Housing Minister Nick Smith has defended the quality of state houses following the death of a Housing New Zealand tenant from pneumonia.
Thirty-seven-year old Soesa Tovo died of cardio respiratory arrest in August last year, after repeated requests by family and health professionals to move him, his wife and his six children to a warm and dry property, the Paul Henry Show reported.
Housing New Zealand CEO Glen Sowry has apologised for the man's death and said there were "things we could have done better".
Despite this incident, Housing Minister Nick Smith said the general condition of state houses were better than those in the public sector and cited a "massive programme" that insulated 300,000 homes. However, Mr Tovo's home was not insulated and ceiling insulation was only installed after his death, the Paul Henry Show reported. The family still lived in the state house.
"There are lessons to be learned from these cases. If we sit here and pretend that we are going to be able to eliminate every case of where a person dies from respiratory illnesses or the like, they are kidding themselves," Dr Smith said.
