The reality was described thus,
Interviewer:Even as late as 1958 when Les Baily was seconded by the Department of Education to begin organising recreational activities for the children of the Hutt Valley, conditions and attitudes had not greatly changed.
Les Bailey:I was looking around that area, I always felt sorry for them in some ways with the predominance of state housing that was put into the district. All you saw was bare lawns, there wasn't a tree growing anywhere, no shrubs, no gardens, no places where kids could play freely, you know? — and there certainly was a lack of playground space. It wasn't a very attractive area at that time.
Sure they had the riverbank, the riverbank in those days wasn't the playing fields that are all there now, there weren't the stop banks in and so on.
Interviewer: This is the Hutt River?
Les Bailey: The Hutt River, yeah, and there was a lot of these pretty scrubby sort of areas down there and I imagine that perhaps that is where some of the Mazengarb report activities — as reported by them — took place.
And today those areas are even worse, particularly the 'shopping centres' (euphemism for takeaway shop, more takeaway shops, second hand shops selling over-priced junk, Credit Union, Housing NZ and Work and Income Offices). And the government is still forking out,
State house tenants say the sooner the Government starts insulating their homes, the better.
This week's Budget will include $53 million to make all state houses warmer and dryer within five years.
Peter Petterson has been in his state house in the Lower Hutt suburb of Taita for 30 years and says the upgrade is much needed.
"They are cold, you've got to use heaters. Some of the older people stick on some more clothes and blankets."
Mr Petterson says it is a shame the upgrade is happening after his children have grown up and moved out, but at least his grandchildren will benefit when they come to stay.
Labour's vision under Mickey Savage was never realised. All that happened was people were made dependent, robbed of their initiative and ambition, made poor, and frequently bitter and resentful. And still the socialists press on.....
4 comments:
Some of the older people stick on some more clothes and blankets."
Heaven Forbid! They don't actually do THAT do they? The young people should show them a thing or two.
Lindsay, I heard that news report this morning on TRN and was hopping mad.
How dare these people expect a DVS system installed for nothing! Is it not enough that they're paying considerably less than market rates?
(I'm assuming that's still the case. Happily stand corrected. In fact, I'd be really pleased to be wrong!!).
Your last paragraph is spot on.
These are also the same people who will bemoan waiting lists for state houses, especially for families with young children, and yet stay in them themselves for decades as of right.
You have got the wrong end of the stick there Lindsay. Just what would have happened without labour these many decades?
Speak specifically to people about statre houses, dont take there comments out of context.
Mickey Savage's dream was about life in the 1930's and what he hoped would happen.In many respects his dream has been realised, but the New Right experiment by what we would now call Act Party activists who infiltrated the NZ Labour Party to achieve their objectives, has put NZ society back and made them poor etc, as you wrote.
Helen Clark's leadership helped to right many wrongs, but not enough. She has now gone from the leadership and Labour will move back to the Right again under Phil Goff.
Please visit http://peter-petterson.blogspot.com
Cheers,
Peter Petterson
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