Look where the houses went - part deux

We blogged earlier about the irony of the houses that Hone Harawira was arrested for supposedly trying to protect have ended up in his electorate. 

But when we did a bit of digging about the He Korowai Trust and its CEO Ricky Houghton, we found a story that merited telling all on its own, in isolation from the MP for Te Tai Tokerau.

You can find out more about the Trust at its website. This page lists the staff, and the trustees. We note that the trustees include representatives of the Labour Party (Shane Jones) and the Maori Party (Naida Glavish). Hone Harawira is not a trustee, and we're not sure whether any of the other trustees have Mana Party or Harawira connections. Perhaps one of our diligent readers can assist.

Not only has the He Korowai Trust partnered with the Government in the provision of social housing by "recycling" the Glen Innes state houses; there has also been some sterling work in helping whanau who have not into difficulties to retain their homes; check this out, from 2011, and from the ASB Community Trust's website:

Kaitaia’s He Korowai Trust saves families from eviction when their homes are subject to a mortgagee sale.

He Korowai Trust are the heroes of the far North of New Zealand, a region experiencing economic crisis. Based in Kaitaia, their team saves at least one home a week from mortgagee sale. In this video He Korowai client Rachel talks to us about her experience with the Trust, how they saved her home and helped her build a brighter future. He Korowai Trust is funded through the ASB Community Trust.
CEO Ricky Houghton says the organisation has stepped in to save over 500 family homes and only three have been lost.
“We have a group of skilled people in our Homelessness Intervention Team who save family homes from mortgagee sales around the Far North,” he says.  “They save the homes, save the families money and avoid homelessness.”
By providing a combination of budgeting advice, intervention and advocacy, He Korowai Trust has seen more than 630 families improving their financial situation.
“We are a service of last resort,” says Ricky. “They must be refused help from everywhere else, so people see us as an oasis of hope. We’re very proud that we’re able to help.”
However, success has created more demand and, with 65 mortgagee sales on its books already and two more added each week, the organisation’s small team has been struggling.
“We’ve reached saturation point,” admits Ricky, “but now a grant from ASB Community Trust is going to help us build our capacity and improve our capability.”

This is a really good-news story; a committed band of like-minded people working with people that no-one else will bankroll. As Mr Houghton notes “We are a service of last resort”. He Korowai Trust is not just dishing out money willy-nilly; there are doing practical things to improve the lot of people in the Far North.

And Mr Houghton himself seems like a pretty amazing bloke. TVNZ profiled him in 2007, and this transcript appears online:

Depending on who is talking, Ricky Houghton is either a saint or pure trouble – the tall Maori with a broad smile and a ton of cheek has a vision to transform the lives of poor Maori in rural Northland – and he’s a long way down the track to achieving that.
‘Heart Of The North’ follows the story of Ricky Houghton (today at 5.30pm on TV ONE). Deeply moved by the poverty traps enveloping his people, Houghton set up an organisation in central Kaitaia, He Korowai Trust, to assist with numerous problems. The results have been impressive – nearly 170 homes rescued from mortgagee sales, families back on the land, crops sprouting, small businesses started, scores of previously dysfunctional people on the road to independence.
A father at 14, and a grandfather of eight at 45, Houghton spent much of his early life in foster homes and was shunned by his peers because of his mother’s serious mental illness. But Houghton’s hard early life shaped him into a resilient man. He’s one of those guys who has a new idea every five minutes and has a genuine dream for his people. Houghton is passionate about moving Maori people from dependence to independence – so far his ideas seem to be working.
Walk down the streets of Kaitaia with Houghton and just about everyone seems to like and admire him. Government departments in the north rate him highly as someone who may have created a formula for helping Maori truly engage in some self-determination.
Houghton gives his dream more than just a token effort. Although supported recently with funding from a Vodafone ‘World of Difference’ grant, Houghton needs to go looking for money to run the He Korowai Trust each year. He even mortgaged his own home near Kaitaia to underpin the trust.
When asked how he’ll manage, he smiles broadly and tells stories like the time he was photographed by a newspaper outside the Auckland District Court. They confused Houghton with a notorious gang member but he walked away with a cheque from the newspaper for well into six figures. Even then he gave most of the money away, says his wife Rose. 

