Chris Hipkins: Labour Leader talks emergency housing, Budget 2025, increased Oranga Tamariki reports

The Labour Leader is pushing back against criticism of emergency housing motels amid an increase in reports of concern to Oranga Tamariki.

It estimates its seen a 45% increase in reports in the year to April, and data shows that as of March 31st, there were 1,391 children overdue to be given a social worker. 

Chris Hipkins is rebuking the idea the situation is a legacy of the previous Labour Government, telling John MacDonald that economic circumstances often result in a rise in negative statistics, as families are under a lot of financial pressure. 

He accepts this kind of thing builds over time, but an increase of this magnitude cannot solely be blamed on the previous government, and the current government has played a role.

"If we've got more kids living on the streets and living in cars because they've booted everyone out of emergency accommodation and they're being referred to Oranga Tamariki as a result of that, which the government was told would happen, with their emergency accommodation policy, then yes, that is the government's responsibility."

Motels were one of the Labour Party's emergency housing solutions, and Hipkins admits that it's not optimal, but it's better than having people living in cars or under bridges.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Canterbury Mornings podcast with John McDonald
from News Talk Z'B.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
It's time probably going to catch up with Labor and
Opposition leader Chris Hipkins.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Go Chris, Gooday, John, how are you well?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Thanks? You said yesterday that when Nichola Will has made
that speech announcing a billion dollars less in government spending
in this month's budget, that she's pretty much written to
the ticket for young New Zealanders to leave the country.
Why do you think it's that bad?

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Oh? Because I mean I think younger New Zealanders are
giving up hope. They're seeing that jobs are disappearing, you know,
unemployments going up. They're seeing that, you know, and many
of the jobs are in high skilled areas that are
disappearing as well.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
And we seen recond what what like what like Chris
examples like building.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
In construction and engineering thirteen thousand fewer people working in
those fields now than when the government took office because
they ground everything to a halt, and so you know,
we're losing those people. A lot of skilled engineers that
the Institute of Engineers released a report that says that
a lot of really highly skilled engineers have left New
Zealand to go to Australia because there's no work here
and there is work in Australia. And it's not that

(01:13):
the work doesn't need to be done here, it's that
the government have stopped it. And so you know, we
still have a massive infrastructure deficit. Rather than putting people
to work on that, Nicola Willis is either leaving them
unemployed or concidning them to leaving the country to find
work elsewhere. These are the sorts of choices the government
can make rather than grinding everything to a whole right

(01:33):
money on infrastructure, we actually wouldn't be spending as much
money on unemployment.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
If you were given the job of government overnight, if
something we had happened, how differently would you do things?

Speaker 3 (01:46):
I think we would focus on investment. So at the moment,
you know that some of the biggest areas of spending
cuts under this government, which is completely contrary to their rhetoric,
has actually been an investments, so things like building new roads,
upgrading schools, upgrading hospitals. They talk of the game on
those things and yet they're doing less of it. So
then we were doing as a government if we do
more of that as a country. We have to do

(02:06):
more of that as a country. This is not a
nice to have, it's actually essential because our infrastructure is
literally not coping with the population that we've got at
the moment. The more of that we do now, the
lower our bill for unemployment, the better the future that
we're leaving to the next generation. Is. That's the sort
of stuff we should be focused on right at the moment,
all right, Which is.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Easy to say when you're in opposition, a.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
Oh no, But it's what we were doing in government
as well. You know, Nicola Willis likes to compare the
government finances to a household. So what I would say is,
you know, if your household is running short of money,
you don't increase the mortgage to pay the power bills.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Just sixteen minutes ago, I said that sort of talks
patronizing and said, don't fall into that trap.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
Well, but you do. You do buy money to fix
the roof. If there's a massive hole in the roof,
you fix the roof before the house rocks. And that's
the situation that we're in as a country. I actually
I agree with you. I don't think men Nicola Willis
talks about the government's finances being like a household all
the time, and they're not. And I actually do think
it's patronizing. It's also because it's not true.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
All right, speak speaking of speaking their analogy, all right,
speaking of fixing things. You're not all that fussed about
the government's move to let builders sign off their own work,
are you. I'm not either.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
I said that I think it needs to be risk based.
I think there is some lower risk stuff that yeah,
you're enough, fine, But I think maybe the question is,
you know, how often do we have inspectors on building
sites and so on? Can we reduce that? You know,
I'm open to that debate, but I think where it's
high risk activity, ultimately reducing the level of quality control
there moves the risk onto consumers. And so what's going

