Street Maryan: Unit Titles Bill — In Committee 
Street Maryan: Unit Titles Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:661;Page:9861] 
Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour) 
: 
 I will make a couple of comments at the opening stage of the Committee stage of the Unit Titles Bill. I wish to respond in part to comments made at the outset by the Minister in the chair the Acting Minister of Housing. Even before that I want to draw it to the attention of the Committee—because the previous speaker Katrina Shanks seems to have forgotten this—that this legislation originated from the previous Labour Government. In fact it was introduced in May 2008 by the Hon Shane Jones who was the Minister for Building and Construction at the time. Why it has taken such a long time for the new Government to action this legislation is beyond me. The protestations from across the Chamber that this is a busy Government absolutely belie the fact that it was entirely possible for this legislation to be dealt with in an efficient way through the Social Services Committee. Again I say the reason why it has taken such a long time to emerge from the committee and get to this point in the legislative process is a mystery. 
Secondly referring to the comments of the Minister in the chair I would like to remind him of the origins of the expression now said with some humour “minor technical amendments”. If I remember this correctly—and I am happy to be corrected by those who have been here much longer than me—the origins of that phrase came from the fourth Labour Government when Stan Rodger was proposing the State sector bill in 1986 which he referred to as a “minor technical amendment”. That went down in the annals of Parliament as one of the understatements of all time. I remember writing a 20-page submission on behalf of the Labour Party at the time opposing the legislation. 
I will return to the point. The point is that we have just been delivered Supplementary Order Paper 112 in the name of the Hon Maurice Williamson which I understand was ready some 9 days ago and as far as Part 1 is concerned it has a number of amendments that we are advised are minor technical amendments. Although I am happy to proceed on the basis of the advice that the officials have given us—and they have assured my colleague Moana Mackey that they are indeed minor technical amendments—it is just a cautionary tale to recite some of that ancient history from the fourth Labour Government which caused it never to do such a thing again. Although there is some humour in that for the Minister in the chair I still wish to make the point about minor technical amendments being brought into the Committee at short notice when it would seem that the Minister had about 9 days to advise us of them. We would like to make sure that the process has some integrity around it and that the amendments are in fact minor technical amendments. 
With reference to Part 1 the Minister’s Supplementary Order Paper 112 amends clauses 3(a) 4 5(1) 5(2)(a) 5(2)(b) 5B(3) and 6A(b). All of those clauses are in Part 1 of the bill. 
As my colleague has said the Opposition is happy to support this legislation. However it is important to note two things. The first is that the origins of this legislation lay with the previous Labour Government which was trying at that time to ensure that the Unit Titles Act was updated to address contemporary building requirements.