The key phrase of the story above is this one: "Houghton is passionate about moving Maori people from dependence to independence – so far his ideas seem to be working." We're sure that aspiration resonates with Paula Bennett, and we're sure that Mr Houghton's attitude that Maori can do better has helped the He Korowai Trust build a healthy relationship with John Key's Government.

But his attitude and aspirations are in complete contrast to those of Hone Harawira who seems content to keep Maori dependent on the state. We reckon that is a recipe for failure.

So today we salute Ricky Houghton and everyone involved in the He Korowai Trust. They are doing a remarkable job in one of New Zealand's more impoverished communities, and they deserve recognition. 

Look where the houses ended up...

We blogged yesterday about Hone Harawira's criminal conviction in the Auckland District Court, and his try-hard cry for attention by asking his colleagues to chip in an pay the fine and costs for him. Now he has more egg on his face; check this out:

Yes dear readers; some of the houses that Hone and his fellow Mana Party activists tried to stop leaving Glen Innes have ended up in Kaitaia, which just happens to be in Harawira's Te Tai Tokerau electorate.

What the He Korowai Trust is doing in Kaitaia is impressive; so impressive that it merits a post all of its own later in the day. But well done to Paula Bennett for pointing out that whilst the MP for Te Tai Tokerau swans around the country at considerable expense to the taxpayer and makes a lot of noise whilst achieving little, others in his electorate are rolling up their sleeves and actually doing things to improve the lot of some of Te Tai Tokerau's less fortunate.

Just pay up Hone

Hone Harawira is playing the "poor me" game; the Herald reports:

Hone Harawira plans to ask fellow MPs to help pay his $500 fine after he was found guilty of not complying with a police instruction at an Auckland housing protest.
The Mana Party leader was arrested last October when he joined protesters fighting the removal of state houses in Glen Innes.
He locked himself in his car and turned his music up loud, blocking a Housing New Zealand-contracted truck and trailer unit from leaving with one of the homes.
Police told him several times to move but he refused and they eventually smashed a window and arrested him.
Harawira denied the charge but, after a three day hearing in Auckland District Court, was found guilty yesterday, fined $500 and ordered to pay $132 court costs.

We have no issue with Harawira exercising his right to protest. But he wilfully broke the law, and he has to accept the consequences of that.

However his plan to lobby his fellow MP's to pay his fine for him is simply daft. As an MP, Hone Harawira is amongst New Zealand highest paid people; certainly within the top few percent. His political party may champion the rights of the poor, but Harawira is anything but.

There's an old saying amongst criminals; if you can't do the time, don't do the crime. Hone Harawira rolled the dice with the police in Glen Innes last October and lost. He should just pay his fine, and get back to work.

A new dawn for the Maori Party

The Maori Party has a new co-leader and a new president; Stuff reports:

Te Ururoa Flavell has been elected co-leader of the Maori Party, replacing long time leader Pita Sharples.
No-one voted against Flavell in a vote at the Maori Party's annual conference in Whakatane today.
An MP for Waiariki since 2005, Flavell was the only person nominiated in the vote, which took place at the annual conference in Whakatane today.
An emotional Flavell fought back tears as he thanked about 300 party members for electing him.
"I want you to know that i am up for this...I will give it my all."
Flavell had been engaged in a long running powers struggle with Sharples, who announced earlier this month that he would stand down as party co-leader at this weekend's conference.
Naida Glavish has also been elected president of the party, replacing Pem Bird, who announced recently that he would not stand for re-election.
An advisor to the Auckland and Waitemata district health boards and the New Zealand Police, she is a former commissioner of the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission. She is chair of Te Runanga o Ngati Whatua.
Glavish earned fame as the "kia ora lady" when in 1984 working as a phone operator at New Zealand Post she was demoted for answering the phone with the now widely used phrase. After controvercy she was returned to the role and allowed to continue to answer the phone with kia ora.
Glavish beat George Ngatai to the role. An Auckalnd business consltant with links to the Destiny Church, Ngatai had claimed that he represented the future of the party. 

