Catchpole Brent: Building Bill — In Committee Procedure 
Catchpole Brent: Building Bill — In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:619;Page:14843] 
BRENT CATCHPOLE (NZ First) 
: 
 This is the key to the whole building and construction industry now—licensed building practitioners. This now brings this part of the building industry into line with everybody else involved in the building industry. People have to be licensed to be a plumber a drainlayer or an electrician. Every other person involved in building construction has had a licence except the person who is putting up the main structure. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: Who never has. 
BRENT CATCHPOLE 
: Who as the member says has never had to have a licence. 
 Let me just take the Committee through some of the processes over the years. In the past there has been no consistency in the building industry and as we have had troughs and peaks in the economy we have seen that as the peaks arrive we have a great influx of people and there is a demand for additional builders and people involved in the building industry. Those people have not always had the necessary training because they have entered at a time when there has been a desperate need for additional manpower. As we have reached a trough in the economy those people have then stepped forward and undercut everybody else. Therefore the experienced practitioners have fallen by the wayside and we have had an inconsistency that has gradually built up until the 1991 Act and the regulations that resulted from that Act. The issue has been left wide open for the problems that have been the catalyst for this bill—that is the leaky homes. 
Sadly some of the knowledge of those people meant there were a few problems. The cutting of corners and costs and the lack of detail in many of the designs and the drawings meant that councils accepted them on the understanding that the builder knew to include those details. But if the builders had quoted on the plans without including those details then there was no way that they were going to be out of pocket and include them. So we ended up with a lot of missing detail on those buildings. 
Then there was the demise of the apprenticeship schemes. 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: Who did that? 
BRENT CATCHPOLE 
: Well unfortunately it was National. National got rid of the apprenticeship schemes. Although the Labour Government has called its new scheme the Modern Apprenticeships scheme it is nothing like the old apprenticeship schemes that were in existence 20 years ago. The new apprenticeship scheme is simply a rebranding of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority modular scheme and it does not have the practical side of the old apprenticeship schemes. Therefore it will not produce the quality of person that we need to come through. The building industry desperately needs quality. 
One point I would like to make sure that the chief executive has in mind when the licensed building practitioners are registered is that we do not make it too difficult for them to register. There are a lot of very qualified members of the industry who are reaching the end of their working lifespan for climbing ladders and heavy lifting. They are valuable and vital in the industry for training and that is required to continue.