Turia Tariana: Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Amendment Bill Building (Consent Authorities) Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
Turia Tariana: Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Amendment Bill Building (Consent Authorities) Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
[Volume:641;Page:11304] 
TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Tenatatou katoa. Over the last 3 months as the debate over this bill has progressed through the House the Maori Party has consistently raised the question of how anyone can ignore the realities of lower-grade housing for Maori when debating the enhancement of leaky homes claims for other New Zealanders. We have speculated when the day will be when the “Substandard Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Bill” will come before this House. We have talked about the range of housing-related bills before Parliament this term including data matching for Housing New Zealand Corporation clients and the first and second weathertight homes bills yet none of these bills has come close to addressing the kinds of issues that we have raised throughout the debate. 
I recall the words of Dover Samuels last year who confirmed that Housing New Zealand Corporation had assessed some 1527 families living in substandard housing in Northland. Mr Samuels estimated that about 80 percent of people living in substandard housing in Northland were in fact Maori and that even if 1000 houses were built tomorrow that would not solve the issues. The funny thing is that we know that there are probably enough houses for all the families in New Zealand if they were distributed according to need rather than according to wealth. Instead the rich live in spacious comfortable surroundings while in poor parts of the country people squeeze into small overcrowded and dilapidated homes. We have made these points and we will continue to raise them in the House and outside. 
We have described substandard houses as unsafe dwellings where people may rely on open flames for light heat or cooking. These houses lack basic services such as a freshwater supply and a sanitation system. The infrastructure in some of these areas has been badly neglected as is evidenced in poor sewage disposal and inadequate water and electricity supplies. We know of communities where the septic tanks are failing greatly increasing the risk of hepatitis A and other infectious diseases. These are life and death issues and we must never forget the challenge of overcrowded substandard and dangerous housing conditions. 
But we in the Maori Party in line with our belief in manaakitanga do also acknowledge the deficiencies and the traumatic impacts that have been suffered by the victims of leaky homes so we have consistently supported the passage of this bill through the House in order to ensure that these people are entitled to the general damages for mental distress and anxiety that they should expect. But a funny thing happened just 10 days ago. Immediately prior to the third reading of the Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Bill suddenly it was recommitted with the impact of Supplementary Order Paper 133. In effect the last-minute change brought about what can only be described as an abuse of privilege of parliamentary procedure. 
We started off this whole debacle back in 2002 when under urgency Labour rushed through legislation to set up the Weathertight Homes Resolution Services Act 2002 which was eventually repealed. I take note of Minister Duynhoven’s comments before that these issues in fact happened during the regime of the National Government. Three years later the Government realised it had made a massive stuff-up so a whole new batch of rushed laws was sped through the House. If that was not bad enough another bandage had to be applied so a whole new series of laws is put before us and 10 days ago when one would think no more mistakes could be made the Minister realised that more last-minute emergency surgery had to happen in order to set things right. 
The request for the registration extension from 30 November 2007 to 30 June 2008 looks like a mere technicality from afar. The emergency amendment was dreamed up to extend the period for which a council may act as a building consent authority without registration. It was sold to the House as a mere courtesy to allow more time for councils to get their acts together and get registered by 30 June 2008. That may not be a big deal except that what Labour did was to override the Standing Orders so instead of going through the normal process of working through a Supplementary Order Paper Labour decided to surrender the Standing Orders and put forward a motion to suspend them. 
In the weekend as the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination released its damning report on New Zealand’s recent race relations policy I came across this quote from Martin Luther King which I thought the House would appreciate in the context of this bill. Martin Luther King said: “Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.” The “lie of inferiority” that this Government believes it can get away with is to push aside any process and to suspend procedures when it suits in order to create a particular type of truth—the Labour truth. Labour pushed through the Electoral Integrity Act in which it validated the invalid and made legal the illegal. In this bill Labour has reduced the time that is available for the perusal of the fine print at select committee. Labour says that giving kids a slave rate of 80 percent of the normal rate—80c to every dollar—that an adult earns is actually a triumph for Labour because it can announce a pay rise 3 months later. 
The Standing Orders of Parliament are here to do just that—to create order. The Standing Orders provide a system of checks and balances that honour the investing of legislative power in Parliament. These are the principles and standards that apply. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
TARIANA TURIA 
: Tena koe Madam Assistant Speaker. Tenatatou. The Maori Party wants to finish by saying that we will not block the rights of New Zealanders who will benefit from the Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Amendment Bill. We think that it is very important that this legislation is put in place to ensure that people are able to get the remedies that they deserve. Kia ora.