Heatley Phil: Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Heatley Phil: Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:641;Page:11091] 
PHIL HEATLEY (National—Whangarei) 
: 
 Thank you Mr Chairman; I will just wait for the clapping to die down. We are considering clause 3 “Principal Act amended”. It states: “This Act amends the Weathertight Homes Resolution Services Act 2006.” It is interesting to consider that we have canvassed the purposes of the Act in previous speeches. 
The National Party was always supportive—and certainly we listened to the submissions to the Social Services Committee when the original bill was debated—of the view in terms of general damages that damages for relevant mental distress for example should be claimable through the dispute resolution process. We recognised that many of the people who are going through the leaky buildings crisis have families and others are elderly people who do not have years ahead of them in which to save money and make payments to repair the destructive job that someone has done on their home. Those people underwent tremendous stress over a period of years particularly while the Government tried to get the process right in terms of the resolution services and they should have every right to pursue damages for relevant mental distress. We supported the submissions made along those lines many years ago. 
It has taken until now in this legislation—unfortunately 5 years later—to recognise that mental distress is a relevant and legitimate claim. So why would the National Party not support that? We certainly supported it when submissions came to this Parliament several years ago and of course we accept it now. The only regret we have is that it has taken 3 4 or 5 years for the Labour Government to acknowledge that claims for mental distress should have been accepted in the first place. I can only think of the tears the heartache the pain and the family stress that has occurred in the interim for those who have been through the process and who have been unable to claim for stress in relation to mental fatigue and distress. Of course there is no option for those people to claim for that; that option is available only for those who enter the process now going forward. So yes we support the legislation from the point of view of those claimants. 
But in terms of clause 3 which states: “This Act amends the Weathertight Homes Resolution Services Act 2006.” I say we should not be fooled into being unaware that the legislation we are debating this evening also makes changes to the Building Act. The Minister in a last-minute bid has decided to bring in on Supplementary Order Paper 133 clauses that amend the Building Act. Those clauses have nothing to do with the principal Act the Weathertight Homes Resolution Services Act. They are clauses on a Supplementary Order Paper to debate and force through Parliament changes to the Building Act. Those changes are all about the ability of local government to be registered as being able to issue building consents. Of course local government has been issuing building consents for many decades now. The Minister suddenly decided that local government had not been doing that in a particularly good way and now for some reason councils are required to be accredited by 30 November 2007 to issue building consents. 
Supplementary Order Paper 133 shifts the accreditation date beyond November because the Minister knows that the deadline for accreditation for councils currently in the Building Act cannot be met. It is absurd to think that councils which on the whole have been issuing building consents in a good and responsible manner for many many decades will suddenly not be able to issue those consents whether it be by the date currently in the Building Act or after that date. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Mr Chairperson—