Kainga Ora staff face uncertain Christmas as job cuts loom

Friday, 5 December 2025

The Government’s social housing agency is set to cut 10 roles from its ministerial team, with staff to be given their redundancy notices in the week before Christmas.

It comes after a major reset saw hundreds of roles slashed in the past 18 months to regulate the agency’s spending.

In November, affected staff received a change proposal to shrink the Ministerial Services team from 22 to 12 roles, cutting 12 positions while creating two new ones.

The formal redundancy notices are expected be issued from December 17, with the new structure to come into place at the end of January.

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The team manages core democratic functions such as Ministerial inquiries, Official Information Act requests and responses to Parliamentary Questions.

Kainga Ora chief executive Matt Crockett said the cuts would align the team with current work volumes and organisational priorities.

“Our focus is on supporting people with care and respect.”

Kainga Ora had significantly reshaped its workforce this year “to reflect our new, narrower focus on managing and providing social housing”, he said.

As the process is underway, Kainga Ora could not comment further.

Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said staff were given just nine days to provide feedback.

She said affected PSA members were “disgusted” at the time frame, which had come out of the blue and was “riding roughshod over the rights of workers and treating consultation as a tick box exercise”.

“They are facing an uncertain Christmas; unemployed in the tightest labour market in recent history.

“These staff members do critical work supplying information to their Minister. They’re a vital part of how our democracy functions.”

The Government landlord and developer has faced upheaval following a critical review led by former Prime Minister Sir Bill English. It found the agency to be not financially viable, with a lack of transparency and accountability, coupled with a poor understanding of tenant outcomes.

The year since June 2024 saw the agency pull 789 fulltime roles from its team.