Dean Jacqui: Building Amendment Bill (No 3) — In Committee 
Dean Jacqui: Building Amendment Bill (No 3) — In Committee 
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JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki) 
: 
 Thank you Mr Chair— 
Hon Shane Jones 
: Who? 
JACQUI DEAN 
: Yes indeed that excellent member for Waitaki. 
Katrina Shanks 
: So modest. 
JACQUI DEAN 
: Yes and modest and also probably a little bit different from some of the members on the other side of the Chamber. I was dismayed by the previous two contributors Shane Jones and Andrew Williams who really showed the underlying ethic that runs through Labour certainly—well we are seeing it in the New Zealand First member too—which is that they do not actually value and trust builders. It is coming through quite clearly that they do not seem to believe that builders take pride in their work and in fact would respond to the provisions that this Government has brought forward in this Building Amendment Bill (No 3). I think that is a shame. I think that type of attitude that nobody knows any good except for the Government of the day prevailed very strongly during the term of the last Labour Government. In fact did not one Minister when Labour was putting through the real estate agents bill famously get up in the House and show how much high regard he had for real estate agents by calling them land sharks? 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: It was me. Guilty guilty guilty! 
JACQUI DEAN 
: Clayton Cosgrove has just put his hand up and illustrated to the Committee once again that he is of that genre of MP who does not like business and cannot stand people who are self-employed. Speaking to the point of the bill I think what happens when you have 11—was it 11—Ministers for Building and Construction in how many years— 
Katrina Shanks 
: 9 years. 
JACQUI DEAN 
: Nine years. Well no wonder. No wonder the sector was in disarray. No wonder the regulations were all over the place. Nobody knew where they stood. How many members are there in the Chamber now? Not even 11. There would have been more people than that proudly calling themselves Minister for Building and Construction but at the same time running down builders whenever they could. If that is the flavour of the members opposite then long may Labour remain the Opposition. 
However this Government under this Minister has brought this excellent bill to the House—the Building Amendment Bill (No 3)—and there are some really good useful provisions in this bill. There are four key changes that are going to happen and I support them all because I think that what they do is provide clearer accountability for building practitioners a bit of certainty and the underlying idea that the building profession is a good profession. This bill will be responsible for building capability and capacity within the building profession. What is wrong with that? As a result of that it is certain that we will get construction that is built right first time. History shows us that when you do not value the building sector and you have 11 Ministers in 9 years everybody is all over the shop and does not know what is happening. So one of the major changes is that there will be very clear accountability for building practitioners for building consent authorities but also most important for consumers by making sure that work complies with the building code. What is wrong with that? Why can the Opposition not support that? It seems pretty clear and— 
Hon Amy Adams 
: Because they’re haters. 
JACQUI DEAN 
: Yes because Opposition members are haters. I know they are haters. They do not value builders they do not value real estate agents and they do not value many other people in society. They think they know best. The difference is this Government happens to think we should be empowering people to do a good job and that is what this bill intends to do. 
A new building consent system will be risk based in time. That means that the amount of checking and the amount of inspection is related to the risk of the work and to the complexity of the job and also of course related to the skills and capability of the people doing the work. One of the aspects of this bill that I particularly like relates to do-it-yourselfers—those people who enjoy getting out the tools on the weekend and knocking up a deck or a floor or something in the shed. This bill recognises that we are a nation of people who like to do do-it-yourself projects on the weekend. 
Katrina Shanks 
: It’s the Kiwi way of life. 
JACQUI DEAN 
: It is. Thank you to that member. It is the Kiwi way of life and there are a number of people who enjoy doing these projects. We do not want to stop that because a lot of people do good work. We do not want to stop it. They will be exempted from the restricted building work scheme. What that means is they will not have to employ licensed building practitioners to supervise their work or to carry out restricted building work.