National’s New “Pro-Renter” Policy Slammed by Critics as “Cooked” and “Regressive”

Words by Zoë Mills (they/she) 

The National Party has proposed to reinstate no-cause evictions for renters as part of a suite of proposed reforms, citing the Labour Government’s ‘lack of support’ to landlords as a cause.  

The policy would allow landlords to evict tenants from their rentals without a formal reason. National has also proposed that fixed-term tenancy contracts would roll over into periodic tenancies instead. These changes were implemented by the current Labour Government in 2020 under the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act, as well as their loosening of the tax rules for landlords by reinstating interest deductibility.

National MP Chris Bishop has called his new policy a “progressive, pro-renters move”. 

“The most fundamental problem in our rental market is that we don't have enough landlords, and we need more supply in the market,” Bishop told Salient. “That's why you've seen big rent increases in Wellington, alongside other parts of the country. […] This is about increasing the supply of rental properties to make it easier to get into a flat.”

Renters United have vocally opposed the proposed policy over the past week. Eimhin O’Shea, a spokesperson for the group, described the policy as “pretty cooked, to be honest”, and compared it to “pulling out from the bottom of a Jenga tower”. 

“Rental prices are high because we don't have enough houses,” O’Shea told Salient. “This [policy] destroys the rest of renters rights, especially for the people that National claims [they are] helping […] like ex-prisoners or homeless people. […] It means that those people are actually much, much more vulnerable.”

As of March 2023, the Ministry of Social Development has reported that over 20,000 applicants were currently on the waitlist for social housing—a figure which has been steadily growing since 2018. 

“Every single renters right is underpinned by security of tenure. You can't access or enforce your rights at all if there's a chance you can just get kicked out,” O’Shea says. “By bringing back no-cause evictions, it destroys the rest of renters rights.”

Concern also has been raised about how this will affect discrimination on the basis of ethnicity and sexual orientation for tenants. While Bishop maintained that discrimination is illegal under the Human Rights Act—“We're not proposing to change that at all”—it is unclear how this will be regulated if landlords are not required to give reason for an eviction. 

Rental uncertainties are not new for Wellington students, along with the poor quality of housing failing the Healthy Homes Standards (Bishop confirmed the standards will remain under a National-led government). When asked if the policy would create more uncertainty for students, Bishop said he wants students to know that “we've got their back, that we want more rental properties in Wellington. […] We want more houses built in Wellington so that, ultimately, the power imbalance shifts away from landlords, and the power balance actually shifts in favour of students.”

However, Renters United remain unconvinced. “The notion that no-cause evictions could possibly be a good thing for renting is remarkable mental gymnastics,” O’Shea says.

“The reason it sounds like it doesn't make sense is because it doesn't.”