Youth-led Hīkoi highlights Auckland homelessness crisis says advocate
Photo:
Kick Back / Aaron Hendry
A youth advocate says the turnout at a
hīkoi to highlight
youth homelessness in Auckland CBD clearly shows the pain and trauma young people are experiencing.
Co-founder and manager of youth development organisation Kick Back, Aaron Hendry, said about 100 people marched on the footpath from Karangahape Road to downtown Auckland after noon Saturday.
He said the hīkoi was organised by youth who had or still experienced homelessness.
"Many young people in our community have been denied emergency housing, are couch surfing, living in hostels and in unsafe living environments, because this government and successive governments have not invested in a clear strategy to end youth homelessness.
"This is them standing up and saying, 'We have a voice, we are going to use it'."
Kick Back was actively monitoring 140 young people in the city, who do not have stable housing - some as young as 11 years old.
Hendry said marching on the footpath instead of the road was a way of recognising where many had slept rough.
"Young people denied shelter because of government decisions around emergency housing had to sleep on Karangahape Road or Queen Street.
Youth protestors wave flags during a hīkoi to highlight youth homelessness in Auckland CBD.
Photo:
Kick Back / Aaron Hendry
"They are taking the street back and saying, 'This is where you left us, this is not a place for any child or young person to live'."
He said Labour MPs Shanan Halbert and Kieran McAnulty, and Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March participated in the march.
Auckland councillor and mayoral candidate Kerrin Leoni also attended.
"Central government have taken quite a lot of money away from homeless initiatives and it is a real concern for our city," Leoni said.
"There are multiple issues young homeless people are experiencing and hearing a story of a suicide today is heart-breaking, as a leader of this city, to know this is happening in the wealthiest and biggest city of our country.
She said, if elected mayor, she would work with community housing and poverty action groups to find ways Auckland Council could help.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero
,
a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
4 hours ago
- RNZ News
New Zealand signs new agricultural trade deal with Indonesia
Minister of Agriculture/Trade and Investment Todd McClay and Indonesian Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman sign a new bilateral arrangement on agricultural cooperation in Jakarta, 7 August, 2025. Photo: Supplied New Zealand and Indonesia have signed a new agricultural trade agreement, as part of the government's bid to double export values in 10 years. The minister overseeing both agriculture and trade, Todd McClay, said the deal would create new commercial opportunities for farmers and agribusinesses in both countries. He signed the new bilateral arrangement in Jakarta on Thursday, alongside Indonesian Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman. "This new agreement will make it easier for our agricultural sectors to collaborate, share expertise and open doors for trade and investment," McClay said. "It provides a framework for stronger cooperation in areas like livestock development, smart agriculture, biosecurity, agricultural research, and streamlined trade processes." The arrangement would also see a dedicated 'Consultative Forum' established to coordinate both countries' regulations and reduce red tape for exporters. The forum would hold its first meeting within a year. "This is about building long-term commercial partnerships. It will help more New Zealand businesses connect directly with Indonesian partners, support our farmers to get their high-quality products into market, and encourage ... investment in agriculture from both sides," McClay said. "Agreements like this one help to grow the value of our exports, lift returns to the farmgate, and unlock future growth for the entire economy." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
7 hours ago
- RNZ News
Season 3 Episode 15: Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick on homelessness, energy poverty, Gaza, and electoral law changes
Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick says National MPs she's spoken with want to support a stronger stance on sanctions against Israel but are too terrified to take on their party leadership. The sanctions are prompted by Israel's 22 month bombardment of Gaza and its refusal to allow aid to flow freely into the occupied region. Swarbrick lodged a member's bill in December and argues with all opposition parties backing it, the support of just six backbench government MPs would mean it could skip the "biscuit tin" ballot and be brought to Parliament for a first reading. She told Mata with Mihingarangi: "All we need is six of 68 government MPs to get it on the floor of the House ... I've spoken to a number of National MPs in particular and ... they're telling me, and look I'll be crystal clear about this, they're telling me that they're terrified about the future of their career because the indication that they've got from their leadership is that if they were to stick their neck out and do the right thing here they would be losing their place on the pecking order. "And my question, that I've put back to them is: What the hell is the point of your job?" Standing Order 288 allows MPs who are not ministers or under-secretaries to indicate their support for a member's bill. If at least 61 MPs get behind it, the legislation skips the "biscuit tin". If six government MPs indicated their support for this bill it would be the first time this process was followed. Late last month Foreign Minister Winston Peters called for a ceasefire in Gaza in a statement delivered in Parliament, but stopped short of promising further aid funding, or promising to join efforts to prevent weapons being sold to Israel. His speech coincided with New Zealand supporting a joint statement with 27 other countries calling for a ceasefire, and condemning the "drip-feeding of aid , and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children". A week later the coalition government signed an additional joint statement with 14 other countries expressing a willingness to recognise the State of Palestine as a necessary step towards a two-State solution. After 22 months of a devastating Israeli military campaign Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick says there's a need for more than speeches and statements. "Gazans can't eat empty words, and this government has, for the better part of two years now, said that they're doing everything they can as they make statements and sit on their hands. "The very least that we could possibly do is apply the same standard that we did to Russia for its unlawful invasions into and occupation of Ukraine. "That's why we drafted the Unlawful Occupation of Palestine Sanctions bill which, after a year plus of waiting for the government to do something we put into the biscuit tin to remove any of the excuses. "The other important thing to note about the process we initiated by putting this into the biscuit tin is that we no longer need Winston Peters, Christopher Luxon or that other guy. We just need six of 68 government MPs to say that they are willing to stand by their conscience and do the right thing in the face of a genocide being live streamed to each of us 24/7 on our phones."