The Maori Party can now put its internal bickering to bed, and focus on rebuilding in the run-up to next year's General Election. It won't be an easy task, but it is something that the party must do if it is going to survive as an effective voice for Maori.

And outgoing president Pem Bird has given the party a message; read on:

Outgoing president Bird called on the party not to quit its agreement with National ahead of next year's election, saying breaking the deal could damage its mana.
Bird opened his address by saying there was a "morbid fascination" with the party's struggles, with repeated predictions that the party was dead, including from other political parties.
However, this was far from the case.
"We're alive, well and kicking, and we're on our way back," Bird said.
The party's troubles have been back in the headlines after they were beaten - coming third - in the recent Ikaroa-Rawhiti by-election, which was won by Labour, with the Mana Party coming a clear second.
Bird said he accepted "without qualification" responsibility that the party had not made the impact it wanted in the contest. 

Both Mr Bird and outgoing co-leader Dr Pita Sharples have taken the blame for the Maori Party's supposedly poor showing in Ikaroa Rawhiti. In reality, it may not have actually been that bad a showing. Labour threw an enormous amount of resources at Ikaroa Rawhiti trying to preserve Parekura Horomia's 6500-plus majority. On election day, that majority was down to just over 1600, although the Mana Party had leap-frogged the Maori Party into second place. But Na Rahania's vote was not that much less than the party vote that the Maori Party received in Ikaroa-Rawhiti in 2011, in an electorate that was a Labour stronghold thanks to the late Mr Horomia.

A Te Ururua Flavell-led Maori Party is unlikely to go into coalition with Hone Harawira's Mana Party any day soon and that is welcome news. Although it has come at a cost, the Maori Party's decision to support John Key on confidence and supply has been the right one. The weeping sore of the Foreshore and Seabed, the whole reason for the party's existence was fixed, Tariana Turia's visionary Whanau Ora policy was implemented (and we will see the benefits of that in decades to come), and far more progress has been made under National in resolving treaty claims.

Mr Flavell's challenge now is to sell that to Maoridom.

Could Labour lose Ikaroa-Rawhiti?

The Mana Party is bouyant about the chances of its candidate in the Ikaroa-Rawhiti by-election, Te Hamua Nikora. Scoop has this media release from Hone Harawira:

MANA UP! according to Labour’s Poll
Thursday, 27 June 2013, 9:06 am
Press Release: Mana Party
MANA UP! according to Labour’s Poll
MANA Leader and MP for Te Tai Tokerau Hone Harawira

It’s Game On
“Labour’s poll confirms what Maori voters have been saying all along - this seat was never Labour’s, it was Parekura’s” said MANA Leader and MP for Te Tai Tokerau Hone Harawira about the Labour Party’s internal poll showing the Ikaroa Rawhiti election was a two horse race “with Te Hamua running neck and neck with Labour’s candidate”.
“All the online polls have Te Hamua in front, advanced voting is up, and the vox-pops taken by media working the campaign have Te Hamua in the lead as well”.
“Political commentators living in Auckland and Wellington seem to have been caught out by the Labour poll result, but they shouldn’t have been given the strength of all the other polls” said Harawira.  “I can’t think what they’re going to say when it’s announced that the country’s newest MP is Ikaroa-Rawhiti’s favourite son, Te Hamua Nikora”.
“People living in the area will tell you that the most visible presence has been Te Hamua’s MANA crew, and they’ve been hitting the streets 24/7, door-knocking, delivering pamphlets, singing, dancing, driving people to the polls” said Harawira proudly. “They were even out during that massive storm that shut Wellington down and sent the big chill up the coast”.

“With MANA on the rise and Labour nose-diving in today’s polls, this by-election is reflecting Labour’s collapse all around the country”.
“Voters in Ikaroa Rawhiti should be congratulated for not getting sucked in Labour, whose candidate will get in on the list in the general election and be dumped into the back benches (where they put Parekura). And I thank them for being bold enough to back Te Hamua. He’s different, but that’s what makes him, and this electorate special”.
“More than any of the others, I think Labour’s poll shows that the people know that Te Hamua is the candidate that most reflects the heart and soul of the electorate”.
“3 days to go” said Harawira. “Te Hamua’s on a roll and Ikaroa Rawhiti deserves the energy that he brings”.
ENDS

We'd normally be inclined to take anything that Hone Harawira said with a large piece or rock salt. However we have seen one or two online polls which do indeed show Te Hamua Nikora doing as well as or better than Labour's candidate Meka Whaitiri.

