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Humiliation for Heatley

Wednesday 23rd of January 2013

But Housing Minister Phil Heatley had the double whammy this week when the Prime Minister whipped away his ministerial portfolio and handed it to back-from-exile Nick Smith.

It was quite an unexpected move. While Heatley hasn’t been an inspiring Housing Minister, he hasn’t been involved in anything of the magnitude of the damning Pike River Royal Commission report, which tarred Kate Wilkinson’s reputation.

But during his tenure, calls for action on housing affordability have got ever stronger as prices soared. The Government has looked to be sitting on its hands while young people were priced out of the market.

The Opposition has been able to get some fairly easy hits in and Labour’s policy of a building scheme on a grand scale has seemed to capture public imagination in a way that made National’s plans to encourage councils to open up more land look a bit weak.

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