Nice Mr Twyford claims his motley crew have Housing New Zealand ‘on steroids’. I’m not sure about that, but I’m prepared to believe the gentleman himself is a user, in view of his exhibiting some of the side effects of the medication; he seems to be suffering both narrow vision and nervousness.
Trying to distract from the Kiwifarce albatross about his neck, Phil has set up a smoke machine and employed some mirrors to show how fantastic a house-builder he is. Never mind the results – look at these numbers, he says on Stuff, pointing to a clever graph which displays his building prowess. Unfortunately for him, the largest increase came in the 2017-18 year as a result of Nationals building drive, which he concedes. “Twyford was clear about the fact that the increase in building capacity began before he became minister.”
Not to be out-shone, Mr Twyford simply introduced a new tint to the bar-graph. The beigey bits are not actual houses, they are contracts. You can’t live in a contract, and houses under construction are extremely unlikely to be counted as completed in the 18 days before HNZ year-end.
Phil’s graph is a stretch of the imagination, and the truth, like everything that this government announces.