the drawing board on their package last year, after CTU economist Craig Renney revealed it would give $10 to the top 5 per cent of earners for every dollar that would go to the bottom 50 per cent. Even now, tax breaks for landlords still seems to be on their agenda. Speaking as a landlord, I don’t get how giving me a tax break can possibly be top priority right now.
A smart tax package would cut tax at the bottom, so that everyone gets the same, rather than favouring those at the top. It’s not too late for National to show they get it and offer a tax package that is fair for everyone. If they don’t, Labour might well out-manoeuvre them again.
Shane Te Pou (Ngai Tuhoe) is a commentator, blogger and former Labour party activist.
