Housing change only shuffles the chairs on a rotting deck

Labour's move to reconfigure the government agencies that deal with housing and building is merely shuffling the chairs on a rotting deck, says National's Housing spokesman, David Carter.

"Labour's shonky housing and building policies are riddled with holes and these changes won't hide them.

"It's ironic that the announcement comes on the same day it is reported that parties in a landmark leaky homes case in Auckland have decided to settle out of court.

"If Labour had dealt with this problem effectively these home-owners wouldn't have faced the prospect of a lengthy court case and an estimated $2 million legal bill, which made settling out of court the only affordable option.

"For others facing the leaky home crisis the reshuffle will do nothing to help.

"Neither will it help desperate people on growing state house waiting lists."

Mr Carter says the Government is merging two critical problem areas, even though they are quite separate.

"One area deals with the regulatory building environment under which construction occurs, and the other, the social arm of housing, delivers housing for low-income New Zealanders."

Mr Carter says putting these two problems in the same bag won't hide them, and it certainly won't fix them.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>