Editorial: Desperate ring to cash plan

Mark Dawson, Editor of Wanganui Chronicle

PAULA Bennett's $5000 handout to get people to quit state houses in Auckland and head to the provinces has a rather desperate feel to it.

The Social Housing Minister announced the scheme on Wednesday as she and her Government colleagues continued to fight off the flak from the housing crisis, and particularly the issues around those living somewhere other than in a house.

Bennett suddenly finding a bunch of $5000 cheques to give away - a rather shrivelled cash carrot - had the air of making up policy on the hoof, even though she insisted the Government had been thinking about it for some time.

She kindly suggested Whanganui as a place where the Auckland refugees could come and spend their five grand. Apparently we have empty Housing NZ homes ready to be occupied, which will be heartening news for those local organisations who have, for some time, been trying to get needy people in state houses without success.

Is the usually-adept minister out of touch with what's happening here, or is the situation up there so bad that Aucklanders get first dibs over locals?

Anyway, as Whanganui mayor Annette Main implied, $5000 is unlikely to spark a stampede. At least it seems to be dawning on the Government that there is a problem at the bottom end of the overheated property market, though well-known state housing tenant John Key might not like to admit it.

Contrast Ms Bennett's scrambling with Finance Minister Bill English's surefootedness as he delivered his eighth Budget.

Too dour to be Prime Minister but wonderfully dour when it comes to looking after the nation's housekeeping money, if he was going to get a roasting for not handing out any tax cuts, he didn't show it. Not one bead of sweat ... and he will be confident he has the tax cuts up his sleeve for election year.

He juggled the finances with a view to dealing with some significant social and health issues, and one couldn't help but think this was part of his ever-so-gradual grand design to effect a major shift in New Zealand's welfare dependency, something he has spoken about before and which seems close to his fiscal and political heart.