NZ First: August 8th, 2018

Lillian Hanly speaks with Darroch Ball of NZ First because he was present in a select committee meeting at the end of last month which heard an admission from an auckland based property manager, Rachel Kann, that she routinely asks for bank statements. The committee was hearing submissions on the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill (No 2) to scrap letting fees. It’s become quite controversial not only because of the question of a breach of privacy, but also the way Rachel Kann talked about possible tenants. Here’s a quote, “They're paying somebody's mortgage and I see a lot of people who are low socio-economic and their bank statements literally will read, 'KFC, McDonalds, the dairy, KFC, McDonalds, court fine', trucks that they buy, goods that they can't afford. You know, I see a lot of mismanagement of money.” We haven’t had a chance to speak with Darroch yet so we start by hearing a bit about him.