Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Shock at size of NZ social housing spending

Updated at 6:34 am on 18 July 2012

Attendees at a recent global housing summit are reported to have been shocked by New Zealand's lack of spending on social housing - compared with other countries.

Victoria Kingi was part of a delegation of 35 representing Aotearoa at the World Indigenous Housing Conference in Vancouver last month.

She says attendees were told Australia is spending billions of dollars on building homes - with some of that money earmarked for first nation social housing providers.

Ms Kingi, of Nga Potiki, says delegates were stunned by New Zealand's small budget to provide homes for Maori.

She says when Associate Housing Minister Tariana Turia made her presentation, she prefaced her speech by saying she was embarrassed that her Government has set aside $3 million for housing Maori.

Victoria Kingi says that statement drew gasps from the auditorium and believes people were shocked and surprised by how little New Zealand spends on homes for tangata whenua.

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