Green Party MP Chlöe Swarbrick is brushing off concerns a temporary rent freeze in flood-hit Auckland would just see landlords hike rents even more when the controls were lifted — arguing they should stay permanently.

More than 20 organisations have signed a letter urging Minister for Auckland Michael Wood, Housing Minister Megan Woods and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins to “recognise the difficulties facing families in Auckland” and ban landlords from raising rents for six months.

Among the signees are Renters United, the Citizens Advice Bureau, the Salvation Army, Child Poverty Action Group, Unite Union, Save the Children NZ, FinCap, various student unions and more.

• READ MORE: NZ’s climate floods expose stark truth – people paying price of corporate greed crisis – Nick Young
• Auckland rents to go up after flooding, property investors body says
• Other North Island flood reports

This morning we’re calling for compassion and protection – a freeze on rent increases for six months. The last thing renters need is to loose more of their money to rent. https://t.co/9sPwtiZIhu

— Renters United (@rentersunited) February 2, 2023

“This is a response to some really troubling calls and comments we have heard from landlords and their representatives that they intend to increase rent, piled on top of the trauma that Aucklanders have just gone through,” Swarbrick told RNZ today.

Earlier this week, the Auckland Property Investors Association said “market forces” would  see rents in the city go up, with fewer rentals available after the record-breaking rainfall of last weekend.

“We will have a shortage of supply of rentals for a period of time just while these repairs are undertaken,” said president Kristin Sutherland, denying it was just greed.

“I’m not in a position to say whether it’s fair or not. It’s the same in any market when the supply and demand changes. I don’t think landlords are out there to make an extra buck.”

‘Really troubling’
Swarbrick called Sutherland’s comments “really troubling” and “disconcerting”.

“They’ve said that these are supposedly market forces at work, but if you lift the lid on that, these forces are their decisions and their disproportionate power being wielded over New Zealanders and Aucklanders who have really, really been through a lot.”

She has the backing of Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt, who said the right to a decent home is especially important in a state of emergency.

“What we’re urging is for the government to reassure Auckland renters that they’re not about to face an escalating cost of crisis to add to the burdens that too many people are facing,” Human Rights Commission’s housing inquiry manager Vee Blackwood told RNZ  Checkpoint.

Too many people were already paying high rents and unable to deal with unexpected costs, Blackwood said.

Reassurance could include a rent freeze, she said.

“It could include a rent freeze if government policy analysis indicates that would be the best response,” but there could also be other support offered such as an increase in accommodation subsidies, she said.

Businesses have responsibilities
“We acknowledge that many landlords are working in really good faith with their tenants to respond to that flood damage,” she said.

“What I would say is that landlords are businesses as you’ve acknowledged. Businesses also have human rights responsibilities.

“So their responsibilities are to respect the human right sof their tenants and to respect the fact that a decent home is a fundamental human right and not something that can just be divorced to making profit, especially when people are doing it this rough.”

Kiwi home ownership has been dropping for about three decades, particularly in younger age groups.

The government implemented a rent freeze in 2020 to “ensure that people can stay in their homes during this challenging time” as the country went into strict lockdown to eliminate the spread of covid-19, back when there were not any vaccines or effective treatments available.

When it was lifted however, landlords hiked rents more than they ever had before.

“That becomes the point of rent controls,” said Swarbrick.

‘Market forces’ at play
“Rent controls are about realising that these supposed market forces that are at play really boil down to the decision of landlords . . .

“The Greens are backing that call for a rent freeze, but obviously our long-term position has always been for there to be rent controls in place.”

Critics of rent controls say they discourage investment, restricting the supply of new rentals, and encourage people to stay in places that are cheaper, but might not suit their changing circumstances — such as having children or getting a new job somewhere else.

Consumer NZ says landlords who own rental properties damaged in the floods should actually be reducing rents, not hiking them.

Tenants in properties they cannot live in don’t have to pay rent at all, the watchdog said earlier this week.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

A group of migrants who have been helping a New Zealand investigation into immigration fraud may soon be forced to leave the country.

The group were some of the 50 Chinese construction workers who claimed a New Zealand-based recruiter had misled them about their pay and working rights.

Last year an arrest warrant was issued for Li Wenshan, also known as Peter Li, who fled New Zealand before charges were laid.

• READ MORE: Other reports on migrant worker exploitation

Li still faced charges for immigration fraud.

Meanwhile, two other people associated with Li face a trial in December this year.

Ten workers are expected to give evidence in court, claiming they were duped.

