HNZ chief to make conference details public

Every conference Housing New Zealand has held over the past decade will be made public, chief executive Lesley McTurk says.

She has promised to trawl through the records after further revelations of conferences at swanky venues.

The corporation revealed yesterday its property improvement team spent more than a quarter of a million dollars on six conferences at expensive resorts.

It has told Housing Minister Maryan Street there won't be any more at those locations because "reasonable caution in spending" will be observed and "high profile venues" are off the list.

The Government has been embarrassed by disclosures this week of extravagant conference spending, and National has made the most of it by recalling a pledge by Prime Minister Helen Clark in 1999 that there would be "no more squandering money on luxury resorts".

She said that after another government department, Winz (now Work and Income) staged a spectacular conference with a price tag of $235,000, only slightly less than the $253,274 cost of the six that HNZ has held.

Winz chief executive at the time, Christine Rankin, did not have her contract renewed.

Only two of the HNZ conferences had been revealed -- one at Tongariro Lodge this month and another at Hotel du Vin in 2003 -- but yesterday the corporation released the full list:

* September 2002, Huka Village, Taupo. Attendance 67, cost $41,039;

* October 2003, Hotel du Vin, between Auckland and Hamilton. Attendance 75, cost $36,303;

* February 2005, Huka Village, Taupo. Attendance 89, cost $44,171;

* February 2006, Blue Baths, Rotorua. Attendance 91, cost $37,916;

* February 2007, Huka village, Taupo. Attendance 98, cost $41,114; and

* May 2008, Tongariro Lodge, Attendance 94, cost $52,731.

Ms McTurk said she had initiated a review of staff development which would include the use of conferences.

She said it would also deliver details of the number and cost of all the conferences HNZ has held over the past decade.

"My intention is to make public information about any other past conferences at the conclusion of the review," she said.

National's Phil Heatley has questioned how the conferences in expensive resorts look to the tenants of State houses.

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