9. Question No. 9—HousingNICOLA WILLIS (National) to the Minister of HousingQuestion No. 9—Housing9. NICOLA WILLIS (National) to the Minister of Housing: Does she have confidence in Kāinga Ora and what specific areas of Kāinga Ora's performance if any has she or her officials at the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development identified as needing improvement?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Housing): In answer to the first part of the question yes. As with all entities there are areas of focus I have outlined in the letter of expectations to the agency including an explicit expectation on increasing the number of new-build activity in meeting our build programme targets. In addition I have asked Kāinga Ora to focus on growing its new functions including supporting Māori aspirations and protecting Māori interests in line with the Maihi framework and ensuring Kāinga Ora participates fully in the development of the Government policy statement on housing and urban development. COVID-19 has presented challenges for the delivery across performance measures and the latest quarterly report from Kāinga Ora highlights some of the areas such as progress against the healthy homes targets and build targets which Kāinga Ora have provided me with a recent update on progress and mitigations that have been put in place. I have reiterated my expectation that although current year targets may not be met the overarching targets over multiple years remain intact. In addition Kāinga Ora is committed to enhancing its reporting to me to reflect the direction of travel signalled.Nicola Willis: Does she think it is cost-effective for Kāinga Ora to spend $25000 each month on a sponsorship arrangement with a media outlet that includes editorial content generation and if so why?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: The arrangement that the member is referring to is an arrangement with OneRoof for paid content highlighting the work that is done in the communities that Kāinga Ora is building. This of course builds on a period of work that Kāinga Ora and its predecessor organisations began in 2015. Kāinga Ora has indeed had a marketing budget to highlight the positive nature of its communities. It is doing this because we actually have market houses that need to be sold in there and some of this money is recovered from developers in there.Nicola Willis: Does she think it was appropriate for Kāinga Ora to have used taxpayer money to pay for articles on the website OneRoof without ensuring it was clear these stories were paid for?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: What the member is talking about is whether or not there was the media outlet in question and their editorial policy. But Kāinga Ora had a contractual relationship with the media outlet. It is not their responsibility to ensure that the media outlet advertises that that is paid content. I have discussed this with Kāinga Ora. They have raised it with the media outlet in question but I have no ministerial responsibility for that editorial policy.Nicola Willis: Why did she not disclose Kāinga Ora's paid promotions in advertisements with OneRoof when I specifically asked her about them in a written question on 7 May 2021?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: I invite the member to send through that as a written question and I will have a look at it. But I answered the question with all the information I had at hand.Nicola Willis: Does she think it was appropriate for Kāinga Ora to pay a media outlet for an advertisement profiling an individual who was in the midst of a Labour Party candidate selection process?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: The profile that the member is referring to is a profile piece that was done in May on Arena Williams. This was organised before she was selected to be the Labour Party candidate for Manurewa. She disclosed the fact to Kāinga Ora that she was indeed going for selection in Manurewa. There was a discussion and the fact that the piece profiled the work that this woman was doing in her community through lockdown—the positive work she was doing. In fact A driving force in the group was Arena Williams. She and her partner Max are both lawyers and committed to Hobsonville Point — and … there is a strong community spirit supported by an active Residents' [Association]". I guess—SPEAKER: Order! Order! All right. I'm not quite sure—well I'm sure that the member has answered the question and that's enough."