PRESS RELEASE

MANA Vice President John Minto

Tuesday 22nd January

MANA Welcomes the Sacking of the Minister of Housing

MANA welcomes the sacking of Housing Minister Phil Heatley in the cabinet restructure announced by Prime Minister John Key today.

“Likewise low-income communities around New Zealand will also be pleased at his demise” states MANA Vice President John Minto.

“Heatley has presided over policies which have made it harder for low-income families to access affordable housing. Under his watch we have seen declining numbers of state houses and additional housing hurdles for low-income families”.

“We have also seen policies launched which are devastating low-income communities such as Glen Innes in Auckland, Pomare in Lower Hutt and Maraenui in Napier as they are stripped of state houses”.

“MANA is calling on incoming Minister Nick Smith to take a fresh approach and begin by sitting down and listening to those people being hurt badly by current policies. It’s a long list which includes state housing tenants in GI, Maraenui and Porirua; people in the far north living in subsistence housing with currently no hope of help; homeless people in Christchurch, Auckland and elsewhere, as well as church and community groups working with the homeless and families on low incomes”.

“The country needs a breath of fresh air in housing and we will hold the new Minister to the high housing standards any decent society provides for all its citizens”.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On Failures Of Care For Those With Mental Disabilities

Hard to imagine a more disturbing insight into the treatment of the vulnerable than the Health Ministry report on Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau. The Ministry has found that the country’s only kaupapa Maori intellectual disability residential care provider has been “seriously dysfunctional.”

The ministry says the business has failed to recruit and retain quality staff – and says the kaimahi (caregivers) that have been employed are seriously unsuitable for the job, lacking basic knowledge. But Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau doesn’t get all the blame. The report says there’s a significant gap under disability laws to ensure there’s oversight by qualified clinical professionals. More>>