37807 (2026). Hon Kieran McAnulty to the Minister of Housing

37807 (2026). Hon Kieran McAnulty to the Minister of Housing: Further to his reply to Question 674 (2026), how many frontline staff in roles with direct customer contact were employed by Kāinga Ora on 30 June 2025, on 30 June 2026 and on 31 July 2026?

Hon Chris Bishop: Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities advises me that the figures for 30 June 2025 are not directly comparable with the figures for 30 June 2026 and 31 July 2026 due to a change in the definition of a frontline role. As at 30 June 2025, Kāinga Ora classified frontline and back-office roles based on cost centres. Under this approach, support roles within frontline business groups were also classified as frontline staff. Using this definition, 1,824 frontline staff were employed as at 30 June 2025. From November 2025, Kāinga Ora changed its definition of a frontline role. Since then, only roles with direct customer contact have been classified as frontline, with all other support roles classified as back-office roles regardless of where they sit within the organisation. Using the current definition, 786 staff were employed in roles with direct customer contact as at 30 June 2026, and 772 staff were employed in roles with direct customer contact as at 31 July 2026. This excludes people working in customer channels teams who talk to customers over phone and email.