Bennett Paula: Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Bennett Paula: Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 24 July 2007. Volume:640;Page:10661. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
PAULA BENNETT (National) 
: 
 I rise not only to talk about the title of this bill but also to give a bit of a wind-up of what has been going on this evening in this debate. Obviously the bill should not be called the Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Amendment Bill because that is just confusing. There have been so many amendments to this bill that the public are confused and this title will just confuse them more. So we need to come up with a new title.  
Perhaps we could call the bill the “Minister Cosgrove Got It Wrong Again and Needs Parliament to Spend More Time On It Amendment Bill”. While we are doing a round-up of what this bill actually means I say that the Minister while we were doing the “Weathertight (The Minister Got It Wrong Yet Again and We Are Having to Come Back to Parliament to Fix It) Bill” talked about the fact that we should not let off the builders the architects and the people who got it wrong. He is right in so many respects. But who can find them?  
What ends up happening is that taxpayers pay for it perhaps via their rates because it is the councils that are left holding the can. That is obvious and the Minister knows it if he has heard any of the submissions and has spoken to any councils around the country. That is where real concerns come into it. It raises real concerns to do with the insurance companies that are insuring the councils. Councils are in the situation where they will not be insured to the same level or they will have to pay in so much more money to become insured and their rates will have to go up to fix this problem. As a consequence people in their homes should be very concerned.  
The Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Amendment Bill is not an accurate title and it is not what we in the National Party think it should be called. In fact we are quite appalled that members are back here in the Committee having to take the time to fix this situation. The Minister is constantly saying that it was the High Court judge’s fault and that the judge got the intention of the legislation wrong. Well I say to the Minister that his intentions were not clear. If the intentions were clear then we would not have to be back making amendments yet again and wasting Parliament’s time Parliament’s money and yet again taxpayers’ money.  
Should we call this bill the Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Bill? No we should not. I have real concerns and my colleagues share them and we have been discussing them in some detail about the confusion that will be out there when people look at this bill with that title. Our concern is that people will not know which amendment it is because there have been so many of them.  
Earlier I heard someone yell out: “Resign!” to the Minister. What a concern that would be in talking about the title of this bill. If this Minister was to be taken off this portfolio we would be on Minister No. 8 for it. So we could call this bill the “Weathertight Homes Resolution (We Have Been Through Seven Ministers; Here is Another One) Amendment Bill”. 
Hon Member 
: Better Ministers or worse Ministers? 
PAULA BENNETT 
: We have had better Ministers and worse Ministers. The truth is that the Government is running out of Ministers. 
Craig Foss 
: Shadow Ministers. 
PAULA BENNETT 
: We could pop in some shadow Ministers. I cannot actually think of anyone who could take on the role. 
Craig Foss 
: Religious ministers—it needs a miracle. 
PAULA BENNETT 
: It does need a miracle and it is of huge concern.  
The Weathertight Homes Resolutions Services (Remedies) Amendment Bill by its title is of huge concern to the National Party and it is something that we think does not truly reflect the problem. The title of this bill is not reflective of the bill itself and of the magnitude of the issue out there for the New Zealand public—not just in terms of the cost but obviously in terms of the emotional and physical trauma people are having to go through. This bill and more important its title do not reflect what is actually happening out there in the communities yet again.  
So I say: “Shame!” that we have to be back here discussing the title of the Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Amendment Bill. 
Craig Foss 
: It’s a Clayton’s bill. It’s a bill you have when you don’t have a bill. 
PAULA BENNETT 
: It is a Clayton’s bill. It is a bill you have when one does not have a bill. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: It took an hour! 
PAULA BENNETT 
: It did take an hour. It came from Craig Foss. I would say that it is probably not the first time that this Minister has heard that comment. It would not be the first time that this Minister has put up a Clayton’s bill and it is probably not the first time that this Parliament has wasted huge amounts of time and huge amounts of taxpayers’ money having to do this. I personally find that to be disgraceful and so do my colleagues. Thank you. 
Clause 1 agreed to. 
Clause 2 agreed to. 
Clause 3 agreed to. 
Bill reported without amendment. 
Report adopted.