Patterson MarkMARK PATTERSON (NZ First): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to confirm our support of the Building Amendment Bill during the second reading. When we look at as has been traversed before this amendment to the Building Act of 2004 it has two separate parts: the new powers to manage buildings in an emergency and putting an end-to-end response to a recovery and clarifying some of those powers. Of course that allows the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment as the central regulatory authority a clear set of powers and guidelines for it to manage and investigate damaged buildings. We have learnt these lessons—obviously through the select committee process we've gone through the actual detail—in real time unfortunately. We've had significant events—of course Christchurch and Kaikōura earthquakes—but there have also been other things that probably haven't been quite as high profile: the collapse of the roof of Stadium Southland under snow. So it's not necessarily a major seismic event that would trigger the clauses in this bill.So I commend the Transport and Infrastructure Committee for going through this bill. Actually I wasn't on that committee but when you go through it it's actually quite a complex bill—there are a lot of implications. We've just been talking about privacy and the likes that come into play and there's been a wide-ranging discussion in how we can tidy these provisions up and tidy this bill up—of course under the wise stewardship of Darroch Ball my colleague who chairs that committee with his Mensa-level IQ so I'm sure that he has done a good job in helping assist this process.Just looking at the first part of this bill in terms of managing buildings during and after an emergency it gives the Minister some powers to take direct action and it clarifies the use and timing of those powers. It also gives special requirements around heritage buildings. I think there's 4400 Category 2 buildings and just over 1000 Category 1 heritage buildings. This is a major issue in New Zealand it's something that New Zealand First actually has a lot of concern around: the earthquake standards—many of these buildings do not meet code and particularly in our rural and provincial areas the economic revenue that can be gained from them especially the commercial buildings doesn't actually make it economic to bring the buildings up to code. There's a lot of buildings—and I see the member for Whanganui here who would know this very well there's a lot of historic buildings I've been up there and seen them myself in looking at this very issue in part of bringing a members' bill forward. We have many many of these buildings around of course in Southland and Invercargill as well particularly.So we are very vulnerable particularly in a seismic event because we've got a lot of buildings that are just not economic to do up under the current provisions and we are running the clock down in terms of the time lines. There's going to be the potential for buildings to be just walked away from at the end of a 15- or 25-year period and we need to do a little bit more I think thinking around how we can avoid that and New Zealand First certainly has been. This is essentially the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff after something like that does happen. So we have clarified a number of these powers and the requirements around consultation.In terms of the investigating building failures either that have or could have resulted in serious injury or death and assisting in determining a cause there's a number of parts to this: securing a site clarity around the rules about entering the property and carrying out inspections requiring provision of information to MBIE and also the sharing of the information—and we have traversed that a bit tonight. We're going into property rights and privacy provisions. It has been quite a delicate act. I'm sure the select committee has been well exercised in trying to land this in just the right place.And of course it goes back. I think we started this process back in 2015 with a public discussion document and it's worked its way through the system. There were very substantive submissions to the select committee process from the likes of Local Government New Zealand and Christchurch City Council—and haven't they learnt their lessons the hard way. And of course the royal commission and their findings has been leaned on very heavily through this select committee process. As we heard even the Ministry of Defence has had some input. So it just shows you how wide ranging this is.Actually one of the issues that came up through this is dams—you know what do you do with dams and evacuations where you've got a dam that may be damaged and someone's got to make a call at that very moment as to whether that is a safe situation. And it gives those powers. Also within that it does clarify the immunity from civil proceedings for constables if it can be demonstrated of course that they've acted in good faith.So there are a number of provisions of this bill. I commend the select committee under chairman Ball for the work they've done in going through this—this is an important piece of legislation—and Minister Salesa for shepherding it through. There's a lot of work being done in that wider area and I'm pleased that she has put some priority on this and as such New Zealand First look forward to supporting this through the committee process. Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker.