King Annette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
King Annette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 28 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3501. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
8. 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Labour—Rongotai) 
 to the  
Minister of Housing 
: What recent reports has he received on Housing New Zealand’s “Smarter. Faster. Fairer.” housing service? 
Hon NATHAN GUY (Minister of Immigration) 
on behalf of the Minister of Housing: The Minister receives regular reports about the progress implementation and evaluation of the Housing New Zealand Corporation’s new service delivery model. These reports include updates on the corporation’s customer service centre which show that there has been a vast improvement in the level of service that customers are receiving recently. It is important to remember that the corporation is modernising the way it does business and making it quicker and easier for its customers to engage with the corporation. 
Hon Annette King 
: Is the Government delivering a “Smarter. Faster. Fairer.” housing service in Christchurch where the Housing New Zealand Corporation has 701 vacant houses pending development at a time when the Minister of Maori Affairs is encouraging homeless people to occupy abandoned houses in the red zone? 
Hon NATHAN GUY 
: It is worthwhile mentioning to the member that since September 2010 more than 27000 urgent repairs have been carried out by the Housing New Zealand Corporation on over 5000 of the corporation’s properties in the Canterbury region. 
Hon Annette King 
: Who is right: the Minister of Maori Affairs Pita Sharples who says that he is shocked at the hardship and the housing crisis in Christchurch; or Gerry Brownlee and himself who have declared that there is no housing crisis in the city? 
Hon NATHAN GUY 
: As I mentioned in the previous question we have a real focus on ensuring that we are repairing those 5000 properties some of which have been affected by the Canterbury earthquake. There are a lot of jobs involved in terms of supporting that housing stock so that we can get those houses up and running. As I mentioned 23000 urgent repairs have taken place since September 2010. 
Hon Annette King 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It was quite a simple question and I got the same answer that I had to the question I had asked previously. Maybe he did not hear me. Would you like me to repeat it? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: In the circumstances since there seemed to be so little attempt to answer the question the member may repeat it. 
Hon Annette King 
: Who is right: the Minister of Maori Affairs Pita Sharples who says he is shocked at the hardship and the housing crisis in Christchurch; or Gerry Brownlee and himself who have declared there is no housing crisis in the city? 
Hon NATHAN GUY 
: I would prefer to take advice from those two members than I would from anyone across the House. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! I do not think much is going to be achieved by pursuing that one any further. The member may ask a further supplementary question. 
Hon Annette King 
: Is he concerned that the Chief Executive of the Housing New Zealand Corporation said yesterday she has no idea how much her 0800 “dial and wait” housing phone line is costing the Government or how much the 56000 calls that were abandoned last month cost; if not why not? 
Hon NATHAN GUY 
: I was interested in those comments. Indeed we do have a process on the service centre. It is improving. The member might be interested to know that I rang the call centre at 1.29 p.m. today and I waited for 9 seconds only. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Question No. 9 Barbara Stewart. [ 
Interruption 
] Order! I apologise to the member. [ 
Interruption 
] Order! I say to the senior colleague on my left that there is no need for that. The House has had its fun. Please I want to hear Barbara Stewart’s question No. 9.