The first actions announced today by Minister Woods and Minister Sepuloni are a great start.

I called for the Government to focus its attention on Rotorua and to have a presence here on the ground because of the untenable situation of mothers and children living in motels. That was the burning platform to get a priority focus for our district.

These first steps are the building blocks to addressing the long-term housing pipeline challenges that we need to solve here in Rotorua and I will continue to strongly advocate and work with the Government to gain those solutions for our community.

I was in contact with Minister Woods last night and she has assured me that we will continue to work on Rotorua solutions together. The work we are doing with the Taskforce has enabled us to get Government attention and now the process has begun to get control over the previously ad hoc arrangement with motels.

Everybody agrees that the current motel type accommodation is not the long-term solution for housing. We need safe, suitable homes for people, for whānau, and that is what we need to really focus on from here.

I will continue to advocate for Rotorua and the best interests of our community by working with the Government. Working in partnership has been and will remain the way to get this done.

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