Kāinga Ora job cuts: About 330 roles to go as agency faces financial scrutiny
- Kāinga Ora is cutting about 330 jobs, following previous cuts of 232 roles.
- Chief executive Andrew McKenzie resigned in July, receiving a $365,000 payout.
- Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Housing Minister Chris Bishop have called for clearer strategy and better financial management.
Remember how the deal to slash Kainga Ora was made over a text message between Bishop and English…
Revealed: The simple texts between Sir Bill English and Chris Bishop that led to Kāinga Ora review
Newshub can reveal Sir Bill English was signed on to head a half-million-dollar review of Kāinga Ora through a couple of simple text messages with the Minister – weeks before he even got Cabinet signoff for the review.
Kāinga Ora’s response to the scathing report said they were hardly consulted and Newshub’s obtained text messages showing it was the Minister’s preference they had no involvement.
Billboard duty with Sir Bill and Housing Minister Chris Bishop back in 2017 – six years on, out with the staple guns and in with the calculators. Sir Bill was appointed to undertake a review of Kāinga Ora which, when completed, was highly critical.
“Kāinga Ora is underperforming and not financially viable,” Bishop said.
Newshub can reveal how the former Prime Minister came to head the half-million-dollar probe.
Here is the text exchange:
Sir Bill: Chris will there be a review of KO.
Bishop: We are going to do an independent review into finances, performance, cost, etc. Commence it asap, hopefully get terms of reference and reviewers sorted before Christmas.
Sir Bill: I could help with that.
Bishop: Excellent lets do that.
This is a Government of Landlords, by Landlords, in the interest of Landlords and all it took was a couple of text messages to kill off State Housing.
National screw over first time home buyers by scrapping the $60million so they can afford the $2.9billion for rich landlords and they took from front line housing services to pay for Bill English to do his hit job on Kaianga Ora…
the Government is unapologetic about its tough choices on housing, including paying Sir Bill English to review Kāinga Ora using $500,000 from the fund that pays for transitional housing – urgent accommodation for those who don’t have anywhere else to go.
“I think it was done exceptionally well, exceptionally quickly by three experts at a very reasonable cost,” Luxon said of the review.
But McAnulty said about 80 transitional houses “were sacrificed to pay for the review. It’s… poor”.
…this report has been overseen by fanatcal Catholic fundamentalist and former National Party leader Bill English, who has championed social investment which is a right wing ideological experiment using big data to undermine universalism to fund just the cases that cost the State the most.
ImpactLab is a social investment company that Bill English has founded, is run by his daughter and just had New National MP Emma Chatterton leave them to join the Government.
How the living Christ Bill English can get away with reviewing Kaianga Ora using money for transitional housing, pronounce a massive debt problem and offer his company up as the solution is all a tad beyond me.
As we catch our breath over the latest public housing amputation, we hear massive cut backs in science…
One in five GNS staff could be laid off in latest public service cut
GNS Science, a government research department responsible for monitoring natural hazards, has told staff that one in five of them could be laid off.
The restructure proposal was announced to GNS workers on Tuesday afternoon, confirming that 103 positions were on the chopping block. Of those roles, scientists were set to be cut.
GNS employs 528 people. They work to study natural hazards and advise the Government, public and businesses about those hazards.
It operates the GeoNet website, and monitors hazards including earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides and tsunamis.
It has scientists working to innovate energy production, and building a better understanding of changes in the natural world and potential solutions to climate change.
…and now the Māori language…
Te Pāti Māori warns Govt of ‘million Māori’ wrath over $30m cut to Te Ahu o te reo Māori programme
- Flat Bush Primary principal Banapa Avatea and the union representing teachers are “extremely disappointed” by the $30 million cut to the Te Ahu o te Reo Māori programme.
- Post Primary Teachers’ Association president Chris Abercrombie called the cut “short-sighted” and disputed claims the programme lacked impact.
- Labour’s associate education spokeswoman Willow-Jean Prime said cutting resources for te reo Māori undermines its value in education.
…don’t tell me we don’t have the money for these things, we borrowed $14billion for tax cuts, we have $3.1billion for landlord tax loops holes, we have $5million for military boot camps that don’t work, we have hundreds of millions for the tobacco industry, we have tens of millions for ACTs Red Tape Palace, we have $4million for ACTs Treaty Referendum Bill (that will never pass), we have a billion to cut up the IRex Ferry deal – we have money to burn when it is an ideological vanity project for the Right, but scientists, public housing and the Māori language can all go fuck themselves under this hard right, racist, climate denying, beneficiary bashing, disabled abusing Government.