But last week, the workers were told by Immigration authorities that they would be expected to leave the country within a month of the trial ending.

Undermining probe efforts
Green Party immigration spokesman Ricardo March said the treatment of this group undermined efforts to combat migrant exploitation.

“These workers are not pieces of evidence, they are human beings, and so to put them in a situation where they are treated as expendable once they’re not deemed useful to provide evidence is unjust,” March said.

“And, actually [it] will undermine the government’s intent to create a supportive environment , where workers are able to come forward and participate in processes to hold employers to account.”

March called for the immigration minister to intervene, and to send a strong message that workers holding employers to account would be supported.

One of the men due to give evidence in court, 50-year-old carpenter Sheng Canhong, felt he had been punished for doing the right thing.

“The New Zealand government doesn’t like people who speak up and affect New Zealand’s reputation. Such people are not welcome here,” he said.

Sheng arrived on a work visa in 2018, but was left with no work for the initial months, and was consequently moved to a limited visa to assist with the investigation.

‘No option but to speak up’
“Because of the work situation, we had no option but to speak up. Think about it, we were in Tauranga for three months without work, we had to pay for food and accommodation, where do we get that money?

“When I came here I only had $200. So I owed people money for the living costs, and could only pay back later when I found work,” he said.

The ten workers had also missed out on the chance to apply for one-off residency.

Many of them had tried to move back onto work visas, but their applications failed despite having full time jobs, and they struggled to understand why.

Unite Union director Mike Treen, who has assisted the men since 2019, is also calling for a pathway to residency for this group.

“We ought to be giving them something to compensate them for the hurt, humiliation and exploitation that they’ve suffered while they’re here,” he said.

Treen said the system of temporary visas had fuelled migrant exploitation and needed to change.

System of ‘migrant exploitation’
“Immigration New Zealand [INZ] created a system of migrant labour exploitation, and they throw out the people who have helped expose it,” he said.

“Ten percent of workers in New Zealand were on temporary visas, 30 to 40 percent of workers in construction and hospitality and agriculture and horticulture were on temporary visas.”

INZ referred RNZ News to the minister for comment on the workers’ situation.

Minister Michael Wood said due to legal and privacy reasons he was unable to comment on the circumstances of the workers and the case.

Meanwhile, Li Wenshan is still on the loose and it is uncertain when he will make an appearance in court.

INZ declined to answer questions on whether they were looking to extradite Li.

An INZ spokesperson said for legal and privacy reasons, they would not make further comment on Li.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

New Zealand’s largest ever crowd in support of migrant rights gathered in Auckland’s Aotea Square at the weekend in triple protests that also marked solidarity for Palestinian justice and the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, China.

More than 1500 people filled the square on Saturday proclaiming “migrant lives matter” with speakers calling on them to stand up for their rights.

New Zealand governments over the past few years were accused of cynically exploiting migrant workers and that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s “nation of 5 million people” excluded about 300,000 migrants.

The protesters then marched down Queen Street calling for changes to the “broken” immigration policies.

Among demands were:

• Visas to be extended to allow for workers who had been trapped overseas, and
• Creation of “genuine pathways” to permanent residence.

Unite union national director Michael Treen said successive governments had built the economy on the back of migrants and then consistently “lied” to them about their prospects.

President of the Migrant Workers Association Anu Kaloti said migrants were suffering at the hands of the “broken immigration system”.

Before the march, Palestinian community leader Maher Nazza declared to the crowd “No one is free until we are all free”, saying that the world community must pressure Israel into honouring the United Nations resolutions and restore justice and hope for Palestinians.

A smaller crowd of Chinese dissidents marked the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, with more than 10,000 deaths, according to a BBC report.

One speaker said: “If I said the truth [about the Chinese Communist Party] as I am saying here today in China, somebody would come within minutes and take me away.”

Photographs by David Robie

Palestine, migrant rights and the Tiananmen massacre

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Unite Union national director Mike Treen has welcomed the changes made by the New Zealand government in a $50 million reform package to combat migrant worker exploitation.

“It will make it easiest for individual workers to access the support they need to make complaints, get support and change employers if necessary,” Treen said today.

New Zealand had created a system that “creates exploitation again and again” over the years.

READ MORE: New visa will give more protection to migrant workers in NZ

That system had used the “desire of residency” to:

• Bring students and workers to New Zealand and charge them tens of thousands of dollars in fees to subsidise private and public education;
• Allow employers to tie the work visas they get to individual employers so it was im[possible to complain about treatment without risking their chance to get residency; and
• Change the rules on who qualifies for permanent residence after they have come to New Zealand so that they will never qualify and all they can do is keep renewing their visas for as long as possible.

