“The Human Rights Commission is nothing but a Wellington managerial-class quango desperately trying and failing to justify the funding it receives from taxpayers. It’s time for it be abolished,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.
“One of New Zealand’s most serious problems has been met with one of New Zealand’s most serious wastes of money.
“Today they released a report, following a two-year inquiry, where their key finding is that housing is a human right and their solution is to create another useless organisation to act as a ‘watchdog’, and integrate te tiriti o waitangi into policymaking.
“There’s not a single recommendation that would, you know, make it easier to build more houses. Which is the fundamental issue here. ACT on the other hand has a detailed GST-sharing policy that funds councils to provide infrastructure, and will cut red tape around building.
“Time and time again, Paul Hunt and the hapless Commission have proven they have no clue. They trot out tired left-wing platitudes and talking points and barely even try to dress them up as something resembling genuine policy work.
“They fundamentally misunderstand human rights. A human right is only meaningful if someone fulfils a duty to furnish that right.
“A human right to housing is meaningless unless someone fulfils the duty of providing you with housing. The Commission couldn’t tell the difference between a hammer and a nail.
“If it was as easy as the Commission makes it out to be, ACT would simply say “it should be a human right to not experience a cost of living crisis” or “it should be a human right to not have to dodge hundreds of potholes on the highway” or “it should be a human right to not have to put up with a Labour Government until the election in 100 days.”
“It is shameless that they have spent two years on the taxpayer dime ‘investigating’ this issue and still can’t come up with a single solution. A group of fifth form economics students could come up with better in a few periods, that would cost taxpayers a lot less and the students might even learn something.
“The Commission is at best irrelevant and at worst dangerous. It has become a highly-politicised, left-wing organisation, and when it comes to actually helping people with human rights, it doesn’t help at all.
“ACT sees no purpose for it and would abolish it completely.”