At some stage we need as a people to be shocked by what we have allowed the Right to mutate us into in less than a year.
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Just another dose of bull shit from these people .Is anyone adding up how much money they are actually wasting .None of these projects that have been started and now wont be finished will give any return for the money already spent will they ?.What use is a half built hospital to any one ,and we will have two ,Whangarei and Dunedin .Then there is the half built ports for the ferries and the part built boats that were to be delivered 2026 .The list goes on and on just look at the housing projects that were started and now the land sits vacant growing weeds and homing rats .
Mean while jobs are going down the drain all over the country with 600 announced today and more yesterday adding up to close to 1000 in two days .At least Luxon admitted on one news earlier in the week that the economy was poorly run and performing badly .
I guess he will be blaming Labour for the poor performing Economy.
These white people are attacking Maori daily because Maori have an identity that they are proud of .Where as white people can only identify as being decended from a group of land thieves and murdering thugs .So the plan is to destroy as much of Maori culture and well being as they can .I think their plan is too late as they are soon going to reap some very serious consquences.
“Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Housing Minister Chris Bishop have called for clearer strategy and better financial management.”
A clear strategy …. Fund and force Kainga Ora to ensure 90 percent of the population own their own home.
Does 90 percent home ownership align with National Party values? It used too.
They are making shit up to suit their narrative. This becomes more and more obvious week by week. No wonder they are doing their best to not front the media. Complete shit show.
Yep and the media are not hunting them down either…they are getting away with blue murder..
Luxon, being the gutless wonder chicken that he is, is running for cover at every opportunity…won’t front the media in the foyer of the Beehive , does fuck all media standups, instead prefering to make absolute toe curlingly embarassing infantile tik tok rubbish videos.
Where do the delusional think that this is all going to end up … because there is not 1 iota, not 1 scrap of evidence, that suggests that it will be nothing but a disaster at every measure…
WOW this is amazing what I am seeing with the COC they are either truly transformative or they don’t actually know what the f**k they are doing. Looks like Slash & Burn Mentality IMHO ???
Bill and Bish don’t like debt being used for long term investment in public housing, or the jobs this creates for builders, trades people, young apprentices and in turn the multiplier effect this then has throughout the wider economy.
No problem though with the govt racking up debt and running deficits to enable the $2.9 billion tax rebates for Landlords, and the $2.3 billion p.a. in accommodation supplements, aka annual landlord subsidies which puts an artificially high floor under sky high landlord rents.
Real genius at work.
yep never seen a house built without debt in my 70 years
It’s the fricken Maaori’s, that have caused all this trouble in NZ. Unbelievable the stick they are getting from this COC.
Some past history of Bill English, Roman Catholic and near to last of 11 children. He probably thinks he knows all about overcrowding – had to bunk in with brother say. and perhaps two younger ones. Well fed, warm bedclothes, roof that didn’t leak etc.
Editorial: Bill English wise to get religion out of the way
NZ Herald
https://www.nzherald.co.nz › New Zealand
12 Dec 2016 — While he was an active Catholic and proud of it, he said he would not be using his position to promote socially conservative changes in New Zealand.
What is a socially conservative when one sees it close up?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_English#Personal_life
Post-prime ministerial career
In 2018, English joined the board of Australian conglomerate, Wesfarmers. English serves in Chairmanships of Mount Cook Alpine Salmon, Impact Lab Ltd and Manawanui Support Ltd. He is also a director of The Instillery, Centre for Independent Studies and The Todd Corporation Limited, and is a member of the Impact Advisory Group of Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets.
In mid December 2023, the National-led coalition government appointed English to lead an independent review into housing agency Kāinga Ora’s financial situation, procurement, and asset management.[81] On 20 May 2024, English’s review found that Kāinga Ora exploited its easy access to Government credit and excessively borrowed without exercising fiscal discipline.
What useful experience and particular training has English and his ilk had. in running the country and assuming the power to make decisions about others’ personal life?
Jobs going daily 1000 in two days with the closing of the meat works as well .The sign of a poorly run economy according to Luxon .A clearing difference in the way employment has gone since these clowns took over,gone from record lows to heading for record highs .The result will be even lower tax take and record unemployment and wellfare payments .Hence the reason they are scrambling around cutting building hospitals and schools and sinking freight moving across cook straight .
Kainga ora.
Nationals’ recession has just killed Timaru, meanwhile the man child Simeon Brown announce an increase in speed that kills.
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