Clayton Mitchell New Zealand First MP

It has officially stopped being a secret that this Government is obsessed with all things American. I just wish they were as committed to the value of our Kiwi culture.

The Government is now encouraging the American inner-city model of apartment complexes.

The Government's answer to the housing crisis is to rezone and encourage corporations to build apartment buildings. It sounds practical and profitable. But what does it do to our Kiwi way of life?

Why does the Government's approach completely bypass the Kiwi dream of owning a home? What happened to the value of providing children with a backyard? One in 28 units and a communal playground will not replace what our families are losing.

The apartment builds planned for Tauranga are to be sold at prices upwards of $400,000. This keeps them in line with current market prices, which are too high for many of our families. Investors, not families, are likely to purchase them and turn them into rentals.

When we look at rental apartments in the US and UK, what we find are ghettos. Particularly in the United States, the term ‘inner-city' linked with the word ‘apartments' is synonymous to ghettos. These are the same terms the Government is using in their releases.

So, for the sake of profits and efficiency and in an embrace of all things American, the Government plans to encourage the building of ghettos in Tauranga as their answer to our housing crisis.

The alternative would be they are building luxury housing estates that would offer zero relief to the working people of Tauranga while continuing to encourage the current migration to Tauranga.

It's time to get real. Tauranga has real problems and we need real solutions. We do not need to continue to ‘copy and paste' into our country what has clearly failed in the United States and abroad.