‘De facto New Zealanders’
“These are de facto New Zealanders who have made New Zealand their home for a decade or more. Many have children born here who know no other life,” Treen said.

“They also obviously have jobs that in any reasonable world would be considered “essential workers.

“They are working in health care, on our farms, in our schools. They continue to fill critical roles in our society.

“Employers want these workers to stay.

“Now many of these workers are classified as ‘ordinarily resident’ New Zealanders by the outgoing Minister of Immigration Iain lees-Galloway.”

They were the next category to be allowed back into New Zealand after New Zealand citizens who wanted to return were allowed back.

“In my view, these ‘ordinarily resident’ New Zealanders would have been allowed to become citizens in any fair immigration system and not exploited by the system in the way they have. They deserve to be treated the same as any other citizen,” Treen said.

“Every migrant worker who is currently an ‘ordinarily resident’ New Zealander should be fast-tracked to residency and taken off any visa that ties them to a particular employer.

“The ‘system’ of migrant exploitation and indentured servitude has to be abolished.

“New Zealand will not be able to bring in temporary workers or students in significant numbers for at least four or five years while this pandemic circles the globe.

“We have a chance to get rid of a system that depends on a permanent presence of hundreds of thousands of ‘temporary’ visa holders with no hope of transitioning to residency once and for all.

“This is a chance in a generation to do the right thing to those who have been so cruelly exploited and abused by the state who created this pool of labour in a desperate and vulnerable situation able to taken advantage of by unscrupulous employers.”

• Concerns efforts to stop migranmt worker exploitation don’t go far enough

OPINION: By Mike Treen

Unionists and other progressive minded people need to put a stake in the ground in opposition to the latest immigration proposals from the New Zealand government.

Tens of thousands of workers in this country have been brought here under false pretences. Many have been conned into paying tens of thousands of dollars towards courses that they hoped would open the door to jobs and the chance for permanent residence.

The promises have proved to be nothing more than a fraud perpetrated by the government.

These students and workers had the rules changed on them after they arrived. Many have studied and worked here for up to a decade.

The government has now increased the points required to get permanent residence under the skilled worker category and imposed a minimum income requirement of almost $50,000 that many will not be able to meet. Those who don’t meet the new requirements will have a maximum of three years before they are kicked out.

READ MORE: Prediction: Crash in migrant numbers coming — let people stay

At the same time, the government is proposing to continue bringing temporary work visa holders for lower skilled and lower paid occupations but for a maximum of three years and no right to bring family members.

This will most likely lead to either a massive drop in numbers coming or those who do being so desperate they will be wide open to abuse and exploitation.

One-off ‘amnesty’
In their plan, the government has made a proposal for what they have called an “amnesty” for a group of workers in the South Island as a one-off pathway to residency for around 4000 temporary migrant workers and their families.

In the words of Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse:

“Many of these migrants are already well settled in New Zealand and make a valuable contribution to their communities.

“It will also enable employers to retain an experienced workforce that has helped meet genuine regional labour market needs.

“My National colleagues in the South Island have advocated strongly on behalf their constituents throughout the development of this policy, so I’m pleased the government has been able to deliver on our commitment to enable this cohort of migrant workers to remain in their communities.”

Many of these workers will be working on dairy farms run by National Party stalwarts who have lobbied their MPs to keep these workers.

The “amnesty” being allowed these workers from the requirement to meet the new points or income thresholds for permanent residence should be extended to the whole country. The restrictions in the current amnesty proposal to bind workers to particular employers should also be removed. This is a form of bonded labour that needs to be got rid of as part of any genuine immigration reform.

Parties that want to reduce the number of permanent and long-term net arrivals to New Zealand from the current 70,000 plus number can also support this humanitarian policy towards those already here.

There are currently around 250,000 temporary work visas issued each year.

It makes no sense to throw out people who want to stay and have invested a significant part of their lives to creating homes in this country while continuing to bring in people on temporary visas only to throw them out again after three years.

The new policies are inhuman.

Extend the amnesty to all workers on temporary visas who want to make New Zealand their home.

• Review of temporary work migrant scheme

Protests against the TPPA protests, the climate change movement post-Paris 2015, and the run up to Waitangi day …

Unite Union’s Joe Carolan talks to climate activist Gary Cranston, E TU organiser Chris Rigby and the Mana Movement’s Repia Trei on this week’s Workers Voice at PlanetFM radio in Auckland.

>> Listen to PlanetFM