Shirley Ken: Third Readings 
Shirley Ken: Third Readings 
[Volume:625;Page:19834] 
Hon KEN SHIRLEY (ACT) 
: 
 Just to recap we have a mess here. The Building Act was passed some 8 months ago. Part of it became operative on 30 November last year just a few months back. Another significant part of it became operative on 31 March only 13 days ago. If anyone needs to be given proof that this is legislation on the hoof here it is. We are making a significant amendment just 13 days after that part of the legislation became operative. Moreover we now have a 21-page Supplementary Order Paper that is 10 times bigger than the amendment itself. It is the sticking plaster on top of the sticking plaster on top of the festering wound. 
United Future proudly claims credit for all this good work. The United Future members call it good work. They imply that it would not have happened if it had not been for their efforts and I suspect that that is right. But that is nothing to claim credit for; it is something to be deeply ashamed of and apologetic for. And in fact we even had an amendment tabled by Mr Smith of United Future this morning during the Committee stage—scribbled out in his handwriting—after he had proudly claimed that he had worked on the legislation. He was very proud of the legislation and implied that he had put it right. Yet here we have even today a handwritten further amendment. This legislation is a mess and the building laws are a mess. 
Perhaps what I found to be the most revealing comment came in this very third reading debate this morning in response to an interjection from I think Dr Smith who wanted to know why home handymen and women cannot continue to do the work that they have always done on their homes. Kiwis have great aptitude for building and great experience at it that has been passed down from father to son. What was the response from Mr Cunliffe the “junior Minister of Commerce” who actually has a responsibility associated with this bill? He said that oh no the Government could not allow Kiwis to do building at home because they do a crap job. That is what he said. What a gross generalisation that was! What arrogance it was! I have never heard such arrogance in this House but it typifies the thinking of this Labour Government which somehow believes that only nanny State can control and direct those sorts of things. We need another regulation and more prescriptive controls from nanny State to protect us all from ourselves—that is what the Labour Minister Cunliffe said here in the House today. 
I think a lot of New Zealanders will take deep offence at that. I am certainly offended by that statement as someone who built his own home over 30 years ago—a house that is still standing and does not leak. I know many of my friends did likewise. In fact most of the homes in the Hutt Valley were built by soldiers returning from the war who formed gangs and built each others’ homes. They reciprocated and then went down and built the house next door. A lot of Hutt Valley homes were built in that way. But this Labour Government is saying that no there is to be no more of that. We might have had 100 years in this society of good innovative Kiwis doing a good job yet the Government is saying that they cannot do that because they do a crap job. That is deeply insulting. 
Of course the building industry agrees with the Government. It says that yes it wants there to be more restrictions and more controls. Well of course it would want that. Has it not heard of restrictive trade practice? The bigger the building company the more the industry supports it. There are so many laws and controls here that one now needs to employ one’s own bureaucrats in order to get approvals through city hall and through the various Crown agencies. Of course that is economy-of-scale stuff. That gears things more—weights them more—in favour of the larger construction companies. So the home handyman is gone and the small construction guy is at a serious disadvantage with this type of legislation. It is all about more central control—more central control from the Labour Government. 
The United Future party members are proud. They are trying to say that this legislation is really their handiwork—that it is their work and they did it. They should be ashamed of themselves. They should be hanging their heads low in deep shame. Perhaps what is even more disgraceful—and I think this underscores the arrogance of this Government—is that having messed up the original Act passed only 8 months ago and having brought an amendment to the House and then a Supplementary Order Paper that is 10 times bigger than that bill the Government is not even letting Supplementary Order Paper 361 go to a select committee. Government members are saying this legislation is so urgent that they have to ram it through under urgency without any select committee hearing or submissions from the public. 
We had the Minister in the chair earlier this morning try to excuse that by saying the amendments were just to correct minor numerical and grammatical errors. Well they are not; they are more substantive than that. We have things such as penalty clauses where one can be liable for a $100000 fine or $10000-a-day fines. Are those perhaps just numerical problems and do they have the decimal point in the wrong place a nought or two dropped off or a nought or two added? Who knows? Those sorts of errors impact hugely on Kiwis’ lives every day and the Government is ramming this legislation through under urgency. 
The Minister of course was tossed aside. The Minister for Building Issues Chris Carter was tossed aside and we had Supplementary Order Paper 361 in the name of Peter Hodgson. We had a bit of a discussion last night about the Minister being tossed aside. Was he actually the “tossee” or the “tossor”? We could not actually decide on that. He is clearly one of those: either the “tossee” or the “tossor”. 
This is shameful legislation and the ACT party will be opposing it. I notice that the National Party the New Zealand First Party and the Greens are opposing it. The only reason this legislation is going through Parliament under urgency is that the United Future party somehow thinks the legislation is good. It has not been able to convince us of that or tell the House what is good about it. The United Future members proudly claim this legislation as their own handiwork. Every builder every home handyman or woman and everyone who has any involvement with building structures out there should know that this bad legislation is a direct result of the United Future party and should say: “Shame on United Future.”