Street Maryan: Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers Bill — Second Reading 
Street Maryan: Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:635;Page:6612] 
MARYAN STREET (Labour) 
: 
 I rise to speak with some relief to the second reading of the Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers Bill. I echo many of the comments of the previous speaker Katherine Rich the chairperson of the Commerce Committee. A number of concerns were held in common across the select committee table. Those concerns were not the prerogative of the National Party only; they were held in common around that table regarding some of the key issues in the Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers Bill. 
When I looked at the work of the Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board—which I did by pulling out the last 10 years of annual reports and looking at what they had done with regard to passing young apprentices and admitting them to registration—I was appalled that the pass rate had become so low in recent years. Katherine Rich mentioned the figure of 11 percent as being the pass rate in recent times. That situation led to all sorts of questions. 
I commend Hazel Armstrong and record the select committee’s thanks to her for the report she wrote investigating what turned out to be a very dysfunctional relationship between the Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board and the Plumbing Gasfitting and Drainlaying Industry Training Organisation. It was apparent that all was not well and it was quite difficult to get to the bottom of it. I am satisfied that Hazel Armstrong did get to the bottom of it and the work she has done will stand young plumbers gasfitters and drainlayers in good stead in the future. 
This Labour-led Government has put a lot of resources into apprenticeships. We have been very proud of our policy and our achievements in attracting young people into apprenticeships across trades training. We hold that particular policy dear because it is about the future of young people. To come across the Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board denying access to these trades and at the end of these apprenticeships denying access to registration for hundreds of young people—mostly to young men but also to some young women—was an absolute travesty. I am very pleased with the results that have come from Hazel Armstrong’s report and with the changes that have been made to the Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board. That was a critical issue. 
I also want to repeat what I said a few minutes ago in relation to the Energy Safety Review Bill for the benefit of anybody who was not there and did not hear it the first time. I reiterate the importance that we attached as a select committee to the dual process of registration and licensing. Registration equals a ticket with which these young people identify—not only young people but older people who are registered tradespeople. Registration is a point of identification for them. But the licensing system is also important for making sure that ongoing competence can be attested to. That point is critical because in the area of plumbing gasfitting and drainlaying there are issues of public health at stake. It is absolutely critical for the maintenance of public health that we have competent and licensed—in an ongoing way—practitioners who are laying drains who are plumbing buildings and who are fitting gas appliances so that the inhabitants of houses public buildings and public spaces are safe. 
So plumbing gasfitting and drainlaying go to the heart of public health provision. Registration and licensing in line with the same provisions that we have just approved for electricians in the second reading of the Energy Safety Review Bill should be applied—and will be applied—through the changes that the select committee has made to the Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers Bill. 
There were common concerns across the Commerce Committee that the right process should be in place that in this instance there should be a close degree of ministerial scrutiny of the Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board and that there be some substantial changes that allow the access of young people to these trades—and an ongoing career in these trades—to be facilitated. That is what this bill does. 
I add my congratulations to those of Katherine Rich to the officials who worked on this legislation with us. We needed to pick our way through it quite carefully but there was no doubt that the committee was as one over the provisions needed in order to get these young people where they want to be and to provide New Zealand with the skills—the ongoing skills—that it needs in order to have a transformational economy. I commend the second reading of the bill to the House. Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. 
Bill read a second time.