Penk ChrisHon CHRIS PENK (Minister for Building and Construction): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. May I start by congratulating you personally as well as your fellow presiding officers who have been elected to this higher office. As a partner in crime in the last term of Parliament I'm delighted to see that you've risen to this lofty station and hope that my remarks now will stand us in good stead as you make rulings throughout the parliamentary term. Congratulations too—if I may be so bold as to bring you into the debate—on the election win that you had in the area that you now represent.I wish to join others who have congratulated our new members of Parliament from across the House—both from the National side of whom there are many; and also from those of other parties based in the same area that I am fortunate enough to continue to represent: my friend Jenny Marcroft of course returning to Parliament; also Hūhana Lyndon of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand. I also wish to acknowledge the maiden speeches that were made earlier tonight by my colleagues James Meager and Katie Nimon—look forward very much to the maiden statements of other members of the class of 2023.I do wish also to acknowledge particularly Dr Weenink and Mr Costley—new colleagues. They have very recently served in one case; and for a long period of service in both cases in the New Zealand Defence Force. So I'd like as the newly minted Minister for Veterans to thank them for their service as well as all of our New Zealand Defence Force personnel. I know that the defence Minister the Hon Judith Collins would wish to do so likewise. I do also wish to acknowledge—as we're being reflective about this wonderful institution of Parliament and even the building itself—we stand here in a war memorial with such auspicious but moving reminders of the sacrifice made by so many New Zealanders. I look around and I see Afghanistan I see Timor-Leste Vietnam and many other reminders of the history that we should always bear in mind when we speak in this House exercising our freedom of expression and so forth.I also wish of course to congratulate the right honourable Prime Minister for the formation of Government. I'd also like to congratulate him on his choice of ministry in the case of an excellent Minister for Building and Construction and as I said veterans and various others. I do actually want to speak about some of the things that I would like to attempt to do in in those various portfolios and areas going forward.It is important however—notwithstanding Mr McAnulty's speech—that we do reverse some of the unpopular policies that have been put forward by the Government in the last six years. Indeed we campaigned on those; we gained a mandate on the basis of doing so. It would be strange and indeed anti-democratic were we not to follow through with those policies—so we will. So when Mr McAnulty says that we can't go through and provide tax relief I say to him: not only is it not true that we can't; we should we can and indeed we will.So on a positive note then in terms of the various briefings that I've received so far in relation to portfolios I note that there are in some cases longstanding issues that face our country. Other ones are more in the category of things that have been somewhat let slide these past six years or certainly particularly the last three in a couple of cases.So in relation to the veterans' affairs portfolio major question marks remain in relation to even such a basic and fundamental question of what is a veteran what length of service what type of service—operational or otherwise—should qualify a person who puts himself forward in service of this country to be regarded as such. Some valuable work was undertaken two terms ago led by the Hon Ron Mark who was very passionate about this work and consultation was undertaken in relation to the idea of a covenant—or a kawenata—to reflect that special bond of service between New Zealand and these fine women and men who put themselves forward. That work needs to be progressed. Frankly we let down people who have served our country if we don't come to some manner of conclusion in relation to that question as well as very specific questions about how we regard the service of those who witnessed nuclear testing at various different places around the globe. That's a question that the Government will need to resolve in terms of how we recognise the presumptive injuries that have come about for people who were placed in that terrible position some decades ago.In building and construction we've seen far too little progress lately on the question of how we can allow the building sector to be more productive less bound by regulation; while acknowledging of course where safety is an issue of workers but of course in terms of the abilities of buildings to be safe and secure environments too. Of course there is a balance to be struck there. But I'm pleased to say that along with other aspects of the Government's programme in removing the wasteful industry transformation plans or ITPs likewise in the building construction sector while we commit very firmly and strongly to talking with the sector we won't do it through a mechanism that has not been productive at all in the way that the Government had intended. We will save the taxpayer money by doing so and therefore we will make a contribution to reducing those cost of living pressures that we rightly talked about during the campaign and on which basis New Zealanders have given us a mandate to go forward and govern.Other issues I'll leave perhaps for another day—perhaps as early as question time tomorrow; I might be fortunate enough to be asked a question about these so sort of just throwing it out there in case the Leader of the House is watching.Arena Williams: Are you on regs review?Hon CHRIS PENK: I'm not on the Regulations Review Committee.Arena Williams: You love it!Hon CHRIS PENK: I know I know I know. Ms Williams has asked if I might be on the Regulations Review Committee and I'm so committed to the idea.Arena Williams: Tell us what it does.Hon CHRIS PENK: Ask what it does. Well look we've only got 3½ minutes. Even though in a funny kind of way if I were to talk about it it would seem like a lot longer. Anyway.So we are in a phase though actually in all seriousness of discovering—as every new Government does when they come in and they find exactly the state of things and on occasion that might be better; more often they will be worse. But actually I do have a very serious point to make in relation to this. It concerns at least one school in my electorate. It's Kaipara College which has had planned for many years a major new innovation centre. They need the space; this is an important project but it turns out that through considerable mismanagement over-promising under-delivering announcements being favoured over the hard reality of delivery and a mismatch of rhetoric and reality this project now appears not to be able to be funded given the state of the books that have been left with us. I've sought advice. The Minister of Education I'm very pleased to say is seeking briefings to understand how the situation has risen how it might be resolved.Can I just make a plea on behalf of that community of which the school is a really important part and of which this project in turn is a very important new innovation as I say: we simply need to be non-ideological in the way that we commit to providing services and facilities to New Zealanders. So if it is able to be the case that we can have this built in a way that is perhaps through a public-private partnership programme or some other creative mechanism of ensuring that the kids of that area get what they need to actually be in school learning and so on then we should absolutely go ahead and do it. So my plea to all concerned is that they recognise the importance of that. I know the Minister of Education does. I'm very grateful that we have in Erica Stanford someone who gets it; someone who will be deeply committed to those.With all due respect to Ms Tinetti when she talks about issues and decries our focus on ensuring that at least one hour of math reading and writing takes place every day well it's not very much help if we don't have school classrooms in which to be able to actually conduct those. So I say to her: it would be helpful for her to reflect on her legacy and her Government's legacy.We've heard a lot about smoke and mirrors—no doubt it's in the talking points; that's fine. But actually some of those Government Ministers should be looking in a mirror and reflecting quite literally upon the cause of some of the malaise across this country and including particularly as I say in the education system. It's an absolute crying shame. Goodness knows so many kids haven't been turning up to school so they probably barely even know what they're missing. But they should know and they should know who's caused that problem.My remaining time I commit again on behalf of the Government and as a member of that Government we will work hard to reduce the cost of living issues. We will improve the situation with law and order in our New Zealand cities towns and indeed rural areas. We will improve health and education services. You've heard about some of those measures we've undertaken through the Speech from the Throne. More importantly it is a speech for the people. It will get New Zealand back on track and I can't wait to see how we on the National Party side of things along with New Zealand First and ACT can achieve that in the next three years. Thank you.