Mike's Minute: Accountability comes to the emergency housing sector

You can argue a lot about what the Government has announced this week, the school lunches, the military-style boot camps, and yesterday's housing shake up.  But they have one critical advantage. What they are addressing, indisputably, has not worked under the other Government's view of the world.  The school lunch programme is hundreds of millions of dollars of waste.  The crime rate got hopelessly out of control, especially among young people and the poverty figures did not improve, in fact they went backwards.  It is a demonstrable failure in a variety of areas, which is why in part we have a new Government, and a new Government gets to have a crack at these issues and do it their way.  Emergency housing is arguably the biggest disgrace of all.  One million dollars a day spent, places like Rotorua ruined by reputational damage - and after years of it are we any better off? No.  So, we've got a new way and the critical part, and the bit that gives this lot the best chance of success, is getting the private sector involved.  If ideology was on display at its most inept, it was this idea that the Labour Government had that they are the ones who could build all the houses and meet all the demand.  They couldn’t and they didn’t.  The rigour went by the wayside years ago and the expectation on the tenants was long forgotten.  Behaviour fell, issues arose, contributions that were supposed to be made never were by way of rent, no one got evicted and nearly no one got held to account. It is a shocking, embarrassing, cataclysmic disgrace.  So, a change.  Put the worst to the top of the list.  Bring in accountability. Have you made an effort? Have you avoided paying your share? Have you caused trouble? It's not onerous by way of expectation I wouldn’t have thought.  The private sector is being called in to do what they do best - supply.  Is it a magic bullet? Of course not  But it's hard to believe it isn't going to be a marked and impressive improvement on the social stain Labour called a policy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.