Is there anyone actually running this Government?

Newshub reports:

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will review the penalties applied to KiwiBuild buyers who sell their home within three years if there is any hint of abuse.

Housing Minister Phil Twyford backed down on KiwiBuild rule breakers, lessening the penalty they face for flipping homes.

It was a big call to secretly change the penalty for selling before living in the home for three years from giving up 100 percent of a house sale profit to just 30 percent.

Newshub can reveal he didn’t even run that past the Prime Minister, and understands she only found out about it while watching our TV story. 

This is a very telling admission.

The change from 100% penalty to just 30% was a major policy change and the Prime Minister found out about it while watching TV!

Could you imagine this happening when Helen Clark or John Key was Prime Minister?

A policy change like this would normally go to Cabinet or a Cabinet Committee. Even if there was delegated authority to Ministers, you would expect the Prime Minister to be in the loop on such a significant change.

Even worse not only wasn’t she consulted, she wasn’t even informed in advance. How dysfunctional most the offices be, for the PM to not even be give a heads up?

“Myself, Grant Robertson and Shane Jones,” was Mr Twyford’s response to who made the call.

Ms Ardern is unimpressed and ready to review it.

“If we find that there are cases where breaches are happening, then we will review whether or not that’s an appropriate penalty,” she told Newshub.

Mr Twyford backed his boss, saying: “If it was happening a lot, then we might re-look at it – and I think that’s a pretty reasonable approach.”

But it won’t need to happen “a lot” for Ms Ardern to take action.

“Even a small number we’d want to go and have a look,” she says.

So who is actually running the Government?