Wagner Nicky: Building Amendment Bill (No 4) — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Wagner Nicky: Building Amendment Bill (No 4) — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 01 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:1822. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
NICKY WAGNER (National—Christchurch Central) 
: 
 I rise to support this Building Amendment Bill (No 4) at its first reading. It was back in 2009 that the National Government undertook the Building Act review and that review was driven by the need to improve building quality to simplify the procedures in construction to contain costs and to remove delays in building consent processes. The review confirmed that change was needed so that builders contractors and tradespeople could take full responsibility for the quality of their work and to make sure that we had professional standards and outcomes. This bill is the second of two bills introduced to implement those Building Act review policy decisions. The Building Amendment Act (No 3) has now passed into law and we are introducing No. 4 today. Today’s bill introduces the most comprehensive consumer protection measures. For example it requires that we have written contracts for most residential building work and ensures that contractors must fix any defect in a building that is reported within 12 months. It also provides processes for the enforcement of warranties. The idea of these measures is to give the consumers much more protection from poor-quality work and to therefore increase their peace of mind during and after a building project.  
The bill also seeks to clarify any exemptions from building consent requirements and it does this by rewriting and reformatting schedule 1 of the Act. It is of particular interest to me as the MP for Christchurch Central that the bill also introduces a new power for territorial authorities to deal with buildings that are at risk because they are close to other dangerous buildings. This is an issue that has come out of the Canterbury earthquakes and it will be really good to have these procedures clarified in legislation. The bill increases the penalties of the offence of doing building work without a consent. The maximum penalty is now $200000 which is up 100 percent from the previous $100000 so it makes it a very serious offence indeed.  
The bill also makes significant and well-considered changes to the legislation around dams and considering the amount of work that is going into that area it is a good thing to see that upgraded.  
The building and construction industry is significant in New Zealand. It currently employs about 170000 people which means about one in 12 New Zealanders are involved in that industry but when we think of the future of the $20 billion to $30 billion rebuild that is going to be focused on Christchurch and Canterbury that number of people involved in this industry can only increase.  
So I welcome this bill. I think we must do everything to make sure that we build quality buildings—quality industrial buildings commercial buildings and residential buildings—but also at the best possible cost. The 2009 Building Act review developed policies to improve both the quality of building and its cost-effectiveness and I think the people of New Zealand really need to have confidence in the construction sector and the work it does. This No. 4 bill I think will deliver on those policies so I commend the bill to the House.