Govt fiddles real needs to suit itself

LABOUR MPs were in town last week, doing a bit of graft at the coalface as opposed to desperately trying to conjure up policies or unveil scandals that will get some traction with voters.

Annette King, Trevor Mallard and Co managed to get unwanted supermarket bread back to the Hawera food bank, showing that getting back to grassroots is always a good thing for our politicians.

Labour's housing spokesman Phil Twyford was among those who met with representatives of social agencies, where he got a rundown on Whanganui's "housing crisis".

Steve Treloar, from Prisoner Rehabilitation, talked of the pressure on the rental property market, the June floods pushing up rents, and the struggle for former prisoners to get decent, affordable accommodation - something that would be pretty fundamental to keeping them from reoffending.

Tim Metcalfe from Jigsaw Whanganui reported how hard it was to get a state house.

Contrast this apparent need with the official line from Housing New Zealand, which has told us there is not much demand for state housing in Whanganui, and that is one reason it is selling off its homes.

And then last Friday we had Minister for Social Housing Paula Bennett telling us: "The number of people on the Social Housing Register has again declined, the result of a more targeted approach to meeting individual needs."

It may just be me, but something doesn't add up here.

At the frontline they are saying we need more state housing, but officialdom is saying we need less.

Am I being overly cynical by suggesting that matching the criteria to qualify for a state house has deliberately been made more difficult, thus creating the illusion of less demand?