Smith Nick: Third Readings 
Smith Nick: Third Readings 
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Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 Politics has been dominated for the last fortnight by a speech given by John Tamihere in which he made three particular references. The first of those was that we were verging on a dictatorship—that this Parliament was being treated with disrespect—and that the Leader of the House Michael Cullen was “sneaky” in the way in which he dealt with issues. We were also told with exquisite language about the features of this particular Minister Chris Carter who was referred to as one who tosses things. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: No. I ruled out the use of that word last night and I would appreciate it if the member would come to order. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: My point is that this legislation and the appalling way this Parliament has been treated have reinforced everything that John Tamihere said. Let me explain why. What we have seen is a sneaky little bill—the Legislation (Incorporation by Reference) Bill which makes only one change to the Building Act—being introduced into the House then a 20-page Supplementary Order Paper with 21 significant changes has been brought in over the top of it. That should concern you Mr Speaker because one of your duties is to protect this Parliament and this Parliament is being walked over like you would not believe. 
Only last week we saw the Government believing that it could simply walk all its Ministers out and shut down this House of Representatives. What we see with the Building Amendment Bill (No 3) is exactly the same sort of abuse and lack of respect for this democratic institution. What we really have here is the Government making an absolute botch of New Zealand’s building laws—and that matters because the building industry is worth $18 billion per year to the New Zealand economy. The industry employs 230000 people. Those people depend on a set of sensible building laws that are practical and workable and that ensure we have homes and buildings that will serve our nation well. What we have is an arrogant Government that under urgency rammed through a botched bill written by a bunch of Ministers who would not have the foggiest idea about the building industry. 
In this Government there have been six different Ministers for building issues. For a start we had Mark Burton. We then had George Hawkins. We then had Lianne Dalziel. We then had Margaret Wilson. We then had John Tamihere. Now we have Chris Carter and to make matters even worse this legislation is in the name of Pete Hodgson. It is little wonder that the building industry is crying out for some reasonable leadership and rules when that sort of game of musical chairs is occurring on the Government benches. No Minister in charge of this portfolio area has been in charge for a period in excess of 9 months so it is little wonder that it is the mess that it is. 
A fortnight ago during question time I raised with the Minister for Building Issues Chris Carter a series of concerns about the Building Act and I will quote what he said. He said: “There is no problem.” If there is no problem why are we ramming 21 changes to the Building Act through this Parliament under urgency? Was he being untruthful then or now? It must be one or the other. He cannot have said 2 weeks ago that there was no problem and now say: “Hang on we have to ram through 21 changes to the Building Act.” 
I will make a bet today. The Government botched it the first time. It ended up with a Building Act that was totally unworkable and that ended up with a Government breaking its own law. The officials in the Department of Building and Housing came before the Government Administration Committee and said: “Yeah sorry we are breaking the law.” Well that is becoming a habit with the Government—whether it be in terms of forging paintings or of going at 150 kilometres an hour while every other New Zealander doing that gets pinged. And now we now have it in respect of the building laws where the Government over both copyright issues and occupation of the Beehive has blatantly breached its own laws. That is the sorry state we have ended up with. 
I will make a bet that any one of these changes will create more errors. I have to make a comment about United Future. United Future members supported going into urgency so that the building legislation could be passed in a mad rush. When National expressed concern at the time they said: “No no it’s all right. It’s all OK. We have it absolutely right.” 
Murray Smith 
: I never said that. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Oh well why did the member support urgency? I say to Murray Smith that he has put us under urgency he voted for urgency he voted the legislation through the House and he said that it was all OK. Will he stake his reputation on these amendments being correct? If the Government has it wrong again will the member take responsibility? United Future members said that they would be the honest brokers for the Government yet they will allow the Government to treat this Parliament with the disrespect that sees 21 substantial amendments—20 pages of law—that were tabled only yesterday afternoon to be the law of the land by lunchtime today. United Future says that that is good lawmaking. United Future will be campaigning this year and saying: “Vote for us because we will ram 20 pages of law affecting one of New Zealand’s largest industries through Parliament within 24 hours.” and United Future says that that is good lawmaking. It is shonky lawmaking it is appalling lawmaking it is a mess it is causing great strife within the building industry and the problems are not finished. The wallies on the Government benches have decided that the good old— 
Hon Dover Samuels 
: The only wallies are on that side. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: I would like Mr Samuels to explain this to me. Why are we banning ordinary New Zealanders from being able to do building work on their own homes? There has never been any evidence presented to the select committee or anywhere else—in fact I have asked the Minister—on how many of the 2300 claims made over weathertightness resulted from do-it-yourself builders. The answer is none as far as we know. Why then is the Government prohibiting the New Zealand homeowner from doing building work on his or her own home? [ 
Interruption 
] Oh well we have David Cunliffe. He says it all. He has answered the question that I have been asking Ministers. He said it is because homeowners do a crap job. Well I have to say to David Cunliffe that generations of aspiring New Zealanders have done building work on their own homes and have improved those homes and as a consequence of doing that they have been able to get themselves ahead in life. 
I was one of those New Zealanders. I had a little old house in Riccarton. I built an extra room on to it knocked some walls out and upgraded it and that improved my equity. That is how generations of New Zealanders have been able to improve their lot and this Government is saying: “Nope. You will not be allowed to do that in future. We will abolish the ability for New Zealanders to be able to get themselves ahead.” That move would be so typical of the control freak approach taken by the Labour Government that has got it into so much trouble with this particular legislation. 
This process is an absolute disgrace. I remember being in Government and Labour members would be completely throwing their marbles in the House because we had law changed over weeks. This law has not seen the light of more than 1 day. In the Minister’s contribution we have just heard he made only passing reference to what he called a few minor and technical changes. Well is it minor and technical that all our architects designers and engineers are prohibited by law from doing design work because of the mad drafting and mad laws that the Government has imposed here? 
This will not be the last amendment to the Building Act. This is one of the worst reforms that I have seen in my 15 years in this Parliament. It is a diabolical mess. The Minister Chris Carter and the chair of the select committee Dianne Yates should be apologising to the building industry for making such a mess of the law for which they are responsible. We have a Building Act that has been written by control freaks who have no practical idea as to how the building industry in New Zealand functions. They do not know the practical dimensions of what it is to be able to provide good quality buildings. They have added hugely to the costs for no benefit. The industry will continue to pull its hair out but my response to the building industry is that help is on the way—a common-sense National Government will fix the Building Act later this year because the building industry knows from this bill that Labour cannot be trusted.