Smith Nick: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Smith Nick: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:606;Page:3861] 
9.  
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (NZ National—Nelson) 
 to the  
Minister of Housing 
: Why are families in Nelson living in tents caravans and garages when Housing New Zealand homes have been empty for 12 months? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Acting Minister of Housing) 
: 
 There have been no State houses vacant for 12 months in Nelson. The community group housing part of the organisation has had five properties in Nelson vacant for some time reserved for ex-residents of Braemar Hospital. These properties are not to be confused with State houses available to those on the Housing New Zealand waiting lists as they are used for the sole purpose of housing community group organisations. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Why in December last year again in January and even last week when I wrote to Housing New Zealand regarding the plight of the Grey family was I told that no houses were vacant; and does the Minister now seriously expect the House to accept the explanation that miraculously after the matter of the Grey family appeared in the media the housing needs of disabled members of the Nelson community were suddenly reassessed and changed or is that not just a classic example of what his ministerial colleague called “b-s-ing”? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: There are circumstances to do with that family that I will not air in public but I can tell members the reason the house came on the market at the time that it did. The Braemar house was reserved for five single men three of whom very recently became deceased. The property was returned back into Housing New Zealand stock because it was no longer needed by the Braemar organisation and that is what made it available at the time. 
Taito Phillip Field 
: Why does Housing New Zealand Corporation provide community group housing? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Those outhouses offer essential accommodation for the use of hundreds of community group providers through Women’s Refuge IHC and other mental health and physical disability providers. Housing New Zealand Corporation has 1297 community group houses nationally and they are tenanted to 241 different community groups. The Government offers significant rent relief for those tenants and it is committed to increasing housing stock. 
Dr Muriel Newman 
: Does the Minister accept the analysis of his colleague the Hon John Tamihere that the problem underlying the Government’s State house policy that is causing the present housing shortage crisis is that tenants see their housing entitlement as a lifelong right rather than a respite facility; if not is it the case that he and the Hon John Tamihere are now of one mind on all matters of policy? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: No we cannot accept that analysis particularly in an area like Nelson where 100 percent of the tenants in Housing New Zealand Corporation houses are on an income-related rent—in other words they have a high level of need. The real problem is that in a place like Nelson 217 houses were sold by the National Party. It would have been very helpful to have them now. [ 
Interruption 
]  
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I know that this is an environment for very robust debate and the matter has already been raised today but Mr Benson-Pope’s fashion of shouting out and pointing with his pen or his finger is an insult to members on this side of the House and I wish that he be asked to desist. As for the person next door to him she is not much better. As whips in their party they are meant to be setting some sort of standard in this House  
Mr SPEAKER 
: I am watching the two of them very closely. 
Paul Adams 
: Can the Minister confirm that there are at least two other single State house tenants in Nelson living in three-bedroom houses when they could be more efficiently placed in smaller units? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: No I cannot confirm details like that but if the member’s question implies what are we doing about that I can tell him that Housing New Zealand Corporation has a very active programme of talking to people who are in houses that might not be right for their needs and moving them to houses that can hopefully serve their needs better. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Regardless of whether those empty Housing New Zealand homes were intended for people with disabilities or for those with housing difficulty how can the Minister justify at least five houses being empty for a year in a community under extreme housing pressure; and does that not confirm John Tamihere’s concerns that a centralised bureaucratic approach to welfare and housing policy will not work? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: As the member knows—and as the people from Housing New Zealand Corporation who come to his meeting on Friday will point out—Housing New Zealand has a great deal of flexibility to respond to local issues. Those houses are kept vacant by agreement with organisations that are deinstitutionalising people or locating them in the community. That is why they have to be there.