Twyford Phil: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTwyford Phil: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 24 September 2015. Volume:709;Page:7066. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]7.PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū) to the Minister of Local Government: How much has been spent on the Rules Reduction Taskforce in total?Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister of Local Government): The cost of the task force—the most up-to-date number I have got is from 31 August 2015 when $727241 had been spent.Phil Twyford: Why does she think that it is a good idea to let builders certify their own work when there is so much poor-quality building going on in Auckland that the council has set up an investigations unit to crack down on rogue builders and has laid 22 complaints with another 39 pending?Hon PAULA BENNETT: I do not necessarily. What it says in the report quite clearly is that there are quite a few issues to work through particularly with the licensed building practitioner scheme. So it is about—[Interruption] No it says we have got a mixed picture of the industry—[Interruption] No keep going. Done? Right. So we have got a mixed picture of the industry. We have got a whole lot of cowboys who quite frankly should not be but we have also got a whole lot of people who are really quite excellent and probably could. We have got electricians who currently do their own work; we have got gasfitters who do. For some builders who are at a certain competency and have been licensed—maybe we need to look at that.Phil Twyford: Does she agree with Nick Smith who said that it is worth considering allowing builders just to get on with the job without needing a building consent in light of today’s revelation that a Christchurch family used newspaper to plug the gaps in their leaky home after a shoddy Earthquake Commission rebuild?Mr SPEAKER: Either of those two supplementary questions the Hon Paula Bennett.Hon PAULA BENNETT: First of all get us the name and address because I just heard the Minister say that he would like to look into that. But more important there are most definitely some builders who should not be certifying their work themselves. There are others—particularly if we tighten up the licensed building practitioner scheme if we make sure that we have them at a certain level of excellence and if they are actually insured as well for their own work and are under an association—for whom maybe as the Minister has said the idea is worth exploring and that is what we are saying.Phil Twyford: Why does she think the country has moved on from the leaky homes disaster given that the National Government’s last experiment with deregulating the building industry continues even now to curse homeowners with untold cost and misery; or does she just think it has been forgotten?Mr SPEAKER: Again either of those two supplementary questions.Hon PAULA BENNETT: As someone who actually owned a leaky home I had extreme sympathy for others who were in that situation and I still do. Under no circumstances will we be going back to that nor do we want to see that same kind of building happening. We also need to recognise though the additional costs that are involved and take a common-sense approach that if they are licensed and insured we should at least be exploring it and making sure that we can. There are different products now.Phil Twyford: When she went on television in May raising examples of red tape like the banning of lolly scrambles or the requirement to wear a harness when using a stepladder did she know then that they were myths or did she need to spend $700000 of taxpayers’ money on her task force to tell her that they were myths; and does this not show that this is yet—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The question has been asked.Hon PAULA BENNETT: There were more than 2000 submissions and it is actually a case of listening to people who are experiencing things. What I will say is that as much as I love tradies—and I even married one—they are the greatest ones for having one experience and then sitting in the lunchroom and saying that that is gospel and the rules that are out there. Often they are not true. We can actually do more for costs and we can do more for efficiencies if we break down some of those myths as well and that is a big part of it.