van de Molen Tim; Salesa JennyTIM VAN DE MOLEN (National—Waikato): Thank you Madam Speaker. I'm happy to take a call in the final reading on the Building (Building Products and Methods Modular Components and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. The Minister has given a pretty good outline of the context the substance of what has been or will be passed into law as a result of the completion of this final reading.I want to state initially on this side of the House we support the bill and we have through all stages actually. The idea of a registration and certification system for modular or offsite manufacturing is a good one. I like the idea of being able to speed up that process of construction to obviously have a clear set of rules and guidelines and penalties potentially around that if the rules aren't followed. But speed of construction confidence around the process is critical for our sector. These are some of the areas where I think we have a real opportunity to make some headway. At the moment there is a massive need for housing but actually construction in general is facing significant pressure as there is a massive expectation on the construction sector to play a significant role in the recovery and the ongoing I guess growth of our economy post-COVID. So we really support that aspect.The other aspect I'm excited about within this bill is broadening the scope of use for that levy. I think there's real potential there to run the rule over some of the different standards to have a look at how we are ensuring compliance the opportunities and methods we can streamline as a result of having this surplus levy some $50 million-odd that's currently sitting there as surplus being able to utilise that in a range of different areas. So I'm really looking forward to hearing some of those initiatives and we haven't heard any specifics yet around what that might be. Looking forward to seeing or hearing of those in due course.So this is all good stuff and I've been fortunate enough to visit some offsite manufacturing companies Concision down in Rolleston Clever Core up in Auckland Builtsmart in Huntly—companies that are doing really innovative and really exciting stuff. I think there's huge potential in this offsite manufacturing space to really ramp up productivity within our construction sector. They can churn out residential properties very quickly pretty cost-effectively and very precisely. Those are all factors that I think are desperately needed in the sector and will be greatly received as well. The ability to speed up some of the consenting process by this bill is great in that regard. I'd really like to thank those three companies in particular that I've just mentioned for the time they've given me to understand their concept what they're doing what they're looking for some of the challenges they're seeing at the moment in terms of the limitations placed on them—they could do even better so hopefully some of that is addressed with this bill. But I still think there's more that can be done as well. So we'll continue encouraging the Minister to expand the opportunity for offsite manufacturing in particular.So these are all good aspects but there's a lot more that needs to be done in our building and construction sector as well. There are some big priorities that we haven't heard much about yet from this Government. I would really encourage the Minister to place more urgency on things like their licensing and certification process. Have we got the licensed building practitioner scheme right? There's plenty of feedback I've had as I travel around the country talking to a number of building and construction businesses who are saying that no we haven't quite got it right. What about self-certification for plumbers and drain layers? That's not on the table yet. Well if you're a gas fitter you can self-certify your work and that's in many cases the exact same person as a plumber drain layer and gas fitter. They can sign off part of their work but not the other parts. So let's have a look at that process self-certification.Obviously the critical aspect to this and the licensed building practitioner scheme as well is having a clear set of guidelines in place but also ensuring there's accountability and maintaining that quality assurance throughout that process. So having that aspect of it dial in really tightly is critical. But I really think there is huge scope in that space in particular to speed up the process. I am hearing consistently every business I visit in this industry tell me they are being held up by the consenting process by the inspections process by not being able to sign off some of their work—any number of factors that end up causing months of delays in the construction process. At a time when we are just screaming out for new houses that's not good enough. That's something I'd really like this Minister to be focusing on more strongly and presenting a solution to this House with urgency. So I would encourage her to really pick that up. There are plenty of experts out there in the industry who would be more than happy to give feedback on this how to streamline this process whilst ensuring we manage that quality throughout it as well.The consenting aspect is another biggie. We are seeing far too many consents taking far too long to get through the building consenting authorities. There are a huge number of requests for more information (RFIs) that are being sent back out to the submitters of these applications asking for more information. In some cases perhaps that's a delaying tactic because the council simply haven't got the capacity to process. In other cases councils are finding they're just not receiving the necessary information. I've talked to a number of council consenting authorities in this regard as well and so absolutely the blame is not simply on one side of the fence. But this is an area that we can really tighten up. This bill addresses part of that by reducing that consenting time frame down to 10 days in particular circumstances and that's good. But the 20-day time frame to provide a consent is quite long and it's quite inconsistent. So whether you're building a pretty basic straightforward run-of-the-mill house it's 20 days versus a multi-storey apartment building also 20 days—obviously slightly more complexity in that process. So we need to have a good look at that. That's an area that again I really would like to see some strong focus on from the Minister.These aspects can make a significant difference in our productivity. We can really ramp up our ability within the sector to deliver if there is a lot more work put into streamlining some of these aspects that I've just mentioned.But the other big one as well and we've heard some encouraging news around the high number of consents that have been issued recently—fantastic but actually you've got to be able to build them. Our challenge at the moment—again I'm hearing this message consistently as I travel around the country—is that we simply don't have enough skilled workers in the building and construction sector. We need some of those migrant workers coming in here to contribute to our economic recovery to provide that expertise that we are lacking in some areas. We simply can't train them fast enough. It's been encouraging to see a significant increase in the number of apprentices and I do want to acknowledge the Government for some good work in that space but that's going to take years to deliver for the industry. Right now there's a pressure point where you have a shortage of labour and we need to address it. I'm not hearing from the Minister a solution to address this. We absolutely need to be driving strongly to see more migrant workers coming in to support this desperate need now to get the construction curve ramped up even further. So those are some of the issues that I would really like to see a strong focus on from this Minister. Pretty good work with this piece of bill some good stuff in here that will help but actually there are some other priorities that we really need to see around the certification and registration for labourers for tradespeople also the consenting process and of course getting more labour in here. Those are three key priorities that I'd really like to see as a stronger focus from this Government. But we do support this bill and I'm looking forward to seeing a lot more work from this Minister for the building and construction sector. Thank you.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The question is that the motion be agreed to.