Huo Raymond: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Huo Raymond: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 28 November 2012. Volume:686;Page:6874. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
RAYMOND HUO (Labour) 
: 
 The Kiwi dream of homeownership is dying and the hope for resuscitation by this National-ACT Government looks very bleak. I must congratulate Annette King and David Parker who both in their constructive contributions addressed the issues not politics. KiwiBuild following on from KiwiSaver and Kiwibank together with other Labour policy initiatives will play a very positive role in helping make our future brighter for all New Zealanders. 
One flow-on issue will be building law reform. It is fitting for me as Labour’s spokesperson on building and construction to emphasise that in order to avoid a repeat of the leaky building crisis to restore confidence in the building sector and to lift the game we must have concise and competent building legislation. Ever since the Building Act 1991 we have had a huge problem with leaky buildings. As emphasised many times we are talking about the issue not to apportion blame but to make sure we all have learnt the valuable lessons from the past. Has the Minister for Building and Construction the Hon Maurice Williamson who delivered a thunderous speech just now learnt his valuable lessons? No if the two building bills he introduced are anything to go by; they are nothing more than gimmicks. 
The Building Amendment Bill (No 4) which is listed on the Order Paper and waiting for its second reading is the second of two bills to implement the Building Act review policy decisions. The Building Act review initiated by the last Labour Government has won cross-party support. The review found weaknesses in consumer protection and a need to better allocate responsibility and accountability among building consenting authorities building practitioners and consumers. But the answer from that Minister for Building and Construction was to fail almost the entire sector and the relevant parties which will now be exposed financially to some extent. 
The Building Amendment Bill (No 3) now the Building Amendment Act 2012 shifted responsibility and accountability away from building consent authorities and on to consumers and builders. The code compliance certificate is no longer what it used to be. Mr Williamson has said that changing the code compliance certificate to the consent completion certificate will help change building consenting authorities’ position as the last man standing in those cases. However in their submissions two of the largest city councils in this country—Christchurch and Wellington—have strongly rejected the rationale simply because without introducing a mandatory warranty and looking at the liability models they argued there is no way to help the city councils through the situation and avoid a repeat of the leaky building crisis. Worse still homeowners will have fewer remedies if any if they are left in the lurch by unscrupulous shell companies. 
Let us look at some other issues such as insurance premiums which are a huge problem in the Wellington region. The  
Dominion Post 
 reported earlier that some businesses have faced insurance premium increases of up to 200 percent. 
Dr David Clark 
: 200 percent? 
RAYMOND HUO 
: 200 percent. Earthquake-prone buildings product warranties consumer protections—the list can go on and on. But for the Minister all important matters were referred to the Law Commission less important matters are looked after and taken care of by his officials and further less important matters will not concern him at all. So adopting his National-ACT Government’s hands-free hands-off approach the Minister is hands-off and New Zealanders are suffering.