Carter Chris: Building Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
Carter Chris: Building Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
[Volume:655;Page:5080] 
Hon CHRIS CARTER (Labour—Te Atatu) 
: 
 Between 2004 and 2005 I was privileged to be the Minister for Building Issues and the Minister responsible for the Department of Building and Housing. This bill introduced by the previous Labour Government is one that the Labour Party is supporting for the reasons that my colleague Clayton Cosgrove outlined earlier and that the Minister himself mentioned. The bill is about facilitating a more expedient and logical process in obtaining building consents. 
When I became Minister I met as one does with all the different sector groups. One of the consistent themes that came through from builders particularly those who were working across the wider Auckland region was the inconsistency that occurred in the consent process among different territorial authorities. I did as I guess my successors have done: I asked the officials to investigate what the process was all about and why there were those inconsistencies. They visited the different territorial authorities in Auckland to look at how long consents took to take place and the process around the way that building inspectors operated. There was an astonishing inconsistency and many of the complaints that we received were quite justified. Territorial authorities were able to be like that because there was not a regime around ensuring that efficient and effective processes took place. So this legislation is very important. 
One of the great debates that we had before both the 2005 and the 2008 elections was about the affordability of homes for people. Nothing can be a more important investment for a family or an individual than the buying of their home. Often it is the largest investment they will make in their lives. We debated at length in this Chamber the causes of the steep rise in house prices. The then Opposition the National Party took it to be the shortage of available land and those members were great proponents of extending out the urban limit in Auckland in particular so that more land would be freed up. As Minister I kept pointing out that there was a considerable amount of land already available but that speculators were sitting on it and I asked how we would force them to free up some of that land. 
I suspect that the Opposition and the then Government both knew that the reasons for the high prices of houses were complex and interrelated. They related not only to the price of land or the price of mortgages but also to building costs and the consent process is one of those building costs. One of the ways of making the cost of houses more affordable for individuals and families is to try to lower those costs. We looked at other things and not only at the consent process because in the total package of the cost of a home the consent is not large but it is nevertheless real. 
Building materials were another area that I felt as Minister for Building Issues we needed to look at more closely because there did seem to be quite an anomaly in the costs between building materials in Australia and those in New Zealand. In a higher-waged market building materials seemed to be cheaper. That was an area that we definitely needed to make more progress in and I am sorry that we had such a short time to do it in—certainly in the time that I was Minister. Of course my job changed after the election and I moved on to other things although one of them was being Minister of Housing. 
The bill is good; it sets up a speedy process. I know that it is not often in this Chamber we have a consensus from political parties about the usefulness of a bill. In a way the decision by the now National Government to take this Labour legislation and continue it through the House is something that we should all support because it is a multi-party approach to an issue that is very important for people. As I said a few minutes ago no asset is more significant in its purchase for a family or an individual than a home. 
Another area that I guess the Minister will be looking at is this whole area of affordability and I urge him to look again at this whole question of the costs of materials. That is another area where I feel an act of intervention or at least a message from Government to the building sector would be a powerful incentive to lower the costs associated with at-home construction. I know that Shane Jones was working not only on this legislation but also on the concept of an affordable house and that is something very commendable that I urge the Minister to look at as well.