Housing Minister, Mark Gosche, should 'clean up his own backyard' while he gets stuck into landlords with substandard rental properties, National's Housing spokesperson David Carter said today.

"It is all very well targeting errant landlords, but shouldn't this include ALL landlords?

"What is the Minister going to do about his colleague, Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia, who administers a Tolaga Bay house which has reportedly been condemned as unfit for human habitation?

"It is disgraceful that a Minister of the Crown who claims to support and represent low income people should abuse people in such a way.

"It is sheer hypocrisy of Mark Gosche to suggest hefty fines for landlords who don't toe the line, when Mr Horomia's property is riddled with repair problems.

"This is yet another example of the double standards we have come to expect from this Government," David Carter said.

"As we have seen in the Christine Rankin case, the Government wants to impose the Employment Relations Act on private employers but doesn't live by its own standards.

"So too it is imposing new standards on private landlords without checking its own backyard.

"This is yet another case of 'do as I say, not as I do', David Carter said.

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