4. Question No. 4—HousingKATIE NIMON (National—Napier) to the Minister of HousingQuestion No. 4—Housing4. KATIE NIMON (National—Napier) to the Minister of Housing: What announcements has he made regarding the independent review into Kāinga Ora?Hon CHRIS BISHOP (Minister of Housing): Yesterday the Government announced a series of immediate actions in response to the independent review of Kāinga Ora. We had significant concerns about the financial performance and governance of the agency. These concerns have been borne out by the independent review. The review finds that Kāinga Ora is underperforming and not financially viable without significant savings as well as funding and financing changes. The agency's had easy access to debt but insufficient focus on fiscal discipline and low levels of accountability. And secondly the wider social housing system is not delivering the results New Zealand needs and is lacking in transparency and accountability. They've made seven major recommendations which propose significant changes to Kāinga Ora and the system and we've agreed to immediately adopt four of those recommendations.Katie Nimon: What were those initial steps the Government took in response to these findings?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: Cabinet has appointed Mr Simon Moutter as the new chair of Kāinga Ora. He will be no stranger to many in this House with extensive change leadership experience at Powerco Auckland Airport and Spark New Zealand. He steps into the role on 4 June where he'll be tasked with leading a refreshed board which we expect to be in place in July. Ministers are then going to issue a new letter of expectation which makes clear our expectations regarding a focus on fiscal sustainability value for money and a back to basics approach and we're going to ask from the refreshed board a turnaround plan to Ministers by the end of the year to focus on returning Kāinga Ora to financial sustainability and eliminating losses.Katie Nimon: What did the review have to say about the governance of Kāinga Ora?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: The review laid out a number of concerns about the governance and the performance of the board. As the Minister alongside the Minister of Finance I am responsible for ensuring the board is well-functioning and performing its governance role appropriately. I encourage members to read the review done by Sir Bill and his team around some of the governance failures at Kāinga Ora over the last few years. We are going to refresh the board and take action and we expect a turnaround plan to fix the problems at Kāinga Ora.Katie Nimon: What about the other recommendations of the review?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: The other recommendations in the review relate to the wider social housing system. One of the divides between the House has become apparent within that review: on this side of the House we do not believe that the State is the answer to all of New Zealand's housing problems; actually the wider housing system needs to be addressed. We believe on this side of the House that the community housing sector groups like the Salvation Army the Community of Refuge Trust Emerge Dwell Housing Trust and the community housing sector—Hon Nicola Willis: Habitat for Humanity.Hon CHRIS BISHOP: —Habitat for Humanity my friend points out—they have many of the answers to our housing problems. On this side of the House we'll invest in more social housing but the answer is not always necessarily State housing.Hon Kieran McAnulty: Why has he refused to confirm funding for the income-related rent subsidy post-2025 given community housing providers like the Salvation Army are cancelling housing developments due to funding uncertainty?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: Well I could equally ask that member why the previous Government did not confirm funding beyond 2025 in the last Budget when the last Government had the opportunity to confirm the funding track for the next four years. Instead they only confirmed it for two years so that Mr Robertson could run a fake surplus in 2026-2027. The last Government allocated 6000 social housing places in Budget 2023. Those are in the process of being delivered. There is plenty of work to get on with and the member knows that.Hon Kieran McAnulty: Why do community housing providers have to wait for the Budget before knowing if they can build new houses given the Government was happy to announce a $2.9 billion tax cut for landlords weeks ago?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: Well the member conflates two distinct and separate issues. But the community housing sector has over the last year and since November been contracting with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development for the social housing places allocated in Budget 2023. I just say again: if that member is so interested in additional public housing or social housing places around nine months ago in Budget 2023 that member's Government had the opportunity to confirm that. They chose not to so they could pretend that by 2026 they were running a surplus. We now know that that was yet another fiscal cliff bequeathed to this Government that we are now having to sort out.