Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. 

“Chris Bishop is full of it. It is completely heartless and out of touch of him to be comfortable with people sleeping in cars and tents, while he stands up and boasts about saving money,” Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. 

“It’s simple, build more public houses so that people have somewhere to live. Housing is the bare minimum that a person needs to live, and to help turn their life around.  

“Chris Bishop has already instructed Kāinga Ora to build fewer houses each year in his letter of expectation, leading to a net loss of houses in Auckland next year, and cut $1.5 billion from building and maintenance costs in last year’s budget.  

“If the best that he can come up with is the number of overall homes won’t go backwards, then it shows their priority is cutting spending, not housing people.

“He says a lot of words about how the private sector will step in, yet figures out today from Statistics New Zealand shows overall building consents for new homes are down nearly 10% for 2024. 

“Chris Bishop completely missed out the words that matter – a commitment to building more public houses,” Kieran McAnulty said.