Judith Collins has admitted she wants beleaguered Housing Minister Phil Twyford to keep his job - kind of.
KiwiBuild is off to a rocky start, falling well short of its initial construction and sales targets. The Government has since ditched the interim targets, rather than risk the embarrassment of not meeting them.
The 100,000 homes in 10 years overall target remains, however.
Appearing on The AM Show on Friday Collins - National's housing spokesperson - reiterated her ongoing call for Twyford to resign the portfolio.
But she made a small admission.
"There's a half of me that says 'please no'," she told host Duncan Garner, fearing that if he departed, someone better might take over.
"Then there's the other half that says 'oh for goodness' sake, the country actually does need somebody competent at the job'."
Twyford used to appear alongside Collins on The AM Show's weekly political panel but stopped about this time last year. Labour MP Michael Wood had the job for a while, but in recent months it's been Kris Faafoi who's fronted to take on the firebrand Papakura MP.
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In the past month, Twyford has had to defend the Government's purchase of seven unbought KiwiBuild homes, refused to confirm or deny rumours the Government will drop the 100,000 target, and turned down interviews with RNZ and NZME on the struggling scheme.
Newshub.
