Auchinvole Chris: Building Amendment Bill (No 3) — In Committee 
Auchinvole Chris: Building Amendment Bill (No 3) — In Committee 
[Volume:678;Page:817] 
CHRIS AUCHINVOLE (National) 
: 
 It is always a pleasure to carry on from Phil Twyford because he is normally very considered and a pleasant member in the House. He puts things forward in a sensible appropriate way. On this occasion I appreciate the comments he has made about the Building Amendment Bill (No 3) but his sense of timing is not quite right. I realise that towards the end of the last Government it was difficult for Labour members always to be at every select committee meeting and Phil you missed the last meeting of the Local Government and Environment Committee. Indeed as you say a lot of the submitters did express concern over the very points that you have come up with but I thought actually that the member was there when we arranged at their request for the Construction Industry Council to meet with officials. We asked them to discuss with one another outcomes that would satisfy and overcome the concerns and indeed they did that. They did that with considerable success. So the concerns that Mr Twyford expressed so eloquently were in fact overcome in the view of all the participants. It was something of an achievement I felt but the officials have said that it was a very cordial meeting and they were able to address the concerns. 
This bill is indeed a building block one of a suite of bills that is going forward to bring the 2004 legislation up to the required standard for today. The legislation is largely supported by the industry that it is designed to affect. There has been a very good level of consultation and if I may I will make a sort of gratuitous remark towards our Minister Mr Williamson and say that these amendment bills were always a pleasure to receive at the select committee because they were well considered well drafted with good dialogue on either side. This is an industry that employs 1100—1070; sorry 171100—employees. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: That’s easy for you to say! 
CHRIS AUCHINVOLE 
: Thank you. I remember speaking to the chief executive of the Registered Master Builders Federation who had conducted a series of meetings throughout the country with his members and he said it is astonishing to behold them as they come along to meetings. They are normally in groups of three or five. They wear shorts and they are hard men physically. They are keen-minded people and they want to get on with the job and do it professionally and they are very considered. They are serious people and they view this seriously as well. 
We acknowledge too the work that was done by the previous Minister Shane Jones. A lot of work was done and this bill to a large extent complements it and brings it forward closer to completion. There are several aspects of it particularly four key changes. There is clearer accountability for building practitioners building consent authorities and consumers and this is nowhere better summarised than in a frequently repeated statement to the select committee which was that people should draw up plans to the building code and then builders should build to that plan. The difficulty emerges where the builder looks at a plan and thinks that perhaps he can do a variation on it or perhaps that it does not quite work out the way it has been prepared and he does his own initiative. Then indeed when planners are doing the planning for the design they should take into account the code. As long as those three sequences are followed there will not be a problem. 
The new building consent system is risk based and the Minister has spoken about that which spares me having to detail it any further. The code of ethics for licensed building practitioners is to encourage professional behaviour. Occasionally we have gone through a very difficult period in building and it will be good to have the code of ethics established and to have recognised levels of professional skills. In terms of the do-it-yourselfer I recently attended the New Zealander of the Year and listened to an address from a previously elected New Zealander of the Year. He talked about building his own house and how it was one of the larger achievements of his life and said that he regretted that that was not a possibility for people nowadays. Well this bill goes some way to lift the exemptions from people doing that which will be useful.