Prebble Richard: Building Bill — In Committee Procedure 
Prebble Richard: Building Bill — In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:619;Page:14834] 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE (ACT) 
: 
 I will make just a quick response to the points made by the United Future party. No one else in the country thinks the country’s dozen or so private building certifiers are responsible for the problems facing the industry. I am amazed that United Future which says it is in favour of small business at the Government Administration Committee actually turned out to be more militant and opposed to private enterprise than the Green Party. It is quite extraordinary—but those members have a number of inconsistencies. 
I want to slate the committee for another matter. I refer to clause 119B in Part 1A “All building work must comply with building code”. When I go to the definitions to find out what “building work” is I discover in clause 7(1)(b)(ii) to my astonishment that “a fence as defined in section 2 of the Fencing of Swimming Pools Act 1987;” is a building. Let me declare yet another interest: I own a swimming pool—quite a large one apparently—in west Auckland in the eco-city of Waitakere. That gives—[ 
Interruption 
] The Committee should be aware that this sort of power is going to be delivered to councils. What will they do with it? I will just give members my personal experience. I bought the house and it had a swimming pool. There was no fence. The Waitakere City Council had done nothing about the Fencing of Swimming Pools Act. I arrived and immediately fenced it. I actually rang up the Waitakere City Council and said: “I know you can’t answer this question but if you could who’s a good reliable fencing contractor?”. The council gave me a name—and of course I would never mention that it did that so I will not but it did—and I hired that person. He fenced my pool and the Waitakere City Council came around on another matter and complimented me on the good job. 
 Last year I was amazed to get a letter from the Waitakere City Council stating that my pool was not fenced. I looked out to see if the fence had gone and found it was still there. I wrote a note to say that the fence which the council had complimented me on was still there. The council came back and said that the pool should not be fenced—it should be caged. I could not believe it. The council told me I had to put the fence right around the edge of the pool to stop children from going in. I said it would mean that we adults would be outside watching our children drown and unable to get over the fence to save them. 
The council has carried on with this lunacy and is prosecuting 200 swimming pool owners in Waitakere City each one of whom has a fence. Many of them are in the same situation that I am in whereby at the other end of my property there is a creek owned by the Waitakere City Council. Is it fenced? No it is not. I draw to the attention of members the fact that not one child has been drowned in a fenced pool in Waitakere City but children have most certainly been drowned in creeks. 
I say to this Committee that when we pass these sorts of regulations we have to realise that councils have “little Hitlers”—but perhaps I should not call them that. 
Opposition Member 
: Morons? 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE 
: No they are worse than morons; they are power mad. They do not like the fact that some people can afford a swimming pool. They want to put up regulations that have nothing to do with safety but are all about power. People like Bob Harvey the mayor is completely in the hands of his bureaucrats and is not able to get up and ask for common sense. 
We can see why that is—because the common-sense party United Future thinks 10 private building certifiers are responsible for the problems we have had with buildings. There is no evidence to support that. United Future thinks this sort of regulation will make New Zealand a better country—no it will not. New Zealanders will be tortured as a result of Mr Smith’s contribution. When John Terris introduced the swimming pool legislation he cannot have possibly imagined that responsible owners who had fenced their pools without being asked to by the council would be dragged through the courts and required to cage their pools which is quite contrary to any intention of this House. Somehow or other the select committee has agreed to declare swimming pools as buildings so that these bureaucrats can persecute ordinary law-abiding New Zealanders. 
I say to the Minister Mr Tamihere who says he has had enough of political correctness that this is political correctness on steroids. The Minister lives in Waitakere City; he knows what an eco-city is like and the nightmare it can be. He knows that it is quite prepared to persecute its own citizens.