Tumultuous time for Kāinga Ora as leadership cleaned out

Staff at public housing agency Kāinga Ora are facing a tumultuous period, as the Government announces the organisation's chief executive will be out in months — with its board also expected to have a major shake-up.

Chief executive Andrew McKenzie will leave his position by the end of October after five board members finished their tenures yesterday. A new chairperson was appointed to the agency, last month, with the Government expected to soon appoint new directors.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon addressed McKenzie's departure today.

"We're interested in results and outcomes. Then, the management and the board are the people that deliver those results and outcomes," he said.

"We've changed the chairman. We're refreshing the board. And importantly, we're getting a turn-around plan in place by the end of the year."

A former director told 1News that a recent coalition Government-commissioned review into the agency was "a complete overreaction". The former director also said a group of housing experts would be assembled to monitor the Government's work.

The scathing review, carried out by former prime minister Sir Bill English, suggested Kāinga Ora wasn't financially viable — a conclusion strongly rejected by the board.

Speaking anonymously to 1News, a board member said: "[Andrew Mckenzie] was put in the impossible position of not being supported by the ministers.

"If you don't have their confidence, then it's almost impossible for the chief executive."

Luxon responded to the suggestion his Government's review was an overreaction.

"I don't think it's an overreaction when you look at the debt that was being racked up and was likely to be racked up, when you think about the assets that were sitting there and how they are managed," he told media.

Andrew McKenzie took over the agency in 2016, having overseen the building of large-scale social housing projects during his time at the top.

But, with the Government looking to reduce Kāinga Ora's role in housing, new board chairman Simon Moutter said the chief executive position would also be scaled back.

"Mr McKenzie and I have agreed that he will leave the organisation at the end of October this year and that his departure will be treated as a redundancy consistent with the terms of his employment agreement," he said in a statement.

McKenzie has been one of the highest-paid chief executives in the public sector.

His early exit would amount to a six-month pay-out of about $365,000.

Green Party social development spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March said the coalition was undermining the building of public housing.

"This is a Government that is not investing adequately in Kāinga Ora. It's undermining Kāinga Ora at every opportunity," he said.

"The Government effectively put in charge a guy who didn't like state housing to review our state housing agency, and produce a scathing report. It's not surprising that the people at the top are now basically feeling like they're being thrown under the bus."

Meanwhile, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the Government had no plans to drastically increase state housing stock.

"This Government has no plan to build houses at anywhere near the rate of the previous government, and that’s a tragedy for New Zealand," he said.

"Labour built more houses than any other government since the 1950s, through Kāinga Ora. This meant more people with a permanent roof over their heads.

"If the previous National government had been building homes at that rate, rather than selling them off, we would’ve almost cleared the housing waitlist.”

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