Departing CEO should front for committee

National Party Housing spokesman Phil Heatley has lodged an urgent request for the departing head of Housing New Zealand to be called before a select committee.

“Regardless of whether my appeal for a wider inquiry into the troubled department is successful, Helen Fulcher has been intimately involved in the decision making process for the past three years. She is in a unique position to provide valuable insights into the processes and the culture at HNZ.”

Mr Heatley says there are issues that Ms Fulcher alone would have had to deal with.

“There is also a question of cost. If the select committee decides in the future that there are matters which require clarification from Ms Fulcher, it would be far more inconvenient and expensive to bring her back from Australia.”

Mr Heatley says he has now written three letters to the select committee fleshing out his request for an inquiry.

“HNZ is lurching from one crisis to the next. It has failed to provide reliable answers to parliamentary questions, former employees have complained of a ‘bullying culture’, and the recent Auditor General’s limited report raised serious questions about accounting processes.

“Vandalism has soared, untaxed income from boarders is common and there’ve been revelations that some HNZ households are earning up to $100,000.

“On top of all this, we have a Minister who misled Parliament about when the board chair found out about serious claims levelled at the corporation.

“Housing New Zealand needs to be subjected to some serious scrutiny,” says Mr Heatley.

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