Speech: Te Ururoa Flavell - Housing NZ Corporation

Debate on the performance and current operations of Crown entities, public organizations and State enterprises.

Housing New Zealand Corporation

Te Ururoa Flavell; 26 May 2009; 5.50pm

Kia ora tatou katoa

It makes for a fairly depressing read to look at the 2007/08 financial review of Housing New Zealand Corporation and to learn that “HNZC’s key initiatives on service delivery for Maori were not met in 2007/08”.

So what is the penalty for this systematic failure? Does the chief executive’s pay get his or her docked? Are contracts withdrawn? Or individuals held to blame? I haven’t seen it myself.

And then we read on – not only has HNZC seen a slight increase in the number of people presenting with urgent housing needs; but it appears likely that there will be challenges in reducing waiting lists.

Mr Chair, we would remind the House that the operating premise for Housing New Zealand Corporation is to provide state housing for people on low incomes or with unique housing needs.

And Maori inevitably fall into both categories – we know that some 67% of all Maori are renting or boarding and that home ownership is still in the hands of the relatively few.

These housing needs are also unique in response to the Crown’s article three obligations to invest in all the rights and responsibilities of Maori gaining equal citizenship.

So we would expect this commitment to be demonstrated in the most appropriate and enduring application of the estimated fifteen billion dollars value of the Crown entity’s assets.

Mr Chair we have all experienced, I am sure, enough horror stories of wet, damp, moudy state houses and the direct impact this has had on the health of tenants. But I can say that from the day we in the Maori Party came into coalition with National; healthy housing has been a huge priority for us.

And so we were delighted a couple of months ago to support the injection of an extra $104 million into State house upgrades. We have been concerned at the squalor that some tenants have lived in; a reality demonstrated in this financial review with the understatement “HNZC has allowed some of its housing stock to become run down”. I reckon.

There has been talk about the state being a slum landlord; turning a blind eye to housing which has fallen into a disgusting state of disrepair. We know that for many rural renters in particular, they have suffered from poor property conditions, less choice and lower levels of maintenance.

Mr Chair, what we are all hoping is that that was then; this is now.

Certainly we have appreciated the willingness of the Minister of Housing to work constructively with the Maori Party.

We have made clear the aspirations and enthusiasm of iwi and hapu groups to take control of their housing options; and it appears possible that the Housing Innovation Fund will enable these same aspirations to be achieved.

Of course it is not just about addressing the urgency of need for tenants. Housing Corp is in a position to work with Maori housing providers and iwi on how they can actively be involved in the upgrade work, and advance papakainga housing.

Mr Chair, I have real evidence of this in action. In fact, last Friday with Simon Bridges, I was with Te Puke based iwi, Tapuika, and able to see the great initiative they have taken in conjunction with Ngati Tuheke, Makahae Marae, and Rangiuru 2G Trust, to lessen the struggle of building homes for their people on Maori land.

The possibility of building papakainga housing on multiply owned Maori land has challenged our people for decades. The Maori Party has consistently raised the issues around investing in better utilisation of Maori land, and we are absolutely delighted that the Government has been so responsive in its readiness to listen to the aspirations and solutions tangata whenua as they come up with their own solutions.

It’s about time that the great land mass owned by Maori – in the Western Bay of Plenty for instance we are talking about 22 thousand hectares – is now able to be utilized for affordable housing on ancestral land.

It’s not just my electorate of Waiariki that is benefitting. Northland’s three district councils are also coming to the party to deliver a unified approach to Papakainga land.

The Far North, Whangarei and Kaipara District Councils are working with Te Puni Kokiri and Te Hauora o Kaikohe to establish some clear processes to enable housing sub-divisions and residential unit construction on multiply-owned Maori land.

Mr Chair, we are really pleased with the new approach being taken in listening to the ideas that Maori have, to develop their own housing solutions, on their land is starting to bear some fruit.