Flavell Te Ururoa: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
[Volume:654;Page:3808] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Chairman. Kia ora tatou katoa. It makes for a fairly depressing read to look at the 2007-08 financial review of the Housing New Zealand Corporation and to learn that “HNZC’s key initiatives on service delivery for Maori were not met in 2007/08.” I ask what the penalty is for the systematic failure. Does the chief executive get her pay docked are contracts withdrawn or are individuals held to blame? I have not seen this happen for myself. 
Reading on we find that not only has the corporation seen a slight increase in the number of people presenting with urgent housing needs but also it appears likely that there will be challenges in reducing waiting lists. We would remind the Committee that the operating premise for the Housing New Zealand Corporation is to provide State housing for people on low incomes or with unique housing needs. Maori inevitably fall into both categories. We know that some 67 percent of all Maori are renting or boarding and that homeownership is still in the hands of the relatively few. These housing needs are also unique in response to the Crown’s article 3 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 $15 billion value of the Crown entity’s assets. I am sure that we have all experienced enough horror stories about wet damp mouldy State houses and the direct impact that they have had on the health of tenants but I can say that from the day that we in the Maori Party came into coalition with National healthy housing has been a huge priority for us. So we were delighted a couple of months ago to support the injection of an extra $104 million into State housing upgrades. 
We have been concerned about the squalor that some tenants have lived in. It is a reality that is demonstrated in this financial review with the understatement that “The Housing New Zealand Corporation has allowed some of its housing stock to becoming run down.” I reckon! There has been talk about the State being a slum landlord turning a blind eye to housing that has fallen into a disgusting state of disrepair. We know that many rural renters in particular have suffered from poor property conditions less choice and lower levels of maintenance. 
We are hoping that that was then and this is now. We have certainly 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. The Housing New Zealand Corporation is in a position to work with Maori housing providers and iwi on how we can actively be involved in upgrade work and advancing papakainga housing. I have real evidence of this involvement in action. In fact last Friday I was in Te Puke with Simon Bridges and the people there—Tapuika—and was 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 multiple-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 of tangata whenua as they come up with their own solutions.  
It is about time that the great land mass owned by Maori in the western Bay of Plenty for example—we are talking about 22000 hectares—is now able to be utilised for affordable housing on ancestral land. It is not just my electorate of Waiariki that is benefiting; 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 subdivisions in residential unit construction on multiple-owned Maori land. We are really pleased that the new approach of listening to the ideas that Maori have for developing their own housing solutions on their land is starting to bear some fruit.