Smith Nick: Building Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Smith Nick: Building Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:643;Page:13265] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 A poll came out on Monday in which 67 percent of those people polled said that they had had enough of a control-freak Government that wants to try to regulate every single part of people’s lives. Yet the Labour members in the Chamber this evening do not get it. They do not get the basic fact that New Zealanders have had enough of the Government’s petty silly laws that want to regulate every single part of people’s lives. I want to rise to the challenge posed by Russell Fairbrother and take him through the bill so that he might understand how this is another set of petty regulations. First I refer him to restricted building work. One cannot do restricted building work unless one is a licensed building practitioner. So my question for members opposite is: would Norm Kirk in 1936 have been a licensed building practitioner when he set out to build his home in Kaiapoi? Of course not. What this bill will do is—through establishing restricted building work and saying it can be done only by licensed building practitioners—effectively kill off those do-it-yourself Kiwis with the do-it-yourself Kiwi spirit and prevent them from building their own homes. 
Then Government members ask what else in the bill will be restrictive. I draw their attention to clause 91. Clause 91 far from making things easier as Russell Fairbrother says quite deliberately sets out to reduce the exemptions from gaining a building consent. If one is doing minor repair or maintenance work one will now require a consent. Let us take what the Institution of Professional Engineers said. Suppose a homeowner discovers a small leak in the weatherboard of a house built many years ago. One board may be rotten and need to be replaced. At present without this bill the remedy would be to remove the rotten board replace it with a new one as similar as possible to the original and apply a suitable paint system. Job done. What does this bill do? This bill states that one would have to get plans and specifications drafted up. One would have to roll along and seek building consent and say: “Is the board I have had designed adequate? Am I able to get the right paint system? Have I got the right paperwork to do it?”. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Stop making it up. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Mr Clayton Cosgrove says that I am making it up. I have a question for Mr Cosgrove and it is this: did he tell New Zealanders that the Building Act 2004 would result in a 900 percent increase in compliance costs in the building industry? Does Mr Cosgrove accept that Labour’s 2004 bill banned do-it-yourself building? 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: What I accept is that you made it up and you won’t admit it. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Ah! Well we know Clayton Cosgrove. The great thing about Clayton Cosgrove is that his song in the building industry was “Do it once do it right.” That is what he said. Let us check out his record as Minister. Labour introduced the Building Act in 2004; it amended it in 2005. It said: “Oops we’ve got a bit of a mistake. We’ll have to get it amended again.” So it was amended again in 2006. Then hello hello here we are again tonight with the man who says “Do it once do it right.” amending 31 pages of a bill. If we look at the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service we see that he had five cracks—five amendment bills—at trying to get it right. Members on this side of the Chamber say “Clayton you are a Clayton’s Minister and we have no faith in you.” 
Let us try this one. Did the Prime Minister do it once and do it right? Well she appointed George Hawkins to the portfolio of building. He did not go so good. She then gave the job to Mark Burton. He did not go so good. So then she gave the job to Lianne Dalziel. That did not go so good either. Then she gave Margaret Wilson a try; then Annette King a try; then John Tamihere a try. Then she thought “Oh I’ll go back to Mark Burton and give him a go again.” Then she tried Chris Carter who I note is in the Chamber then Clayton Cosgrove and now we have Shane Jones. It is little wonder our building laws are such an abortion when we have had 10 different building Ministers in a period— 
Katrina Shanks 
: You have missed one. We’ve had 11. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: I am sorry. Would members opposite help me. I have missed one of the Ministers they have had in the last 8 years. This is from a Government that says: “Do it once do it right.”