Williamson Maurice: Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Williamson Maurice: Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 14 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8563. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (Minister for Building and Construction) 
: 
 I move  
That the Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers Amendment Bill be now read a first time. 
 At the appropriate time I intend to move that the Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers Amendment Bill be considered by the Government Administration Committee that the bill be reported to the House by 22 March 2013 and that the committee have authority to meet at any time while the House is sitting except during oral questions during any evening on a day on which there has been a sitting of the House and on a Friday in a week in which there has been a sitting of the House despite Standing Orders 188 and 191(1)(b) and (c). 
The bill validates a disciplinary levy and an offence fee set by the Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board under the Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers Act 2006 which have been scrutinised by the Regulations Review Committee. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! Members please show some courtesy to the Minister who is speaking. It is contagious and it is within the spirit of the Standing Orders and the Speakers’ rulings. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: I am not contagious! 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I know that you are not contagious Minister but something else is. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: The bill resolves the issue considered by the Regulations Review Committee by empowering the board to charge a new disciplinary and prosecution levy to fund the costs arising out of the board’s prosecution and discipline functions. In addition the bill also ensures that all  
Gazette 
 notices containing disciplinary levies set by the board under the 2000 Act are valid. 
 Essentially this bill addresses inconsistencies between the board’s functions and the funding provisions in the Act. All of the board’s functions are funded entirely from fees and levies charged to plumbers gasfitters and drainlayers registered under the Act as is usually the case with other occupational licensing boards within the building and construction portfolio. 
The board regulates the plumbing gasfitting and drainlaying industry so that the public can have confidence that people undertaking those trades are qualified registered and regulated. Therefore it is important to ensure the board has funding for all of the functions it is required to carry out. One of the board’s statutory responsibilities is to prosecute people who carry out illegal sanitary plumbing gasfitting and/or drainlaying work. The board had funded this function through part of the disciplinary levy and then the offences fee. However the Act empowered the board to set a disciplinary levy to fund the costs of complaints and discipline only in relation to registered persons. 
In February 2011 the Regulations Review Committee concluded that the disciplinary levy imposed by the board since 31 July 2010 should be drawn to the special attention of the House of Representatives and the Regulations Review Committee recommended disallowance of the disciplinary levy. As members may remember on 12 May 2011—in fact I am sure they remember it vividly—the chair of the Regulations Review Committee moved a motion to disallow the disciplinary levy with effect from the end of the board’s registration year 31 March 2012. However this motion was not agreed to. As a result the board changed its fee and levy structure and removed the part of the disciplinary levy that was funding prosecutions against non-registered persons and set an offences fee to fund its prosecution function instead. 
The Regulations Review Committee is currently considering the validity of the offences fee prescribed by the board. If the Regulations Review Committee also recommends disallowance of the offences fee the board could be left unfunded to carry out its statutory prosecution functions. Therefore without this validating legislation the board would be placed under significant financial pressure and would be unable to carry out its important statutory functions that directly affect the safety and the well-being of New Zealanders. It is essential that we resolve this matter and resolve it quickly. 
I move that the Government Administration Committee consider the Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers Amendment Bill that the bill be reported back to the House by 22 March and that the committee have the authority to meet at any time—and I think I have already moved all of that accordingly. In fact I had better finish moving it because I think I have to finish the moving. OK? 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Not until the debate is concluded Minister. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Correct. That is what I thought—that it should be done at the end but it is in both parts. Someone in my office is doing a bit of a belt and braces here by putting it at the start of the speech and putting it at the end. I will leave it until the end. All I say to the House is that this needs to be done and it needs to be done quickly.