Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

Well we learned yesterday that state housing tenants call the shots at Kāinga Ora, in that they know they won’t be evicted so they do whatever they want. Figures showed despite 10,000 complaints, only three had been evicted in 18 months. So, bad behaviour rules the roost there. Then we learn also this week that gangs clearly run Ōpōtiki. Again, they know they can do whatever they want, and an entire community will just shut down around them. The fact this is happening in our country, in 2023, beggars belief. And yet still the PM tells us NZ is safe. Tell that to the Filipino family with the 12-year-old daughter who got viciously beaten outside an Auckland North Shore McDonalds at 1.30pm on a Saturday afternoon.   She’s been left traumatized, can’t go outside, doesn’t want to return to school, required hospital treatment and is suffering distress form the impact of her assault. The family ‘moved to New Zealand in August last year, and had “never” experienced incidents like this in the Philippines,’ they said.