Hon Paula Bennett

Minister for Social Housing

22 October 2015
Speech

Opening Community Housing Aotearoa’s 2015 Conference

E nga mana, e nga reo, e te iwi o te motu, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.

Ladies and Gentlemen.

It’s a pleasure to be here this morning and to open Community Housing Aotearoa’s 2015 Conference.

I want to take a moment to acknowledge the work your organisation does on behalf of not only the community housing sector, but the thousands of New Zealanders who you serve and are in many ways your family.

I don’t think there has ever been a more exciting time to be involved in housing in New Zealand.

For the first time you have three Ministers working to increase the supply and quality right through the housing continuum, from emergency and social housing to affordable.

I think the very fact that we’re talking about housing as a continuum says something, and is a reflection of the kind of aspirational Government this is.

So while that wider work to increase supply right across the continuum is crucial, today I am going to focus on social housing.

We’re putting tenants and families at the centre of what we do.

Because fundamentally, we believe it is the State’s role to enable New Zealanders to get ahead and lead positive, independent lives.

But for many vulnerable New Zealanders, it is incredibly tough to see they can lead more prosperous lives, which is why all of us, as leaders in our community, must remain relentlessly ambitious for them.

This Government has made some big gains in the metrics that are a very real measure of the direction our society is heading.

Over the last three years, the number of children in welfare dependent homes has reduced by 55,000 – that’s equivalent to the population of Rotorua.

Reoffending has dropped by around 10 percent in the last three years.

And we have the lowest number of teen parents on the benefit since 1988 – a time when I was one of them.

There remains though, a group of New Zealanders entrenched in pretty tough circumstances that – at best – some or all of our social services reach, and at worst, slip completely through the cracks.

You know who these people are, and so do we.

A lot of you work with them on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, Governments of all stripes have been behind the 8 ball on this one for quite literally decades.

Because of both entrenched institutional silos and technological deficiencies on the part of Government agencies, we have not been fit for purpose in knowing who our customers are, what social services they need most, and when.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have made great strides catching up in the last seven years.

Initiatives like Welfare and Education Reforms, Whanau Ora, Children’s Teams, and Healthy Families initiatives are making a real difference.

ends

© Scoop Media