Hayes John: Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Hayes John: Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:641;Page:11100] 
JOHN HAYES (National—Wairarapa) 
: 
 This motion is an abuse of the Government’s power. The suspension of the Standing Orders is a draconian provision because it allows the Government to override the rules of this Parliament. I am absolutely— 
Shane Jones 
: The sovereignty of Parliament it is just changing. 
JOHN HAYES 
: Would the member like a violin? I say to Mr Jones that I think this situation we are in shows a botch-up in the Government’s legislative programme in that it has to resort to such heavy-handed tools. I am dumbfounded that the third parties in this Chamber including I tell Pita Paraone New Zealand First and the Green Party have agreed to such an abusive process when they claim their role is to check the Government’s abuse of power. 
There is no reason that these changes albeit embarrassing I say to Mr Cosgrove cannot go through the first the second and the third reading processes because the Government has until 30 November to consider this legislation.  This motion is a sign of a legislative mess in the building laws. This is the third time we have had to make changes to the Building Act which have been in the same fashion as we are debating tonight and they are about to be rushed through—the third time since the Act was passed in a big hurry in 2004—and much of the Act is still unimplemented. These changes are being tagged on to another mess— 
Shane Jones 
: Parliamentary innovation—it takes time. 
JOHN HAYES 
: This is the third attempt I tell Mr Jones that his Government has made to fix the laws addressing the problems of leaky homes. I think it must be seen in the context of the total building law debacle highlighted recently by my colleague Mr Key that the level of homeownership dropped 5 percent between 2001 and 2006 to its lowest level in 50 years. And the Government is asking us to split this bill. 
Home affordability as in the ratio of cost to income is now the worst of any OECD Government. And the Government is asking us to split this bill. Interest rates have gone up by 6.7 percent since 1999 to 10.4 percent in 2007 and house prices have doubled from an average cost of $172000 to $348000. That means that the cost of a 75 percent mortgage has risen from $166 a week to $533 a week. And the Government wants us to split the bill. The Building Act of 2004 has resulted in a trebling of paperwork. And the Government wants us to split the bill. 
This motion amounts to a comedy of errors. It has been rushed through as I have said. In 2005 we wanted to bring in changes to fix the then Weathertight Homes Resolution Service and to change its name to the Weathertight Homes Tribunal. We are going through change after change only to find that the latest fix still has problems. So we now have the Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Amendment Bill to fix those problems. 
Hon Rick Barker 
: Put this on a tape; it’s giving us insomnia. 
JOHN HAYES 
: It is unbelievable to the Labour list member living in Hastings that we have to find a split in this bill so that we can now fix another of Mr Cosgrove’s errors. It is unbelievable that after the first and second readings and the Committee stage the Government is still in a mad rush and wants to suspend the Standing Orders so that it can again split this legislation. Clayton Cosgrove’s message to builders—and he has repeated it like a Hare Krishna chant—is “Do it once do it right”. It is a pity that the Government does not apply the same rule to itself. Thank you.