Carter John: Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Amendment Bill — Recommittal In Committee 
Carter John: Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Amendment Bill — Recommittal In Committee 
[Volume:641;Page:10966] 
JOHN CARTER (National—Northland) 
: 
 I want to add a contribution to this Committee stage of the Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Amendment Bill and I want to draw to the Committee’s attention what is actually happening here. The Minister the Hon Clayton Cosgrove is extending the time by which the councils can become compliant by 7 months. The reason why he has finally decided that he needs to extend the time is because he has become aware that a good majority of local government bodies will not be able to comply nor to achieve the ability to be registered by 30 November. I wonder whether the Minister has ever bothered to ask himself why it is that this is occurring. 
There are two reasons for this. Firstly he is in charge of the Department of Building and Housing—the department that in 1999 was staffed by 31½ people. It now has a staff number of in excess of 300—a growth of I do not know 900 million percent. I do not know what percentage that is; it is some strange number. The Minister is asking how many staff there were. Well of course there was not a Department of Building and Housing in 1999 but the equivalent in the Department of Internal Affairs had 31½ staff. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Oh you just woke up. 
JOHN CARTER 
: The Minister can go back and check. I tell the Minister that I got this straight from the horse’s mouth and I know that I am absolutely accurate. He can talk all the rubbish he likes but there were actually 31½ people employed in the equivalent department back in 1999. Now there are in excess of 300 people. Do members know where they have come from? Do members know why local government actually cannot get people? 
Bob Clarkson 
: Why? 
JOHN CARTER 
: Well because the 270 people who are now employed by the Department of Building and Housing are ex-building inspectors from local government. So how can local government get staff when they have to try to compete with Government-funded highly paid people in the dysfunctional Department of Building and Housing? It does not work does it? One cannot be in two places at once. 
The other interesting fact is this. Not all of those people actually came from local government a good number of them were people who had failed at being building inspectors failed at being compliance officers and failed at being bureaucrats. So the Minister said: “Oh don’t worry about it she’s right. We’ll build up this Department of Building and Housing.” and we have made it grow by 270 people over however long it has been—8 years. 
Bob Clarkson 
: Some of them might have been involved in building the leaky homes. 
JOHN CARTER 
: The member Bob Clarkson says some of them might have been involved in the building of the leaky homes. They were not involved in the building of leaky homes but some of them were the people who were initially meant to sign them off failed went bankrupt and had a hard time for a while until the Minister came along and said: “Hang on don’t worry we’ll start this Department of Building and Housing and now you can be employed again.” So they now have a job. No wonder the whole system is failing. It is because we have incompetent people in the department who have failed in their own lives—in private enterprise—and have not been capable of doing a decent job and now they are in a department telling competent builders how to run their lives. 
The Minister is saying: “You know local government can’t get compliant.” I cannot remember the exact figure I wish I could. I was trying to remember how many councils are likely to be compliant by 30 November. 
Te Ururoa Flavell 
: None. 
JOHN CARTER 
: No there were some. Out of the 85 I think from memory there were eight—I cannot remember—but some small number. There were a number who had registered to be compliant but the likelihood was that a good number were never going to get there. 
Bob Clarkson 
: One got through. 
JOHN CARTER 
: Yes I know there have been some but most of them were never going to be. I remember this Minister coming up to the Far North District Council and telling the local authority up there—the councillors and the other mayors of the district—“Have I got the answer for you.” Well they all sat there and thought: “Boy great thank goodness this Minister has come along. Everything is going to be right.” Well I was talking to them the other day and they said to me: “Do you think everything is going to be right?”. I said: “You’ve got to be kidding. This Minister’s got to extend the time for compliance.”