RNZ News
8 hours ago
- RNZ News
Treasury briefing points finger at government spending during Covid-19 pandemic
The Treasury briefing said the Covid-19 response showed the challenges of using fiscal policy to respond to shocks and cycles. Photo: FANATIC STUDIO / SCIENCE PHOTO L The previous government spent too much during the Covid-19 pandemic, despite warnings from officials, according to a briefing released by the Treasury. The Treasury's 2025 Long Term Insights Briefing said debt had risen in recent decades, partly because responses to adverse shocks were not met by savings between those shocks. The higher debt meant less capacity to respond to future shocks, like natural hazards, weather-related risks and biosecurity risks. Treasury estimated the total cost of the pandemic was $66 billion over the 2020-26 financial years and about 20.4 percent of GDP. The IMF and OECD estimated it was among the largest Covid-19 responses globally. The agency releases a briefing every three years, with this one looking at the role of fiscal policy through shocks and business cycles. The briefing said the Covid-19 response showed the challenges of using fiscal policy to respond to shocks and cycles. Initially, Treasury recommended "strong fiscal stimulus" at the start of the pandemic, which was cited as "perhaps" causing the economy to be much stronger than expected by the end of 2020. The wage-subsidy scheme in particular was seen as making an important contribution to the strong initial recovery, limiting the increase in the unemployment rate and enabling economic activity to resume when restrictions relaxed. Treasury then moved away from recommending broad-based stimulus, preferring more targeted and moderate support. Its post-election advice to the then-Finance Minister in late 2020 highlighted "the importance of controlling ongoing spending and ensuring it was high value to meet the medium-term fiscal challenge." By August 2021, with the Delta lockdowns coming in, Treasury recommended any decisions to provide support to businesses "should take account of macroeconomic trade-offs". It recommended against any further stimulus from Budget 2022 onwards. Wage subsidies and similar schemes during lockdowns made up about 35 percent of the costs of the response. A further 18 percent came from health-system costs, like vaccination, contact tracing, and managed isolation and quarantine. The remaining "nearly half" was made up of a wide range of initiatives that Treasury said had "varied objectives". Some were aimed at directly responding to the impacts of Covid-19, others were aimed at providing fiscal stimulus or "achieving social or environmental objectives". They included "tax changes, training schemes, housing construction, shovel-ready infrastructure projects, increases to welfare benefits, the Small Business Cashflow Scheme, Jobs for Nature, additional public housing places and school lunches". Programmes within the fiscal response that were not tied to the shock were seen as having "a lagged impact on the economy and proved difficult to unwind in later years". The report suggested cyclical management was best left to monetary policy, run by an independent central bank. It also suggested governments set out clearly when fiscal policy will be used ahead of time, including pre-defining responses. Ideally, this would have cross-party agreement. An independent fiscal institution, which could scrutinise and report on the sustainability of fiscal policy, was also suggested. The previous government had considered setting up a watchdog to cost election policies, but it could not get cross-party support. National then changed its tune, with current Finance Minister Nicola Willis supporting such a measure, but New Zealand First and ACT were opposed to the idea. Willis jumped on the report's release, saying Treasury's language was "spare and polite", but its conclusions were "damning". She said the briefing showed the challenges of using "big spending measures" to respond to one-off shocks. Willis singled out the briefing's focus on the money spent on initiatives not directly tied to the Covid-19 response. "That is a very diplomatic way of saying New Zealanders are still paying the price of the previous government extending a big-spending approach, initially intended for a pandemic response," she said. RNZ has approached Labour for comment. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
