Catchpole Brent: Financial Review Debate 
Catchpole Brent: Financial Review Debate 
[Volume:607;Page:4170] 
BRENT CATCHPOLE (NZ First) 
: 
 Earlier on in this debate we heard Paul Swain ask us to congratulate the Government on its financial review successes. Let us have a look at what he is asking us to do. This Government has discovered that it has a surplus of close to $3 billion and the Hon Michael Cullen has admitted that he does not know why it has that surplus. That not knowing is the Minister’s excuse for not spending any of the surplus on health law and order and education. That excuse is a thin one. The not knowing has one of two possible meanings: that this Government does not have a Budget or a plan for the future or that this Government does not give a damn about resolving the operating deficits in key public services like health. Reading through the Appropriation (2001/02 Financial Review) Bill does not give me any confidence that the Government has done anything to resolve any of those problems. The Government certainly has not improved the operating deficits. The money appears to be being spent in the wrong places. For example $5 million is to be spent on an uncertain and doubtful America’s Cup challenge. 
Last week the Government released a report on the building industry overhaul. I am disappointed that the Government chose to do this ahead of the Local Government and Environment Committee’s review of the leaky homes problem. The select committee report is only 1 to 2 weeks away. Why could the Government not have waited and had a look at that report before coming up with its own report on whatever review it has had? It certainly does not make any sense. It speaks volumes about how irrelevant this Government thinks the select committee’s review is. This Government’s contempt for this House was signalled by the Prime Minister when she made a flippant remark just prior to the select committee starting its review. She told the people with leaky homes to see their lawyers. That was only just at the end of last year when the review started. 
From the outset New Zealand First has felt that the select committee’s terms of reference were too narrow. Last week we saw why. It was deliberate. This Government has no intention of taking any notice of the select committee’s review. It was simply a sop to divert attention away from the failure of the Government and the Building Industry Authority to take action when there was strong evidence to suggest that a major problem of leaky and rotting homes was developing for 2 years prior to their asking for a review. By doing nothing this Government and its Minister of Internal Affairs George Hawkins have given 20000 more families an uncertain future. Many of those people are first-time homeowners with no reserves. Many others have invested their life savings and retirement funds into homes that in many cases are now worthless. Everything is going down the gurgler just like this Government’s superannuation scheme which went down the gurgler because investments were made in overseas investment markets. But that does not seem to matter to this Government. It does not give a toss for those people at all. 
From the beginning of this year the Government transferred responsibility for the Building Industry Authority to the Minister of Commerce Lianne Dalziel who has been squawking over there and telling me to do my homework. We are doing our homework. We are seeing the failings of that Minister as well. This Government has not made allowances for any blame in the financial review. It has not made any allowances whatsoever. Shifting the blame is exactly what we are seeing developers do to avoid their responsibilities. If we look at the newspapers we see the headline in the  
New Zealand Herald  
of 5 March: “Housing firms liquidated”. The item refers to developer brothers who face a $3.5 million leaking buildings lawsuit. It lists a number of companies that have folded—gone into liquidation. The Castlerock Group Castlerock Marua Eastpark Management and Ellerslie Properties have all gone into liquidation because they have problems. This is a situation where they have attempted to avoid their responsibilities by liquidating. This Government should widen the investigation into the corporate veil that is being kept over these companies. 
We see the heading in this weekend’s  
New Zealand Herald 
: “$1m to fix unit leaks at Albany”. There is another case from the same paper on March 15 of a series of companies being shut down: “Just before Christmas Manning shut down six companies involved in managing and leasing units at Taradale-developed resorts in Queenstown and Rotorua. Liquidators say the companies owe at least $1 million went into full liquidation last month and creditors will get less than 50c in the dollar.” Those companies had a paid-up capital of $1000. That is a situation where companies are being put up to develop a specific site then are being folded purely to avoid the developers’ responsibilities. 
We say that this Government has allowed that to happen. New Zealand First wants to see a further public inquiry—a broadened public inquiry—that goes far beyond the reaches of the select committee hearings we have had to date. We want to see the Companies Act investigated so that directors will be held responsible—not just for their moral mistakes and for hiding behind the corporate veil but we want to see those people brought to task. There are so many people with leaky homes but who no longer have anybody they can attack or challenge to get their properties repaired because the companies and the developers have liquidated and disappeared. This Government is allowing that to happen. It refuses to hold a further inquiry. It refused to broaden the inquiry. 
Lianne Dalziel is squawking away again. She is one of the Ministers responsible. She will not hold an inquiry to allow those people to have their properties properly investigated. The Government will not allow this matter to be sorted out properly and the select committee’s work over the last 3 months will basically be for nothing unless we can get this Government to accept responsibility for the whole industry. 
Dail Jones 
: Can New Zealand First fix it? 
BRENT CATCHPOLE 
: New Zealand First can fix it and we will fix it because we are going to continue to fight for those people. We are going to make sure that they get a fair and reasonable settlement on their homes and get their homes repaired. Their homes are in many cases their retirement funds. This Government is allowing the retirement funds of civil servants to go down the tubes and it is doing the same thing to those individuals who have bought leaky homes. It will allow that to happen right through until this disaster finally hits the economy of this country—because it will. The ones who will have to pay are the individuals and eventually the taxpayers—the poor families that will have to face this problem. 
I hope that Lianne Dalziel takes heed and opens up an investigation into the corporate veil situation because time and time again in the newspapers we are seeing companies liquidate because the Minister has done nothing. The Minister should do something and finish it off.