(03:42):
to be the compensation regime if things go wrong because
somebody is self certified something and it hasn't been up
to standard. Because we went through all this with the
Leaky Buildings Saga, By the time consumers figured out that
it was below the standard required, whoever it was that
it did the work was a long gone and it
was the homeowners who ended up, you know, wearing the
liability for it.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
On Monday night. I think it was Labor met and
Wellington and formerly decided to or decided to formally support
Andrew Little's meyoralty bid. Is this a sign that Labor
is going to start backing candidates elsewhere?

Speaker 3 (04:18):
I mean, we've always dealt with that on a case
by case basis. So if we backed mayoral candidates, endorse
meuroral candidates in the past. You know, we endorsed Phil
Goth for example, when he was running for mayor of Auckland.
I can't remember actually whether Lee and Del's ear even
asked for the Labor Party endorsement when she was running
for christ Church mayor, but it's not unprecedented for us
to endorse mayoral candidates.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Would you would you would you endorse? Would you endorse
Sarah Templeton, who was a former Green Party member and
also running for mayor and christ Church.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
I'm not sure whether she's even asked. I mean there's
a process there, and I don't know Sarah Templeton obviously
know Andrew Little. Well. If someone applies, there's a process
that the party goes through to consider whether or not
to grant an endorsement.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
And they have to be a Labor Party member or
ex Labor Party MP.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
Not always, but they would need to certainly be sharing
our values and sharing our views on things.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
What do you think of the increase of forty five
percent increase in reports of concern to ordering a tambarik
in the fact that there are about thirteen hundred kids
waiting to see case workers or social workers. How much
does that reflect what the legacy of your government? Because
these things don't happen overnight, do they. If there are
kids in trouble, if the kids and families struggling, then

(05:35):
that's built up over time.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
That is partly true, but it also does reflect the
current economic circumstances. And sadly, when families are under a
lot of financial pressure, we do see increases in these
kind of negative statistics. And we've always got to remember
these are real children, and that is I am very
concerned about that. I think we need to be doing

(06:00):
a lot more to prevent kids ending up in the
state care system in the first place.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
What's ascussion to that? I mean, I mean people have tried,
but no one's achieved it.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
Trial poverty is actually one of the major drivers of
kids ending up in the state care system. Also there
are other things too, you know, methanthetamine use is doubled
in the last year, and sadly it's often often end
up on the receiving end of the negative effects of that,
And we've got to do more around that drug and
alcohol addiction space, you know, far too holding and somebody

(06:37):
can deal with far too many kids whose parents have
drug and alcohol addiction problems.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
This forty five percent increase though in reports of concern,
that's that's staggering.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
It is, I mean, and that's happened in the last year,
and it's happened under this government, not under the previous government.
So you know, well, I accept that some of these
things have a long lead time and so on. An
increase of that magnitude cannot be bamed on the last government.
You know, this government needs to accept responsibility.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
That it also it also can't be it also can't
be blamed on the government which has been in power
for five minutes either, can it.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Actually, if we've got more kids living on the streets
and living in cars because they've prooted everyone out of
emergency accommodation and they're being referred to ordering a tamariki
as a result, of that which the government was told
would happen with their emergency accommodation policy. Think yes, that
is the government's responsibility because they've directly contributed to it,
and they were warned before they made those decisions that

(07:33):
this would be one of the consequences.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
That from the party that pushed people into motels.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
Better than living in a car. You know, I think
we need to build more more social houses so we
don't have to have them in emergency accommodation. But I'd
rather have them in a motel than have them living
in a car or under a bridge.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
Thanks for time. Catch up in a fortnite. Thanks John,
the old Labor Party delay on the line there getes
us every time.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
For more from Canterbory Mornings with John McDonald, listen live
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