Julie-Anne Genter: Public transport, rent controls, housing & tax

Of Interest

The Green Party’s finance (and transport) spokesperson Julie Anne Genter has an unlikely ally on a handful of policy issues: Mayor of Auckland Wayne Brown.

Both politicians agree New Zealand needs to scale up its public transport, move more freight by rail, implement congestion charging, and build cheaper versions of big Labour projects.

The Greens already have three former mayoral candidates (one successful) in winnable spots on their party list — could Wayne Brown make the 2026 list? Genter doesn’t think so.

“I think that my colleague Chloe Swarbrick, MP for Auckland Central, has had to be involved in some campaigns to stop cuts to the Auckland City budget”.

“But I do think it's great that Wayne Brown is onside with surface light rail,” she said, in an interview for the Of Interest podcast.

Genter supports light rail in Auckland but opposes Labour’s plan to build it in a tunnel under Dominion Road, which could cost roughly $15 billion.

Surface light rail might be up to $6 billion cheaper, savings which could be used to build light rail projects in New Zealand’s other major cities.

“We could deliver surface light rail in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch—as the spine of an improved public transport system that connects with bikes and buses and everything else.

And, we can do that for less than the cost of the tunnel light rail line in Auckland, and we can do it faster with less disruption and make a bigger difference to people,” she said.

The parties which “claim to be fiscally responsible” are simultaneously promising projects that don’t stack up just because they think they will be popular with voters.

One example of this could be Labour’s multi-tunnel Waitemata Harbour crossing, which was announced before even an indicative business case was completed.

Both Genter and her “unexpected ally” Wayne Brown think the Government should build a bridge instead.

She said the alignment between the policy platforms was because Brown was “someone who looks at the numbers”.

He was willing to make an evidence-based decision on what would be the best use of money and get the best outcomes, rather than just pursuing a particular transport ideology.

The two larger parties were stuck in “a race to the bottom” making big promises for people involved in delivering these large highway projects or large tunnelling projects, or on the assumption that roads will be popular with voters.

“I think they assume that because everyone drives, they just want more roads, whereas lots of people would like the option to not drive,” she said.

Evidence-based populism

The Green Party prides itself on being evidence-based policymakers, but it isn’t immune from the occasional tilt towards populism.

One example (arguably) is rent control. The Greens’ manifesto pledged to limit annual rent increases to 3%, and sometimes less.

A rental price index would be set at whichever rate was lowest: general inflation, net hourly wage growth minus one percentage point, or 3%.

The evidence in support of rent controls is mixed, at best. This literature review found they worked to lower cost increases, but also caused a “wide range of adverse effects”.

Adverse effects can include a reduction in the quantity and quality of available housing stock over time. Genter said the party’s suite of rental policies would offset the negative effects.

“Yes, there may be examples of places where rent controls haven't worked well. But that's because they don't have the other policies that we're proposing, which is a big push on public supply”.

The Green Party plans to build 35,000 publicly owned homes over the next five years, using long-term funding and materials contracts, as well as pre-fabrication.

Kāinga Ora would be tasked with targeting housing affordability and maintaining a building programme that anticipates demand and adds enough homes to meet it.

Of course, the rent controls won’t be needed if supply-side reform works in the long term.

Genter said the 3% speed limit was necessary as a “stop-gap” measure, because governments hadn’t provided enough housing over the past few decades.

Wealthy mandate

Labour has ruled out implementing a wealth tax if it were able to form a government after the election. This puts the Greens in a difficult position, since many of their policies are unpinned by an increase in tax revenue.

Genter said the Green Party would push for a wealth tax in the coming Parliamentary term, even if only 15% of votes had been cast for political parties that supported the policy.

“Well, the really puzzling thing to me is that 50% of National and Act Party voters support a wealth tax or capital gains tax. So, I don't know that people are voting on policy”.

Polling had demonstrated that there was a majority of New Zealanders who supported tax reform, but even without majority support Parliament had a responsibility to pass good laws.

“We are elected as representatives to use the power and the mandate, we have to get the best possible outcomes and I feel really confident the country would be better off as a result”.

You can listen to the full interview with Julie Anne Genter on our podcast, as well as interviews with Labour’s Grant Robertson and NZ First’s Shane Jones.

Interest.co.nz has also asked National and Act’s finance spokespeople for an interview.