9. Question No. 9—Social Development and EmploymentHon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō) to the Minister for Social Development and EmploymentQuestion No. 9—Social Development and Employment9. Hon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō) to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: Does she have confidence that all people staying in taxpayer-funded emergency housing are safe; and if so why?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Housing) on behalf of the Minister for Social Development and Employment: I am confident that the vast majority in receipt of an emergency housing Special Needs Grant are in appropriate and safe accommodation. I draw the member's attention to the changes that we announced last week to address some of the issues in Rotorua and as the Minister of Housing mentioned in an answer to an earlier question today we are looking to roll these changes out more widely. But where people don't feel safe we do encourage them to make immediate contact with the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) or the police and appropriate steps will be taken.Hon Louise Upston: Exactly how many people are in unsafe emergency housing and when will the announced changes to Rotorua be rolled out across New Zealand?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: As I indicated in the—sorry on behalf of the Minister as the Minister of Housing indicated in questions that she answered today we did start with Rotorua with very good reason but we expect in the coming months that we will be looking to roll this approach out across the country. We have seen that the process that was put in place by the previous National Government isn't working and we're taking moves to fix it.Hon Louise Upston: Does she acknowledge that there wouldn't be thousands of Kiwis living in emergency housing if the Government had delivered its 2017 promise to build 16000 KiwiBuild homes?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: On behalf of the Minister for Social Development and Employment I'd like to point out to that member that the people living in motels were unlikely to become first-home buyers. What I would like to also point out to that member is that actually we'd have far fewer people—in fact no people—living in motels if the previous Government of which that member is a member hadn't sold off public housing and failed to build them. They finished Government with 1500 fewer public houses than they started with. They failed to build. If they built at the rate we are we would have around 15500 more public houses in this country.Hon Louise Upston: How can she have confidence that children are not being placed next to gang members when MSD still do not know who is staying at which motel?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: On behalf of the Minister as I've indicated in previous answers we are looking at an approach where we can contract. The way in which the previous system was set up—that MSD can legally not go out and contract motels because it's a demand-driven appropriation. By working with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development we can now contract which means we can do placement. We are starting this in Rotorua and it is something we will be rolling out across the country in the coming months.Hon Louise Upston: Can she guarantee no aspect of information-sharing arrangements between MSD and the gang intelligence unit were suspended during COVID-19 given her eventual acknowledgment that data-matching between MSD and the Inland Revenue Department was suspended for more than a year from March 2020?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: On behalf of the Minister I ask that member to put that question in writing.