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Author: Tova O'Brien

Housing is shaping up to be the Achilles heel of the Government and voters don't think it is doing enough to help first-home buyers.

The latest Newshub-Reid Research Poll shows even Labour supporters are being put off their party over its housing decisions.

Newshub polled voters about Labour's KiwiBuild and the failed policy's rebrand which includes a home ownership scheme and government-backed 5 percent deposit loans.

Most people - 49.7 percent - said the Government is not doing enough to help first-home buyers, while 41.8 percent felt the Government is doing enough. 

Green voters really don't think the Government is cutting it, with 60.1 percent saying not enough is being done, compared to just 27 percent who are satisfied.



Owning a home is clearly becoming an increasingly unattainable Kiwi dream.

"I think I'm going to be in a Kmart tent on my nana's lawn for the rest of my life," one person told Newshub.

Other responses included: "It's beyond my scope right now"; "It's way too expensive"; "Definitely would be a struggle"; and "We can probably afford the broom closet but not the house itself".

Labour had a simple solution: Promising to build 100,000 homes in 10 years. But that target turned out to be a fairy-tale.

And despite dropping that target in the recent KiwiBuild reset, building those 100,000 homes is still the flagship housing policy on Labour's website.

Labour's support plummeted by 9.2 percent in the latest Newshub-Reid Research Poll.

Prime Minister and Labour leader Jacinda Ardern said despite the drop, she won't be doing any soul-searching.

"Polls don't cause me to do that - my job day-to-day causes me to do that."

To get a sense of where it went it all went wrong, Newshub asked voters about some of the big dilemmas facing the Government, and whether its handling of them would make voters consider changing the way they vote.

Looking at Labour voters:

  • 22.3 percent would change over the scrapping of the capital gains tax 
  • 20.4 percent would change over KiwiBuild failures
  • 8.2 percent would change over Ihumatao - not so bad for Labour

But 17.4 percent of Labour voters would consider a switch over its handling of the sexual assault investigation, which led to the resignation of party president Nigel Haworth.

National Party deputy leader Paula Bennett told Newshub she thinks the Prime Minister's actions haven't backed up the promises she's made. 



"I think that the Prime Minister has made a lot of promises and says the right things but her actions don't back that up and people are seeing that."

The Prime Minister doesn't believe her handling of the investigation had any bearing.

"I don't believe when the public are giving marks on government that there reflecting on things like that - for them it's what are we doing to address their issues," Ardern told Newshub.

But for a lot of Labour voters these are their issues.

Article: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/10/voters-not-satisfied-with-government-s-progress-on-housing-newshub-reid-research-poll.html
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