Paraone Pita: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Paraone Pita: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:639;Page:9599] 
11.  
PITA PARAONE (NZ First) 
 to the  
Minister of Housing 
: Has Housing New Zealand taken any further action to identify and remove any of its tenants who are criminal gang members in the wake of the eviction notice served at a Range View Road Owairaka address last week; if not why not? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister of Education) 
 on behalf of the 
 Minister of Housing 
: Housing New Zealand Corporation houses are peopled according to need. Like all landlords it is required to abide by the provisions of the Residential Tenancies Act. We actively manage all our tenancies and do not tolerate tenants committing criminal acts in any of our properties. However if tenants are law-abiding we do not have any lawful grounds on which to deny them a State house because of membership of an organisation a religion a political party or any other group. 
Pita Paraone 
: Does Housing New Zealand Corporation have any mechanism for ensuring that its tenants are law-abiding or does it always wait until terrorised neighbours have a complaint before any action is taken? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Housing New Zealand Corporation relies on its case managers getting around houses. But I take the member back to the case he has raised. In that particular situation Housing New Zealand Corporation was reliant on the police informing it of the situation and as soon as the police did that then as he knows Housing New Zealand Corporation acted. 
Lynne Pillay 
: How actively does Housing New Zealand Corporation manage its tenancies? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: As a responsible landlord Housing New Zealand Corporation actively manages its 67000 homes—up I should say from 50000 or so just 7 years ago after we took over from National. The overwhelming majority of these tenancies are trouble-free because like most Kiwis our tenants are law-abiding families that are focused on getting on with their lives. When problems arise that cannot be sorted out satisfactorily at a neighbourhood level we use all the options available to us under the Residential Tenancies Act. In the current year we have terminated 17 of our tenancies—for example with the assistance of bailiffs. Other tenants choose to leave before it becomes necessary to take their case formally through the tribunal. 
Pita Paraone 
: Tena koe Madam Speaker. How many State houses are estimated to be inhabited by criminal gang members; if this information is not known does the Minister not consider he owes it to high-need New Zealanders on the housing waiting list to find out this information and ensure they are not being put behind those gang members in the pecking order? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I do not have those figures with me today. But I say to the member that this would be extraordinarily difficult to do. For example a person may well have committed a crime in the past but now be a person who is seeking to live a good life get on with a job and so on. Those people would risk of course being caught up by a measure such as that. But I go back to the central point which is that Housing New Zealand Corporation does not tolerate criminal behaviour in its tenancies and it acts when it finds that.