New Zealand: The Housing Crisis as an Ideological Artefact
Introduction:
It is a truism that politicians from countries around the world claim to be in the midst of a housing crisis. But how do they define it, who is affected, and what is the cause? This paper provides a critical evaluation of the emergence and scope of political discourse connected to the housing crisis in New Zealand under three National Party-led governments (2008-2017), with a view to better understanding the ways in which the issue has been problematized in politics and operationalized in the policy.
It finds that although researchers draw upon multiple strands of evidence and recognize housing as a complex problem, the political framing of a housing crisis is simpler and shows a closer relationship to long-standing ideological perspectives, notably an inefficient planning system and low supply of development land. This raises critical questions for how housing researchers can better influence politics and challenge both the lived experience of crisis and existing claims of normalcy.
Framing phenomena as Housing crisis:
We draw upon two main bodies of literature to help us unpack discourses connected with the framing of a housing crisis. First, we consider ideas connected to the notion of issue framing and frame analysis, particularly when applied in a housing context. Framing has been used as a theory and approach in research seeking to understand how messages are created, deciphered, and promulgated. Second, we explore how ideas of crises have become both a pervasive modern phenomenon and useful political tool to invoke. This element is designed to situate the concept of a ‘crisis’ as a discrete research object for investigation.
Housing in New Zealand:
An overview of the recent history of housing in New Zealand is offered here as a way to contextualize the subsequent discussion of crisis. While this content is nationally specific, this brief insight into the prevailing focus of neoliberal reforms, financialization trends, and market conditions should help both ground the discussion and increase the relevance of the research to other countries.
The emergence, resistance, and acceptance of a housing crisis:
In a Radio New Zealand interview, Guyon Espiner questioned the new National Party leader, Simon Bridges (2018), about whether New Zealand finds itself in a housing crisis. In opposition to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Labour-led coalition government since October the previous year, Bridges readily agreed. Reflecting upon how National ministers had repeatedly tried to avoid this framing during the long time the Party was in power.
The framing and counter framing of the housing crisis:
Dominant frames:
Dominant political frames are those that aim to influence wider political, media, and public understandings of problems connected to housing and indicate areas requiring policy attention. An initial point of interest is that while the governing National Party resisted the crisis frame, they did deploy significant policy resources in response. By far the most dominant frame they used to explain housing issues was connected to inefficiency within the Local Government sector, specifically planning policy, processes, and practices.
Counter framing:
Hansard revealed a number of counterframing attempts, which were more diverse, contested, and had a lower frequency in repetition. It is here we see the attempts by opposition MPs to frame the housing crisis as not just a ‘supply’ issue, but one which is connected to multiple societal areas and which demand different policy solutions.
Conclusion:
While discussion of housing crises is well researched, particularly in countries such as Canada, the US, the UK, and Australia, the selection of New Zealand provides a fresh comparison to what is a lively international debate. In line with other research broadly focused on the politics of housing problems, such as on agenda setting, policy capture, or stigma the study of political speeches provides rich insights concerning the role power and ideology play in the construction and maintenance of a housing crisis. In doing so, it adds to housing scholarship which highlights the value that more interpretative and constructionist perspectives can bring in understanding policy failure and the influence of the status quo.
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