{"id":17796,"date":"2026-06-30T05:18:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T17:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=17796"},"modified":"2026-06-30T05:18:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T17:18:04","slug":"prime-minister-christopher-luxon-admits-he-didnt-know-there-was-no-night-shelter-for-rough-sleepers-in-auckland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=17796","title":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Christopher Luxon admits he didn&#8217;t know there was no night shelter for rough sleepers in Auckland"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"font-serif-text leading-normal mb-12\">\n<p>Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has admitted he did not know there was no night shelter in Auckland for people sleeping rough.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text leading-normal mb-12\">\n<p>His weekly post-cabinet media conference followed revelations Ministry of Social Development staff have performance targets to reduce emergency housing numbers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"py-8\">\n<div class=\"flex flex-col gap-12 pb-12 -mx-16 w-screen md:mx-0 md:w-full\">\n<div class=\"relative aspect-video\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text leading-normal mb-12\">\n<p>Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka has spoken with the Ministry of Social Development&#8217;s boss following the revelations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text leading-normal mb-12\">\n<p>TVNZ&#8217;s\u00a0<em class=\"italic\">Q+A<\/em>\u00a0yesterday revealed MSD managers were assessed on keeping emergency housing numbers below the government&#8217;s targets, and could be pulled into line if they were not.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text leading-normal mb-12\">\n<p>Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson told\u00a0<em class=\"italic\">Morning Report<\/em>\u00a0that was &#8220;incredibly distressing&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text leading-normal mb-12\">\n<p>&#8220;[Staff are] perversely incentivised to say no,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pt-4 mb-16\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"h-screen max-h-[calc(10rem*var(--base-multiplier))] min-h-[calc(6rem*var(--base-multiplier))]\">\n<section class=\"@container\/queue-media relative w-full h-full bg-surface-muted\" aria-label=\"Audio player - Auckland City Missioner discusses emergency housing statistics\">\n<div class=\"flex h-full\">\n<div class=\"@[16.25em]\/queue-media:block bg-theme-primary relative hidden aspect-square h-full flex-none overflow-hidden\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"absolute h-full w-full object-cover\" src=\"https:\/\/media.rnztools.nz\/rnz\/image\/upload\/s--lVU7MeAq--\/c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,h_100,q_auto,w_100\/v1775770073\/4JQECDT_morning_report_internal_cover_2026_png?_a=BACCd2AD\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" aria-hidden=\"true\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"@container\/queue-media-content h-full w-full\">\n<div class=\"flex h-full w-full flex-grow flex-col justify-between overflow-hidden p-8\">\n<div class=\"text-foreground-primary flex flex-col gap-4 light-theme\">\n<h2 class=\"order-2 mb-4 text-pretty line-clamp-2 text-sm\"><span class=\"block\">Auckland City Missioner discusses emergency housing statistics<\/span><\/h2>\n<div class=\"order-1 flex items-baseline gap-8 text-xs leading-snug\"><span class=\"font-sans-semibold line-clamp-1\">Morning Report<\/span><span class=\"whitespace-nowrap tabular-nums text-xs text-foreground-primary\"><time datetime=\"2026-06-29\">29 June 2026<\/time><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"flex items-center justify-between gap-4\">\n<div class=\"@[6.5em]\/queue-media-content:gap-8 flex flex-grow items-center gap-4\"><button class=\"group\/button font-sans-semibold flex-shrink-0 items-center justify-center gap-8 whitespace-nowrap rounded-full border leading-normal flex h-24 w-24 [&amp;&gt;svg]:h-[calc(1.8rem*var(--base-multiplier))] [&amp;&gt;svg]:w-[calc(1.8rem*var(--base-multiplier))] hover:bg-surface-hover hover:text-white dark-theme bg-surface-accent text-foreground-primary border-transparent\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Play Auckland City Missioner discusses emergency housing statistics\"><\/button><\/p>\n<div class=\"@container\/queue-add-button inline-flex w-full\"><button class=\"group\/button font-sans-semibold flex-shrink-0 items-center justify-center gap-8 whitespace-nowrap rounded-full border leading-normal flex gap-[calc(0.5rem*var(--base-multiplier))] px-8 pb-[calc(0.25rem*var(--base-multiplier))] pt-[calc(0.15rem*var(--base-multiplier))] text-sm hover:bg-surface-hover hover:text-white light-theme border-stroke-strong text-foreground-primary bg-transparent hover:border-surface-hover @[4.38em]\/queue-add-button:flex hidden\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Queue Auckland City Missioner discusses emergency housing statistics\"><span class=\"inline-flex items-center gap-[calc(0.3rem*var(--base-multiplier))]\"><span class=\"font-sans-normal\">Queue<\/span><\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<div class=\"sr-only\" aria-live=\"polite\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ml-auto flex h-full items-center gap-4\">\n<div class=\"relative -top-4 right-2 h-24 w-24\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text leading-normal mb-12\">\n<p>Potaka told\u00a0<em class=\"italic\">Q+A\u00a0<\/em>he had not been aware of the performance targets, and could see how they could be interpreted as an incentive to deny people emergency housing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text leading-normal mb-12\">\n<p>He told RNZ on Monday he had since discussed it with MSD chief executive Debbie Power.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text leading-normal mb-12\">\n<p>&#8220;How MSD manages the performance of its staff are operational matters for the agency,&#8221; Potaka said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text leading-normal mb-12\">\n<p>&#8220;Emergency housing is intended to be a last resort.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text leading-normal mb-12\">\n<p>Luxon backed Potaka&#8217;s leadership, saying he set MSD&#8217;s direction, while the ministry was responsible for delivering the government&#8217;s targets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text leading-normal mb-12\">\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s done an exceptionally good job getting kids out of emergency housing and into permanent, warm, dry homes, that&#8217;s a really good thing,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text leading-normal mb-12\">\n<p>&#8220;You&#8217;d have to say, hand on heart, this is a better place to be than where we were when we started.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-serif-text leading-normal mb-12\">\n<p>Luxon said ministry bosses were expected to meet targets without gaming them.<\/p>\n<p>rnz<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has admitted he did not know there was no night shelter in Auckland for people sleeping rough. His weekly post-cabinet media conference followed revelations Ministry of Social Development staff have performance targets to reduce emergency housing numbers. Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka has spoken with the Ministry of Social Development&#8217;s boss [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17796"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17798,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17796\/revisions\/17798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}