Jones Shane: Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Financial Assistance Package) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Jones Shane: Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Financial Assistance Package) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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Hon SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Deputy Speaker. Such is the gravity of this subject that it requires a full 10-minute speech. Labour members are supporting the Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Financial Assistance Package) Amendment Bill. It is important to bear in mind that the bill remedies a situation that although it began while Maurice Williamson was a Minister in the early 1990s in actual fact has worsened over the last decade or two. I will isolate a few important things that have happened. 
Local government found the difficulty so severe that it could not even secure reinsurance in the international reinsurance market and its exposure has grown as the problem has increased. I would be the first to admit that during the period of time when I was the Minister for Building and Construction it was a difficulty that bedevilled— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I just ask Government members to quieten down please. I am trying to listen to the speaker. 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: Tena koe Mr Deputy Speaker. The point I was making was that although we support this bill the reality is that during the last 10 to 20 years local government has become lumbered with this problem. I give full marks to the Minister of Housing for finding a way for the Crown to contribute. I look forward to hearing the submissions to the Local Government and Environment Committee because at the end of the day the submitters will focus on how in practice the Crown will assure them as they go into debt that they can actually gain access to the Crown percentage of the money. Similarly how will local government also offer a bankable level of assurance? Most important how will we ever convince the trading banks domiciled in New Zealand—otherwise known as the Aussie banks—or should I say the Crown to step up to the plate? 
A key weakness which is reflected in the policy at the moment I venture to say will be the unwillingness of the banks to provide homeowners with additional capital to address the problems. They are already overexposed in relation to property in New Zealand. Thousands of New Zealanders already have what are called aquarium mortgages—that is the value of the property has receded below the level of the mortgage. I suggest that during the select committee process when the Bankers’ Association makes its submission members on the committee focus on what the banks might be expecting from the Crown in terms of underwriting perhaps in order for them to extend dough to these individual homeowners. 
I have met a number of these homeowners and the lesson to be taken is that if anyone seeks advice about buying property in areas around Auckland the advice should be to buy nothing unless it has eaves of at least 600 millimetres or 800 millimetres. If it is a 1950s or 1960s bungalow it should be bought 1000 percent more quickly than anything that looks like a Mediterranean construction because I fear that those buildings are permanent aquariums and that those building designs will never ever cope with the New Zealand climate. The people who have escaped scot-free for having blighted our local urban landscape with these buildings will never be fully held to account. 
Chris Auchinvole 
: Shane you’d better come back to the committee. 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: I know my presence on various committees has been missed. I might actually improve the intellectual quotient on the other side of the House by from time to time arriving there. I cannot improve the intellectual quotient offered by my colleagues here; all I can do is make up for the defects on the other side. However I do not want to be too uncharitable tonight. I have not had the chance to acknowledge my distant Ngati Porou kinswoman Hekia Parata. I want it known that this woman worked in the general area of housing in her time so what I am to say is relevant to the broad ambit of the bill. Craig Foss despite his pugnacity did not make it. Amy Adams despite her knowledge of being Parliament’s most knowledgable lawyer and accountant could not mix it. Hekia however—a figure of elegance style and humility a woman of few words retiring shy—has now replaced Pansy Wong. Ngati Porou say that Hikurangi mountain is the first to see the sun and we can expect more of that rhetoric from Hekia in the future. Anyhow I do not want the year to pass and grind to a halt without my acknowledging Hekia Parata. We came into the Civil Service at a similar time—but that is another story. 
Part of the difficulty with what this bill is addressing is that unless the builders of the future and the designers and the architects can improve their general level of skill there is no guarantee that if we continue with very complicated building designs that are not suitable for Aotearoa this problem will not recur. I encourage Minister Williamson—and we have another bill on the way—to actually expedite the process of improving the pace at which builders and other experts in the sector can become qualified so as to reduce the construction-related problems with this package. 
As I said earlier a number of us have met the families who are struggling who are stranded who are condemned to live in these shoddily constructed apartments and buildings. In some respects as harsh as it may seem often the best thing for some of them—and a number of them have done it—is to just cut their losses and move on. This issue has mental health implications it has destroyed marriages and it has ruined families. 
Although this legislation represents a remedy it is only a partial remedy because at the end of the day if the owners want to remain in those dwellings they will have to go further into debt. They will not have the opportunity to have another crack at the Crown or local government etc. and in a sense I do think that is unfair. But having said that I believe we will hear through the submissions that the ratepayers and the taxpayers—unless they want to turn this issue into some sort of multi-century Treaty of Waitangi settlement process—want to see an end to it to the point at which property owners are no longer able to come back. Because who are they tapping? They are tapping ratepayers and they are tapping taxpayers. Although we think it is quite unfair—the time restrictions and the absence of the ability to ram home a liability case in the future—there are two sides to the story. That is why Labour members are happy for the bill to go to the select committee and we will listen with a considerable degree of interest to what the submissions might be. 
This has been predominantly an Auckland problem with some cases in Wellington and a few in the South Island. But it has largely been an Auckland-based experience. I think the lesson here is that if we continue to deregulate in the future and if we do not have a workforce that is capable of taking the elegant plans on the architect’s computer screen and turning them into an actual construction then this problem will revisit us time and time again. 
We support this bill being referred to the select committee but I offer a warning: we supported the Ngati Apa debacle being referred to the select committee as well and as a consequence of the wide divisiveness and very angry reactions that that bill has caused we reserve our position with regard to what we will do then. We will hear very courteously—unlike certain Ministers on that side of the House—what the public has to say. Kia ora tatou katoa.