Clarkson Bob: Building Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Clarkson Bob: Building Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 13 March 2008. Volume:645;Page:14923. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
BOB CLARKSON (National—Tauranga) 
: 
 I would love to spend an hour talking about Hobsonville but I had better keep off that as I would rather talk about the bill. One has to earn about $120000 a year to be able to afford a house in Hobsonville. It is a disaster waiting to happen. 
I am happy to talk about this amendment bill. In private enterprise the secret of success is to find the problem before we fix the problem. The Minister for Building and Construction is following on from eight former Ministers in not finding the problem. This Minister still wants to licence tradesmen carpenters. The problem was caused mainly by using faulty materials. Would it not be a good idea to fix the problem? Tradesmen carpenters were not the main reason for leaky homes. I say we should fix the problem. 
This amendment bill goes nowhere near fixing the problem. We are still building leaky houses. The Minister might not understand when I say that we are still face-fixing cladding on to houses. This allows no air to circulate. Why have we not made cavity walls compulsory to let some air through and keep them dry? Licensing tradesmen carpenters as we are doing in this amendment to the Building Act does nothing to fix leaky homes or stop leaky homes from being built. All this bill does is add a $2000 licensing fee on to the cost of a house. I do not think that is a very bright idea. 
I would like to mention that I am a tradesman in another field. I am proud to be a tradesman and I do not need to be licensed. I am a tradesman and I have the right to do what my trade says. The previous Minister for Building and Construction Clayton Cosgrove and the present Minister Shane Jones keep pushing the amendment to license tradesmen. 
The Minister should concentrate on fixing the problem—I come back to that all the time. In the building industry we have been using timber treatment methods that are causing serious health problems. People who are working on building sites throughout New Zealand are getting nosebleeds coughing up blood and getting serious rashes on their bodies. I would think that the health of a carpenter would be more important than bringing in an amendment to faulty legislation. There have been four goes at this now and they have all failed. 
The Labour Government has known for 18 months about health problems in this industry to do with the treatment of timber and it has done nothing. Changing Ministers has not helped the problem. Perhaps they do not like talking to each other. 
One amendment to the bill talks about supervising restricted building work. A DIY builder will have to have a licensed building practitioner to oversee his or her work. Why would we want a system whereby DIY builders build a house a building practitioner checks the work and then an inspector from the council re-inspects the work? This is top heavy in a bureaucratic system. 
We just need top-rate inspectors and houses will be right. What building practitioner will sign off somebody else’s work without charging a high fee or taking out insurance against the risk of doing that job? All these costs will go on to the final cost of a house. My prediction is that with all these amendments and rules costs will go through the roof. We will not be able to build houses because of the price. One good thing about that is we will not have any more leaky homes.