The Manukau Urban Māori Authority (MUMA) is seeking to ramp up a scheme to get South Auckland families out of their gas guzzlers and into hybrid vehicles.
Weymouth resident Bobbi-Lee Edwards with the car she is leasing as part of the Manukau Urban Māori Authority’s (MUMA) Waka Aronui scheme. Photo: LDR/Stephen Forbes
Under the programme, whānau pay $95 a week for a Toyota Corolla station wagon. The lease includes a warrant of fitness, registration, insurance, servicing and repairs.
"It's available to everybody and particularly people who have family they are supporting," MUMA group operations manager John Cameron said.
He said there were currently about 20 vehicles in the Waka Aronui scheme. Cameron said it grew out of a partnership with Toyota, which provides the cars, as well as support from the Ākina Foundation, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), the Tindall Foundation, and Auckland Transport.
He said as part of the three-year pilot, it wanted to expand the programme and eventually move from hybrids to fully electric vehicles.
Bobbi-Lee Edwards signed up for the scheme in December last year.
The 33-year-old Weymouth resident and mother of three works for the Manukau Urban Māori Authority (MUMA) as a whānau navigator.
She said she had considered getting finance to buy a vehicle, but said it was a bit daunting.
"I thought I might not be able to cover the costs," Edwards said. "So this is a far safer option for me.
"I don't have to worry about the cost of servicing the car, paying for the next warrant of fitness, or the insurance."
And she said the kids like the new car as well. "They think it's awesome after not even having a car."
MUMA general manager of whānau services Veronica Henare said the Waka Aronui scheme had a lot of positives.
Henare said, for many people in South Auckland, expecting them to give up their cars for public transport was not realistic.
But she said the fact the scheme was an important step in the right direction when it came to reducing their carbon footprint.
"It's a good deal, and in the long-term it's beneficial to our people," she said. "And if it gets our people thinking about climate change that's a good thing."
Henare said many families in South Auckland could get into financial difficulties through getting finance for a car from third-tier lenders. But instead of paying crippling interest rates, Waka Aronui gave them another option.
MUMA chairperson Bernie O'Donnell said the scheme was about helping people into newer, lower-emissions vehicles like hybrids.
"Normally our people can't afford these vehicles, they are beyond their means. But this allows them to now be part of the global conversation on climate change."
O'Donnell said he was keen to see the scheme grow and the government's announcement of $20 million for a trial leasing scheme for low-emission vehicles to low-income New Zealanders in last month's Budget was a positive sign.
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air