Collins Judith: Weathertight Homes Resolution Services(Remedies) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Collins Judith: Weathertight Homes Resolution Services(Remedies) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:639;Page:9711] 
JUDITH COLLINS (National—Clevedon) 
: 
 Why is the previous speaker Mr Fairbrother such an angry man? Why is he so angry and why were Government members so upset when Dr Nick Smith said that the defects were pointed out to the Government last year? Two Government members have stood up here and said that National did not tell them. Well actually we did. And there is this other little issue: we are the Opposition. Government members do not consult us about this legislation. They do not want to discuss it with us first but they go to their support parties. 
All Government members do—and they have shown it this afternoon—is insult and abuse members of the Opposition whose support they will now seek for the Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Amendment Bill to go back to the Social Services Committee to try to fix up the very mess that we warned them about last year. That shows why Labour’s poll ratings are going further and further down. I think last time Labour was 13 points below National. Labour’s ratings are down because its way to win friends and influence people is to attack the very people whose help it needs. 
We will not take it out on the poor old owners of leaky homes that that Minister and that party do not have the good grace to say to the National Party: “Thank you. You told us about it we did not listen. Thank you for coming in and making sure that this matter gets resolved as quickly as possible.” They do not have the grace that anyone else is born with. 
Shane Jones 
: Thank you. 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: But Shane Jones actually does say: “Thank you.” which is very kind of him. Mr Jones wants to be the next Minister of Finance after Dr Cullen will finally get his marching orders very very soon and he is looking forward to that role. Suddenly we keep hearing that Mr Jones is to be promoted. We are all told this Mr Jones does not deny it and what happens? Nothing—we still have the same tired old Ministers. 
We have just seen how seriously this Government has taken the leaky homes issue. We need to consider who it puts in charge of this problem. First off the Government put that very quiet Minister the almost invisible Minister of Justice Mark Burton in charge. 
Anne Tolley 
: Who? 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: Well Mrs Tolley might well ask. Mr Mark Burton was put in charge of the weathertight homes issue. After that when Mr Burton did not seem to be cutting the mustard the Government put one of its stunning members—one of its best members—in charge of the weathertight homes issue. That was Mr George Hawkins. That was when we knew that this Government was really really serious about leaky homes. I think every homeowner in the country who had a leaky home thought: “Well goodness gracious! Now we have George Hawkins on to it. George will fix it.” But unfortunately he did not. So we have now had three bills in 5 years from this Government— 
Anne Tolley 
: Three Ministers? 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: No I tell Mrs Tolley that it is not three Ministers; I think it is actually more like about six or seven Ministers so far. In fact I lost count when Dr Smith was running off those names for us. So we have had all those Ministers and still they cannot get it right. 
I think it is quite interesting that Mr Cosgrove mentioned before that the bill would be rushed through and we will have the select committee report back by 18 June. He castigated the National Party for saying that that is not enough time. I will say why time is so important. It is not just so that the select committee can consider the bill—after all we will probably do our usual minority report and point out the faults—it is so that submitters will get a chance to submit on the bill. One of the things we find is that a lot of very sensible advice comes from very sensible people during the select committee process. 
This Minister is very lucky that we have on the select committee my colleague Bob Clarkson who knows more about leaky homes than that Minister would know about anything else. Bob Clarkson knows about leaky homes and he knows how to fix them. I have seen him deal with a constituent who had a leaky home problem. The constituent had been told by all these action groups the experts at the weathertight leaky homes service and others that it would cost $140000 to have that place fixed. The owners simply could not afford it. Unfortunately the builder had gone into liquidation so they would not get any money there. What happened? Mr Clarkson got on to the job and is now having that property fixed for about $30000. 
That is the difference. It is a practical sensible solution from a man who has nothing to gain from it and who does it out of the goodness of his heart because he takes being an MP seriously. That is the sort of person we need in charge of this bill—not somebody who prances around incredibly self-important and gives everybody lectures because they happen to point out that it was absolutely obvious that there were defects in the earlier legislation. 
Another example I will give to the House is that the last time the select committee dealt with the leaky homes issue—which I must say is starting to be a bit of a déjà vu experience; I have been to the committee three times while it has been dealing with this issue with three different bills—we found out from the officials that it costs $8000 to have a property assessed as to whether it is leaking. It costs $8000. The assessors go around and bore all these holes in the property to try to seek out the water. 
Well Mr Clarkson being the practical sensible guy he is found out that a water-seeking camera is being used by a company in Auckland. I will not name the company because we do not do commercials but this is a sensible solution. Mr Clarkson brought this camera to the select committee so we could see it. This camera can be pointed at the wall and it can show exactly where the water is in the walls. The cost of this service is not $8000. It is not $6000. It is not even $2000. It is not even $1000. It is $800. That service can show exactly where the water is so we do not have to go around drilling holes all over the place hoping we will get lucky with the water. 
The camera actually shows it. It is just like having an X-ray of a body to show where the bone is broken rather than chopping up the arm to try to see where that bone might be broken. That is the difference. So Bob Clarkson is on to the technology—[ 
Interruption 
] No no! The Weathertight Homes Resolution Service does not want to know about this because it does not cost $8000. We know from this Government that if we spend more money it must be better; that is its answer. So these poor old people are having their houses ripped apart with holes being drilled everywhere when they could have had a camera to show exactly where the water is. 
One of these properties Mr Clarkson found had a great leak that the officials had been told about. Water was supposed to be running down walls and everywhere else but in fact it was coming from a hole in the roof. All that was needed was to show exactly where the water was coming from—that it was coming from the roof. It was not coming out of the windows but just happened to be running down inside the wall past the windows. So that saved those people a huge amount of money and a huge amount of angst. 
I would like to know whether the Minister will look at this camera. I would ask whether he knows about it because we are happy to arrange a demonstration I am sure. Mr Clarkson can arrange a demonstration. He has no shares in the company that uses it and he gets nothing from it but we just need a practical solution for a practical problem. I think that one of the things I would like to see from this Government is just a little bit of humility around this one. Those members could just come to us get the expertise that we have in the form of Bob Clarkson— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: “Bob the Builder”. 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: As Mr Cosgrove says—“Bob the Builder”. Well that is what he actually is I tell Mr Cosgrove. 
The other thing I tell Mr Cosgrove is that Bob Clarkson has built a stadium so maybe Mr Mallard should have had a wee talk to him about that. Mr Clarkson built it paid for it and has now sold it and given almost half of the money away. A man like that is the sort of person we need in Parliament. We are happy to let the Government have some of that expertise—I see that Mr Mallard is saying that yes he would like some. I think we would be happy to look at that. Mr Clarkson will be on the select committee and I will ensure that he will make available to the Minister the camera that he knows about because clearly the Minister needs to know about this.