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A northern iwi leader is denying he sideswiped the Government with his criticism of its state house sell-off.
Haami Piripi from Te Rarawa told TV3’s The Nation programme that if iwi were to becoming social housing providers, the market price of the houses should be zero because of the ongoing investment they would need to make in tenant families.
He says the programme seems to have upset some in government.
But Mr Piripi says it’s what the Iwi Leaders Group told Finance Minister Bill English and Prime Minister John Key when they met earlier in the year.
He says officials don’t seem to hear what iwi leaders are saying, and negotiations on buying the houses as a national iwi collective have got nowhere.
Labour’s housing spokesperson Phil Twyford says if the only way to make Mr English’s pet project work is to give billions of dollars of houses away, the policy is clearly a lemon.
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