Judith Collins - Housing and Urban Development

21 August 2019

The signs aren’t looking good for KiwiBuild’s reboot on the back of news it has lost another member of its leadership team inside 12 months, National’s Housing spokesperson Judith Collins says.

“The resignation of Helen O’Sullivan as head of KiwiBuild Commercial, having only been appointed in February, is a terrible look after Stephen Barclay’s departure last year.

“Both only lasted a matter of months in their roles before they abandoned the sinking ship that is KiwiBuild – and who could blame them?

“The fact this has happened just before the so-called KiwiBuild reset is confirmation that Labour’s flagship election policy is beyond saving. It also looks like a vote of no confidence in Megan Woods’ ability to get her party’s main election promise off life support.

“KiwiBuild has been a failure since day one. All of its delivery targets have been either watered-down or abandoned, it has done virtually nothing to make housing more affordable across the board, and it has become a drain on taxpayers who have underwritten more than $660 million worth of homes and have already bought back 17 KiwiBuild homes that haven’t sold.

“How many more executives need to run for the lifeboats before the Government realises that KiwiBuild is headed for the bottom of the ocean?”

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