John Tamihere slams Auckland Mayor Phil Goff's criticism of housing plan as 'bizarre', 'unfair'

Wednesday, 3 October 2018

John Tamihere is a vocal opponent of Auckland Council and Panuku's plans to tackle issues in West Auckland.

John Tamihere has fired back at his former Labour colleague Phil Goff, calling the Auckland Mayor's criticism of his housing developer 'bizarre' and 'grossly unfair'.

The war of words between the pair, neither of whom has ruled out running for the Auckland mayoralty next year, is over a proposed housing development on council-owned land in Papatoetoe, south Auckland.

Te Whānau O Waipareira, which Tamihere leads as chief executive, wants to lift social housing coverage at the development to 70 per cent, but council-owned Panuku has blocked those plans.

Waipareira Corporate's proposed housing development for council land in Tavern Lane, Papatetoe.

It requires an equal three-way split of market homes, social housing and 'affordable' homes in the development.

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Auckland Mayor Phil Goff was the subject of a claim of corruption from Tamihere at a council meeting last week.

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Goff has claimed Waipareira's stance is purely commercial.

'They buy the land off Panuku, they commission the builder, they sell it to Housing New Zealand and they sell it at a profit,' he said.

'They are acting like any other developer. That's quite legitimate, I'm not criticising that, but let's not pretend it's anything other than that.'

Te Whānau O Waipareira chief executive John Tamihere has called Auckland Mayor Phil Goff's assessment of his organisation 'bizarre' and 'grossly unfair'.

Now Tamihere has struck back.

'Clearly the guy doesn't live in the same city as I do – we're not any other developer,' he said.

'We are not into building houses north of $650,000. We're trying to build up supply and there is a screaming need for social houses, and I can't build them in [Remuera] because [there's] no land,' he said.

'So I've got to build them where land is available and where poorer folk live.'

Goff's comments were 'bizarre' and 'grossly unfair', Tamihere said.

'You name one other developer that goes out of their way to get kids clean of drugs, of alcohol . . . get them into training programmes and connect them to these builders,' he said.

According to its website, Waipareira had a 'large suite' of services for whānau, covering the health, social, justice and education areas.

Tamihere said no evidence was offered to support Panuku's three-way split requirement.

Waipareira had a legal opinion suggesting the stance was in breach of the Human Rights Act, as it discriminated against those shut out of the housing market, he said.

Tamihere doubled down on a planned legal challenge of Panuku's policy.

'I've said this to Goff in a private meeting . . . that he won't be making any decision unless he overturns this, it'll be a High Court judge,' he said.

'You know our deed of agreement is a right to the land – we agreed the price of the land, we agreed that 37 per cent would be social housing at the end of the day.

'But we said … you just surely have to get clarity on the possibility of a breach of the Human Rights [Act].

'In a normal civil environment, in a normal commercial environment, that'd be OK.

'You'd go 'gee, thank you for alerting me, let's put our heads together and get a declaratory judgment.'

Panuku was expected to re-offer the Papatoetoe site to the market if the Waipareira deal folds after nearly a year of negotiation.