Government needs to be held accountable on housing plans: Human Rights Commission

Tuesday, 14 December 2021

Parliament passes a sweeping law to force councils to allow denser housing.

The Government needs to be held accountable on efforts to address the housing crisis, and an independent commissioner should be established to do it, the Human Rights Commission says.

In August the commission said the housing situation in New Zealand was a human rights calamity, which did not honour international laws the country had signed up to, such as the International Bill of Human Rights.

The commission announced it would be running a national inquiry into housing, informed by new guidelines on the right to a decent home.

On Wednesday, the inquiry’s first report was released, and it called for the establishment of new measures to monitor progress on policies intended to provide everyone with decent housing.

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The housing situation in New Zealand is a human rights calamity, according to the Human Rights Commission.

Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt said the inquiry applied the human rights lens to the Government Policy Statement on Housing and Urban Development and to Maihi Ka Ora documents, and it revealed greater accountability was needed.

The policies were game-changers if they were implemented but, given the complicated landscape involved, constructive accountability was needed, he said.

“It would help if there was an independent person looking at the landscape and saying ‘this is working, this needs to be reviewed, and what are you doing about this’. But there isn’t anyone doing that.”

That prompted one of the report’s key recommendations that an independent “mechanism”, such as a housing ombudsman or commissioner within the commission, should be set up.

The individual in this role would hold decision-makers to account and encourage progress to keep the government on track with its policies, Hunt said.

“Accountability is a crucial feature of good governance, democracy, and human rights. Without it these policies and statements can easily become window-dressing. Accountability provides a positive focus on what does and does not work.”

The report also recommended that an independent advisory and advocacy group be set up, supported by a law which set out key principles and Treaty obligations to guide all housing initiatives.

Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt says he is suggesting scaffolding to ensure the Government’s housing policies are implemented.

There were domestic and international precedents for an advisory group and framework. These included New Zealand’s own national housing commission, which operated from 1972 to 1988, and initiatives in Canada and Ireland.

Hunt said the group did not need to be huge and heavily staffed, nor should it be adversarial. But it should give robust advice to the government of the day and blow the whistle if need be.

The report’s recommendations would support the policy programme the government had initiated, which was ambitious but weak in the area of co-ordination, he said.

“What we are suggesting is scaffolding to ensure these policies are implemented, and to help not just this government, but future governments, do what it says it wants to in this terribly complicated housing space.”

Housing Minister Megan Woods said the government had been engaging with the commission on housing matters, and knew there was a lot of work to do.

There was significant action under way to address the issues, she said. This included an overhaul of urban planning rules, the biggest public house building programme in a generation, a $3.8 billion housing infrastructure fund, and new tax policies for investors.

Some of these measures were already making a difference, and they would make a much bigger impact on the housing crisis in the medium to longer term, she said.

“Underpinning all of this work is a commitment to ensuring every New Zealander has a warm, dry home, whether they own or rent.”

Economist Shamubeel Eaqub agreed there should be some accountability.

“The ombudsman model has been good for example with OIA stuff, but has it changed the legislation? Same with the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment: they do useful independent work but it is hard to tell how effective it is.”

He would give cautious support in principle to something which looked across the many policy spaces which affected housing. “But such a position would need some control, funding and backing by legislation.”