Tisch Lindsay: Building Bill — In Committee Procedure 
Tisch Lindsay: Building Bill — In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:619;Page:14830] 
LINDSAY TISCH (National—Piako) 
: 
 This part gets to the heart of the bill—the responsibilities of the building consent authority. That is the area I want first to look at and I intend seeking a number of calls. I hope I will get more than one call because on the last part I got only one call. I was a member of the Government Administration Committee. I was seeking calls throughout the last part. On such important legislation when the time comes that members on the select committee—[ 
Interruption 
] I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I know what the member is going to say. That is a personal reflection as I understand it under Standing Order 116 and the member will stand and apologise. 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: I apologise. 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: Shane Ardern and I were members of the select committee and we had a lot of input into this legislation. The point that I was making was that during the last part I got only one call. I will later be seeking other calls and I will be interested to have those. 
I want to look specifically at clause 72 “Duties of building consent authority”. The private certifiers made very strong representations to us about it. Members will be aware that private certifiers are currently having difficulty with insurance so their role over the last few years has been limited. But our view is that it is also a very important point that they have a part to play and we should be accommodating them in such a way that they are able to provide the services that will expected under this new legislation. 
It is interesting to consider what is actually required of the building consent authorities in this clause. The authorities include territorial local authorities and private certifiers. An interesting point came to my attention this morning. Someone involved in the industry came to visit me. He told me that products are certified; that under this bill builders will become licensed building practitioners; and that the building consent authorities who will be the certifiers will also have to be certified. The point was made that probably only one person in New Zealand has all the qualifications required to meet the specifications of this bill—only one person. 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: Name the person. 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: No I will not name the person. For example if we look at roofing we see that many different types of roofing are involved and special recognition has to be given to that in the bill. The same applies to windows doors or whatever. My visitor said that throughout the whole country there are probably only 10 to 20 people who over time with some training would be able to meet the requirements yet the ministry has determined that we need a minimum of 200 people. To train those people up to the level of skills required under this part would take a minimum of a couple of years. He made the point that 30000 houses a year are built and if those properties can be inspected and certified for 50 weeks of the year then the 20 staff who are currently available would have to do 30 inspections per week. It is absolute nonsense to expect those people to do what this bill is looking to achieve. Even if after a couple of years there are 200 staff which is the number the ministry has said is the minimum requirement they would have to do 600 inspections a week or three per week each. 
The point I am making is that the people with the expertise required are just not there. The territorial local authorities just do not have these sorts of people available to do the work the bill expects them to do. They are just not there. In fact some councils like the Tauranga District Council do not have certifiers.