Tim Walker’s Crisis

According to a recent concession from Prime Minister John Key Auckland’s housing situation has officially gained the status of a, ‘matter of national significance’.

Reportedly the Auckland region is currently 50 thousand houses short of demand and in order for this ‘crisis’ to be downscaled to some sort of ‘manageable issue’, Auckland would need to build close to 13 thousand houses during the next year alone.

Personally, housing JAFAs isn’t the true issue: once they’re located in Auckland, generally, Auckland folk want to be able to get around; in order for these folk to get around, generally, they need a functioning means of transportation; for many Aucklanders this transportation takes the form of a private car, therefore suitable and indeed expansive roadways become an additional but indeed necessary maintenance cost – a bill which as rookie ratepayers these newly situated JAFAs do their best to carry – yet even with the burgeoning number of Auckland homeowners, even after the annual cost of Auckland rates has become tantamount to a generous house deposit in Invercargill, this cost cannot be absorbed by Auckland alone…

Mayor of Auckland Super City Len Brown proposed implementing a road tax to achieve just this variety of revenue-gathering; the unsurprising response around Auckland was resoundingly downbeat.

…Fortunately there’s a whole other nation of benevolent Kiwis outside Auckland who, albeit grudgingly, agree to pay higher fuel costs and road taxes to see that Auckland is able to flourish with continued gusto.

It seems that even with all our tax breaks, tax havens and, to a lesser extent, tax avoidance and tax evasion, Auckland region is still struggling to find its tax dollars.

 

 

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Jeff Orr

Photography by Tess Pier

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