O'Connor Simon: Construction Contracts Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Connor Simon: Construction Contracts Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 20 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7361. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SIMON O’CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): I am very pleased to rise and speak on this Construction Contracts Amendment Bill in its third reading. I want to just reply to a few of the thoughts that have been put up by the previous speaker Kris Faafoi and others. But first and foremost I want to acknowledge the Minister in charge of the bill Nick Smith who has guided this through and of course the work of Melissa Lee in the Commerce Committee on which I am pleased to sit.This is a bill that has been I think rightly looked at carefully and cautiously. I think that when it comes to areas such as the construction industry it is important to get things right first up be that in building a house or analogously here when it comes to legislation. We heard in the last speaker’s dissertation if you will concerns about it taking so long to address this issue of retentions. Fundamentally we as a Government and as a committee wanted to make sure that we got this right. We wanted it based on good evidence and we wanted it based on consultation. I know there has been a lot of consultation by the Minister and officials and discussions—including by me—with builders in the electorates. That has been relatively important. I think that in this bill we do have a comprehensive response to this.We have also in a way set it up more around the trust system—retentions within trusts rather than bonds. I just wanted to mention that briefly. I do not want to go into all the differences but suffice to say trying to work retentions in a bond structure is not going to work as effectively as that of a trust. There have also been suggestions that we are not implementing this quickly enough. When it comes to any legislation it is important that those in the industry have time to understand what is going on and to implement the correct procedures.Importantly in this legislation we are also bringing together residential and commercial contracts. That is quite a fundamental change there. Residential contracts and commercial contracts are not going to be treated differently; they are going to be treated the same. I think it is quite important particularly for those in residential contracts to have the time to understand this legislation because one of the concerns that has come forward is about ambushing claims. Again I do not want to go into it in depth but the long and the short of it is that someone who knows the legislation inside and out could easily pull the wool over the eyes of someone who does not. The time frames in the bill around claims are incredibly tight as to when responses are due and so forth. We have to be very cautious there.I think again that this is an important bill. I am very pleased to say that I come from a family of builders. My father in fact is even in the gallery today just by sheer and utter coincidence. He is a chippy from way back. Fortunately his skills rubbed off on to my brother. I can maybe wave a hammer occasionally but I would definitely trust him more. But I have actually a family with that background. Although I have not discussed this bill at length with my father which is probably remiss—Scott Simpson: Make amends.SIMON O’CONNOR: —that is right I have to; I will propose a notice of motion tomorrow—I think it is important to recognise that we as a Government continue to try to improve the sector. I am very pleased to commend this bill to the House.