Ardern Shane: Building Bill — In Committee Procedure 
Ardern Shane: Building Bill — In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:619;Page:14842] 
SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki-King Country) 
: 
 This is the part where the heavy-handed regulation reaches out and grabs hold of everybody. The rubber hits the road in this part of the bill. It would have stopped former Prime Minister Norman Kirk from building his house. Under its provisions Mr Kirk would have had to have a licensed building practitioner come along and tell him whether he knew how to lay the concrete blocks—whether he was up to standard. [ 
Interruption 
] That is right. I know who would have worn the concrete blocks and it would not have been the former Prime Minister. I know where he would have liked to stick his engine if that building practitioner had arrived to tell him what was what. 
 That is the sort of thing that one would never consider could come out of a party that believes in the blue-collar worker. For example the member down there Clayton Cosgrove who is talking to the Minister at the moment represents a seat that is a traditional Labour seat—the seat of a former Labour Prime Minister another blue-collar worker. One would never believe that this kind of thing would come into this Parliament under a Labour Government. But here we are today with a bill that means that anybody for example that man with his ute and his dog and his radio will now have to have a proper building practitioner come along and tell him whether the wall on the hay barn that he has built that is over and above the criteria for what is allowed to be built without having to have a building practitioner is in fact up to standard. 
It is going to be very interesting to see where these building practitioners will come from in Waitomo when they have to travel out to somewhere like Kinohaku to have a look at a construction that has taken place there. Of course it will not be required on the school because Government departments I presume like they were under the old Act will be exempt. But under this Act anybody else who is building anything substantial out in Kinohaku miles from anywhere will now have to have a licensed building practitioner come out to certify that the work meets the standard according to some bureaucrat in Wellington— 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: Good. 
SHANE ARDERN 
:—and the member over there who comes from a former Prime Minister’s seat nods his head and says it is good. Well I think Clayton Cosgrove should go back and have a talk to Mike Moore about this because I do not think he would agree with him nor would anyone else who votes Labour unless of course it is the urban-based lawyers who will benefit from it. 
This is the worst possible piece of bureaucratic politically correct regulation that has ever come to this Parliament in the time that I have been here. It stymies the very essence of being a New Zealander—that is to be able to go and do some repairs to one’s own house; to be able to buy and then to upgrade an old bungalow somewhere in Wellington as a young couple that has just got married. On their weekends they can do it up and get a bit of capital gain and get some benefit from it so they can move on as they climb up the ladder to becoming a successful couple. This will say to such people that they cannot do that unless they are prepared to pay through the nose and find some building practitioner who will turn up and inspect their work on the weekend because that is the only time they have available to spend time on site with that licensed building practitioner. On the weekend they will be paying triple time under the new employment law for him to turn up and do that. I have to say to the members opposite particularly the Labour members that I could not believe it when I saw this measure being introduced by a Labour Party. 
This whole business came about as a result of a process that has taken place under this Government. In 2002 the Building Industry Authority released its weathertightness report and made 20 recommendations aimed at fixing what it described as a systemic problem or a systemic failure in the building industry. I go through this bill and I look at how having a licensed building practitioner as will be required under this part will address that. I ask the Minister in the chair John Tamihere who I notice is suddenly paying attention to take a call and explain to members how—