What's Keeping Them Behind?

Auckland Mayor John Banks is pledging, that for the 2011 World Cup, $20,000 will be put into "a development plan to manage homelessness", and $197,000 will be spent on cleaning up graffiti around the city.

First off, the $197,000 to be spent on cleaning up graffiti. How do you need $197,000 for the relatively simple job of cleaning up graffiti? The last time I checked, it only takes some cleaning materials, buckets and a few volunteers willing to put their time into cleaning the graffiti up to make a city clean again. Preferably, however, the hooligans who actually do the graffiti should, at any possible chance, be made to clean it up themselves. But rather than cleaning up only the graffiti they've drawn, make it a several day task, at multiple locations in pink overalls. Don't just let them get away with only a light warning.

Secondly, the homeless issue. $20,000 to simply keep them off the city streets during the weeks occupied by the Rugby World Cup will do NOTHING to alleviate the problem. Instead, the labour regulations keeping them from working in a productive job, even if it is for little, should be scrapped.

And even though regulation like that is a national issue, the City (and Regional) Council can do its part as well, by moving restrictive regulations such as "Urban Boundaries", which merely serve to keep house prices artificially high. Don't require buildings to need permits, scrap the RMA, and any other such legislation that makes the idea of owning a home close to work an impossibility, even for the middle class.

More government spending never helps in the long run.