Australasian Housing Institute Awards Ceremony

Thank you. I’m delighted to be here today to meet you and talk to you, and of course to present this year’s Outstanding Achievement Award.

Affordable, well-planned housing has a wonderful effect on people's lives.  Good housing helps to build vibrant and supportive communities and provide children with a safe, healthy environment in which to to grow up.

That’s the kind of affordable social housing my Government is determined to provide, and it’s great to see organisations like the Australasian Housing Institute (AHI) recognise its value.

Five years ago AHI, an organisation dedicated to excellence in affordable housing, had the foresight to recognise those who achieve excellence in social housing with these awards.

They formally recognise and reward excellence in social housing professionals – the people who design and maintain social housing.  Both individuals and teams are recognised, innovation is promoted and celebrated, and social housing success stories are showcased.

The awards go to housing professionals who are judged to have made a significant and lasting difference to tenants or service users, their colleagues and their profession.

It’s professionals of this quality that we will call on as New Zealanders enter a new era of affordable social housing that meets their needs – in other words, there will be the right homes for the right people in the right place.

Creating a new approach to affordable social housing is something my Government is determined to deliver on.  We already have $15 billion invested in state houses, and spend $2 billion every year on financial assistance for tenants – and we want to be sure that money is well spent.

We’ve championed a reform programme for social housing because we can see that what was happening in the social housing area wasn’t delivering the best outcomes for New Zealanders.

That’s why we’ve embarked on a long-term programme aimed at transforming affordable social housing for people who need it.

This programme will mean that social housing will be delivered by a bigger, more diverse and responsive range of providers.  These will include a number of significant and capable non-Government housing providers, alongside Housing New Zealand.

This leads me to paying a much-deserved tribute to our current major social housing provider, Housing New Zealand, for its work in Christchurch.

Let’s remember what Housing New Zealand was faced with following the big earthquakes: around 95% of their 6127 properties in Christchurch sustained some sort of earthquake damage.

In that highly stressful and miserable time after the major earthquakes, Housing New Zealand moved quickly to re-house tenants whose homes had become unsafe due to the earthquakes. They also quickly dealt with more than 7000 urgent health and safety jobs, and provided rent relief to all tenants who had reduced services as a result of the earthquakes.

This month, Housing New Zealand has been able to turn to the future, and I’m delighted that work has begun to repair 212 of the vacant homes.

The social housing situation in Christchurch and in other parts of the country experiencing housing difficulties, like Auckland,- will continue to be challenging.  But, as with all challenges, it carries the promise of an opportunity. 

That opportunity is to produce affordable social housing that turns its back on mistakes of the past, learns from what has worked well in New Zealand, Australia and elsewhere, and produces a new social housing model that builds a bright future for all New Zealanders.

And now, enough from me, here’s the really interesting bit! It’s a real privilege to be presenting the New Zealand Outstanding Achievement Award in the first place, but I’m particularly pleased because this is so well-deserved and earned in such extraordinary circumstances.

The award goes jointly to Housing New Zealand Corporation’s  Canterbury team and the Christchurch City Council City Housing and Community Facilities team. Congratulations!

Both these organisations have been absolutely outstanding in what their people have done on the ground for people in distress.

The citation for the award says that it is made for:

• excellent performance in tough  times
• invaluable support to tenants and community
• teams’ commitment to their work
• co-ordination with other departments and agencies.

As their Minister I’ve already spoken about the HNZC response. I can add that I am extremely proud of the people in this award-winning team.

The Christchurch City Council’s team faced the same or similar difficulties, that we who weren’t involved can only guess at. Despite their own trauma they established a range of initiatives that provided their tenants the best possible service, dealing with an enormous range of problems in the face of the obvious communication difficulties. Their work was outstanding.

They’re not the only ones, of course. ComCare does a great job; they are looking after about 350 people at any one time by providing housing or related assistance and there are many other agencies helping out.

Thank you again for inviting me along, and congratulations again to Housing New Zealand and the Christchurch City Council teams.