Davidson MaramaHon MARAMA DAVIDSON (Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence): Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare. Tēnā tātou ōku hoa kaimahi.[Greetings Mr Speaker. Greetings to us all my work colleagues.]Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. We are pleased and excited to support the Building (Building Products and Methods Modular Components and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. I realise that what we are trying to do here is set some certainty and some clear expectations on standards not just giving the sector some certainty but actually our overall programme of modernising and increasing and scaling up the way we build how we build and what we build with. So we're really pleased to support this bill in the second reading for that reason. But also as others have noted this bill will hopefully encourage and stimulate where we go in the whole entire construction industry while also understanding that off-site construction and prefab off-site construction in particular offers a regional economic development thread which many around the regions have been calling for support for for quite some time. So the introduction of legislation and regulatory frameworks such as this bill will all go towards encouraging that it's not just about building; it's about a broader vision for Aotearoa. It's about broader economic development including in the regions. I know as my colleague Mr Utikere has pointed out that speeches are always an opportunity to nail one's flag to their region and their rohe and certainly in Tai Tokerau places like Kaikohe have been calling for some time for the sorts of opportunities that this bill will hopefully encourage. I wanted to pick up on what some of the proposed amendments will be. I've also got a particular concern from our actual spokesperson on this bill the Hon Julie Anne Genter that I'll also touch on. I wanted to mention that I got given only a moment's notice that I would be speaking on this bill so it's been a good quick bit of learning which is not new to people in this House. But I was genuinely pleased to see in the proposed amendments how they will as I said provide that explicit clear understanding regulating building products and methods. We know and have heard from the industry actually for well over a decade—probably decades—how that has been a systemic issue and how that has provided poor quality and a lack of consistency. That is another part of what the proposed amendments are going to try to address to ensure that the regulatory regime in itself is fit for purpose and for the way that the world actually is heading in terms of how we build and off-site construction. I wanted to also add in here—and as I said it's only been a moment's notice so I haven't done the google yet—that my understanding a few years ago was that currently our off-site construction percentage across our whole construction industry was down around not more than 10 percent or maybe a bit more than 5 percent while other parts of the world actually have off-site construction well up above 80 percent or sometimes often 90 percent of their overall construction method. I think that the off-site construction method and the prefab in particular is where we need to be heading in our enduring solutions to addressing the housing crisis especially noting that other parts of the world are well ahead in utilising those particular methods. So fixing all the regulations up fixing the frameworks up and also drilling down a little bit into product quality as well are vitally important to the enduring solutions.I see that we're also wanting to pull in and give some clarity on the investigatory powers of the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and we're looking at increasing penalties for misleading statements about products and methods used. My goodness have we heard that from the sector loud and clear about the sort of cowboy element that has been ruining it for all in fact across the sector. My goodness have we heard that and I was really pleased—well first it was a bit of a shock to find out that actually the building levies that we have been charging have been more than recovering the costs. Therefore we are reducing the building levy because we've been recovering more than what was actually needed for that purpose in the first place. All these things are good things. All these things the Green Party are proud to support. It's really really important that there has been strong support from stakeholders across the sector as well and other members in the House who have had the privilege of hearing that directly on the select committee have commented on that—really important. They are the absolute experts with the insight and experience into making sure this bill is as good as it can be.I notice that the first change lifts the burden off leaving it to individual councils to have to regulate and to pick up that gap in our framework for building regulation and we were leaving a lot of that to councils which also then led to inconsistent standards and requirements around the country. Goodness knows what is wanted in one place and then in another place. So that was really important that we fixed that up as well. There's also a bit of duplication and I guess regulatory crowding where you've got several bits of regulation that mean the same thing in different words across different parts of legislation and in different parts of the country so we're tightening that up a lot and also there is the potential threat to safety depending on how materials are used in different situations. It's quite boggling that this has been this way for quite some time. It's really good that we are fixing this up in this particular bill at this time. The framework of certification of modular building is one of the other major changes. We're wanting to allow off-site inspection of components with deemed compliance of the building and it's if the components are assembled in accordance with approved methods. I noticed in the select committee report that that was quite a topic of conversation as it should be. I think one of the other final changes that I wanted to highlight was where it talks about MBIE requiring information about building products and methods so that they can carry out their work and so that their regulatory functions are more effective.I wasn't—oh how did I use all of that time up? I said I wasn't going to speak for long but OK. It's important that I raise one particular concern from our spokesperson on building and construction the Hon Julie Anne Genter. I looked through the select committee report and it didn't seem to canvass it but others who were actually on the select committee—you may not have written it in the report but you may have discussed it. Please correct me if you have. She's concerned about whether the Government will require mandatory rather than voluntary third-party testing for product certification for for example things like tapware where there is some evidence to suggest that there is some cheap tapware that is flooding into the market and that that cheap tapware can also lead to leeching into drinking water. There is no safe level of lead exposure in drinking water. So if that was discussed I look forward to others correcting me.Apart from that we absolutely celebrate the direction of this legislation and encouraging the certainty for the industry around off-site construction and prefab building methods. Thank you Mr Speaker.