Community justice panel to tackle causes of crime
equity options are also under development.’’
The KiwiBuild policy aims to build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 years. One thousand are expected by July 1, 2019, and 5000 by July 1, 2020, then 10,000 the year after that.
The prices will be capped at $650,000 for three-bedrooms inside Auckland and Queenstown, $600,000 for two-bedrooms in those areas, and $500,000 for one-bedrooms there and homes everywhere else.
About half of them are expected to be built in Auckland.
One possible distribution of the homes was revealed in a Cabinet paper that mapped 100,000 homes to areas with the most need, placing 61,000 in Auckland, 13,000 in Wellington, and roughly 6000 in Hamilton.
But head of KiwiBuild Stephen Barclay told Stuff it was still far too early to say exactly how many homes would go where, other than that half would be in Auckland.
‘‘It’s too early to say – we’re not quite down to that level of detail yet.
‘‘The Government has not excluded any areas from KiwiBuild and is open to looking at a number of opportunities right across the country,’’ Barclay said.
‘‘The focus is obviously on areas with high demand and affordability pressures, such as Auckland where around 50 per cent of KiwiBuild homes are going to be delivered.
‘‘Over 90 per cent of the housing shortfall is in the top six areas: Auckland, Wellington, Hamilton, Napier-Hastings, QueenstownLakes District and Tauranga.’’ A new iwi community justice panel has been set up to try to reduce the causes of crime and reoffending in the Waitemata¯ police district area.
Police Minister Stuart Nash said Te Pae Oranga would be the country’s eleventh iwi panel, and now all three Auckland policing districts had access to the restorative justice initiative.
‘‘We can’t keep building American-style mega prisons every few years as the main feature of our justice policy.’’
The panel was launched on July 12 at Hoani Waititi Marae in West Auckland.
Nash said the trustees of the marae in Glen Eden had a history of leading innovative restorative justice programmes.
He said the panels were not a soft option and were open to Ma¯ori and non-Ma¯ori.
‘‘To appear in front of these you have to plead guilty first and foremost so you have got to accept responsibility for what you have done.’’
Nash said the people who would be dealt with by the panel were not high-level criminals, but those who had made bad decisions and who needed a second chance.
He said it would be down to police to decide whether people were put before the Te Pae Oranga panel.
‘‘The panel has real potential to reduce reoffending and victimis- ation in the Waitemata¯, as well as keeping young people off the pathway of crime that leads to prison.’’
He said the members of the panel were respected community figures and would encourage offenders to deal with the issues that led to their crimes.
Waitemata¯ police district commissioner Tusha Penny said the panel would deal with low level crimes, such as shoplifting and driving offences.
‘‘Each year we’d like to see literally hundreds come through.’’
Penny said the initiative was about taking a whanau approach, and rather than putting offenders through the courts, people would be able to come back home to Hoani Waititi Marae.
‘‘We feel very grateful and privileged that iwi will work with us to make a difference for Ma¯ori,’’ Penny said.
Two more iwi community justice panels will be launched in Tu¯hoe and Northland in the next month.
‘‘The panel has real potential to reduce reoffending and victimisation in the Waitemata¯.’’
Police Minister Stuart Nash