Letter to the editor on State housing and broken promises

aka, Nicola 'Noboats' Willis' apparent short-term memory loss

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2 July 2025

The editor

Kapi Mana News

letterstoeditor@stuff.co.nz

Kia ora,

Your story in 'Kapi Mana News' on 1 July, headed "Porirua East social housing developments axed in review" revealed how this government is cutting back on social housing.

76 proposed new homes in the Porirua region would have housed around 153 people. These are families and individuals in dire need of warm, reliable, and stable homes.

But now, Kāinga Ora appears bent on balancing it's books. Instead of warm, healthy homers for families in need,we are delivered up corporatese-speak such as "value for money", "stack up financially", "commercial sense", and "financially sustainable footing". We are dealing with people in poverty and Kāinga Ora cosplays as a corporation on the NZX50?

It was only in July 2020 that Nicola Willis - then in Opposition - admitted that National had sold too many state houses during the Key Administration. Going by Kāinga Ora/Housing NZ Annual reports, from 2008 to 2017, around 6,000 state houses were sold or otherwise disposed off.

She then berated the then-Labour government for not building sufficient new state houses for the homeless. Ms Willis appears to have forgotten her 'mea culpa' five years ago and is repeating the same disastrous policies of the Key years.

We can await her next apology and faux remorse next time National is in Opposition. (Which may be sooner than she thinks.)

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References

The Post: Porirua East social housing developments axed in Kāinga Ora review (Press reader)

Stuff: National Party admits it sold too many state houses

Additional

Reddit: Full list of cancelled Kāinga Ora projects

Other Blogs

The Jackal: National's Housing Hypocrisy - New Zealand Pays the Price

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Acknowledgement: Tom Scott

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= fs =