The late Parekura Horomia had a vice-like grip on Ikaroa-Rawhiti. Could it be, as Harawira suggests, that this was a vote for Parekura and not for Labour?

It is almost unthinkable that Labour could lose this by-election. But wouldn't it set the cat amongst the pigeons if that's exactly what happened on Saturday night?

That's not what Hone said yesterday...

Hone Harawira is claiming that the Mana Party's housing policy involving no-deposit, low-interest home loans is for all New Zealanders; 3News reports:

The Mana Party now says its policy to build 10,000 cheap houses a year would be for all New Zealanders, not just Maori.

The party's Ikaroa-Rawhiti by-election candidate, Te Hamua Nikora, released the policy on Thursday saying the first 500 homes would be built in the electorate.

They would be paid for by the government and sold for $200,000 each, with no deposit and low interest rates.

The policy hasn't been fully costed but party leader Hone Harawira says it would take $30 million to start it up - although at a cost of $200,000 that would build only 150 houses.

Mr Harawira says the houses would be sold to struggling Maori and Pakeha families.

"Our intention is to try to target certain levels for Maori," he said on Radio New Zealand on Friday.

 "The housing policy isn't just for Maori, it's for all New Zealanders."

Unfortunately for Hone, his candidate Te Hamua Nikora and the Mana Party, that contradicts the policy announced yesterday; here's how TVNZ covered it:

Mana leader Hone Harawira has unveiled a new plan to help Maori get a foothold on the property ladder.
He is proposing a scheme to build 10,000 houses a year for Maori, by Maori, and which can only be sold on to Maori.
"Our aim is to just give Maori the belief they can get into a house," Harawira said.
The Mana Party leader says the cost of the plan has not yet been worked out but he believes the entry-level homes can be built for less than $200,000.
Mr Harawira said the Maori buyers will require no deposit and pay a low government interest rate and he would also create a law to ensure the properties could only be sold on to other Maori first home buyers.
Labour has the same goal of creating 10,000 new homes a year for first-time buyers and Mana would need its support if it is to make the policy a reality as part of a potential coalition government.
But Labour leader David Shearer said their proposal was not based on race.
"Our approach is very much we build 10,000 houses a year, it's very doable," he said.
Housing Minister Nick Smith today rejected the idea and said the Government was focussed on helping all New Zealanders.
"The Government's approach to housing is not to take an ethnic based approach with Maori, Pacific or any other particular group," he said.

That seems pretty definite to us, as does the Herald's report on the policy release:

The Mana Party wants to build 10,000 state houses a year.
Mana's Ikaroa-Rawhiti candidate Te Hamua Nikora announced the party's housing policy today in Pomare, in the Hutt Valley.
He said Mana would build 10,000 state houses a year, 500 of them immediately in Ikaroa-Rawhiti.
Its policy includes reinstating the Maori Affairs Housing Scheme which ended in 1989.
The scheme would be updated and administered through a restructured Te Puni Kokiri, Mr Nikora said.
Under the former scheme, 23,500 houses were built and 5000 existing houses bought.
The party called for land to be made available to Maori in the same way it was being made available to local government and bodies to ease the Auckland housing crisis, he said.
Maori first-home buyers would be able to buy homes with no deposit, at the same interest rates that Government pays and with negotiable mortgage terms.
The policy did not say how many Maori first-home buyers would be able to borrow under the scheme or how much they could borrow.
Mana Party leader Hone Harawira said the party had done no costings on the policy but believed affordable houses could be built for $200,000 each.

So what is the policy Hone? Is it yesterday's one, or did Russel Norman lend you "Hey" Clint last night to do a quick re-write?

It seems to be the week for back-downs. Who will be next?