Brooking RachelRACHEL BROOKING (Labour): Talofa lava Madam Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity to talk on this the Building (Building Products and Methods Modular Components and Other Matters) Amendment Bill.We all know that housing is of utmost importance to New Zealanders. We want good buildings and good houses that we know are safe that will provide good healthy environments for people to live in but also that we can produce the best houses as quickly and efficiently as possible. That is what this bill is trying to do or trying to address in part. We've heard the Minister say already that this is stage one of a series of reforms. On the previous Minister the Minister who spoke the Hon Poto Williams she has also got a housing portfolio. So there's some real synergy in this Government in trying to deal with housing not just to say there's a magic bullet for housing but looking at a whole range of issues being very very proactive and not just sitting still on anything.We've heard today as well from the Hon Grant Robertson who's the Minister of Finance and also relevantly to this to this housing issue the Minister for Infrastructure. He said today in question time that building consents are at a record high at the moment. There's over 42000 of them closer to 43000. People are working hard this Government is working hard to get housing for people.Hon Scott Simpson: Can't live in a consent!Hon Dr Megan Woods: Good speech Rachel. Keep going!RACHEL BROOKING: Thank you. So it's great to be part of this Government that actually cares and gets on with the job.Now we heard in the committee stage there was quite a lot of questioning about the new definitions of building product and building method and also about the regulations that can really spell out what these things are. So I think it's important that we go and we have a look at these. So the bill introduces at clause 7 a new 9A and 9B. Now 9A is the meaning of a building product. So it says In this Act building product means a product that (a) could reasonably be expected to be used as a component of a building; or (b) is declared by … by Order in Council." And it goes on. At 9B we have the meaning of the building method. And again it says "In this Act building method means a method (a) for using 1 or more products or things as part of building work; or (b) for carrying out building work that is declared by the Governor-General by Order in Council to be a building method." So what those regulations do is they can really say what a building product is and what a building method is.There was concern in the committee stage about the consultation requirements around that regulation-making process. So it's useful to go to section 403 of the primary Act and to look at what those consultation requirement are for making regulations. This section is amended very slightly by the bill but only to be specific that these new sections 9A and 9B that I've just read out in part the consultation requirements for making those regulations apply.So at 403 we see that "Before making a recommendation for the making of an Order in Council or regulations under those sections the Minister must be satisfied that the chief executive has consulted in accordance with subsections (3) and (4)." So we'll go to that. At subsection (3) "The chief executive must (a) do everything reasonably practicable on his or her part to consult with the persons or organisations that appear to the chief executive to be representative of the interests of persons likely to be substantially affected by the making of the relevant Order in Council or regulations; and (b) advise the Minister of the results of that consultation."Moving on to subsection (4) "The process for consultation should to the extent practicable in the circumstances include (a) giving adequate and appropriate notice of the intention to make the Order in Council or regulations; and (b) giving a reasonable opportunity for interested persons to make submissions; and (c) adequate and appropriate consideration of submissions." This is a good process for those regulations that are going to help us define what a building product and a building method are.I think it's useful also—we've seen in the legislative statement that's been referred to by the previous speaker Tim van de Molen a number of really useful things that are happening in this bill. One of them is that the building levy scope is widened to enable monitoring and oversight of the building system and that is an important change. Another one is that the time for prosecution goes from six months to 12 months. It's very difficult first of all to hear about a problem gather your evidence and then initiate prosecutions particularly if there are delegations that you need to obtain in a six month process. So that 12-month extension is a very sensible measure.Also there's a new offence for misrepresentation. If you misrepresent yourself as a product certification body or you make some sort of false certification around a product that's a new offence in this bill.In summary this bill is an important piece of legislation one I think you introduced and I am very happy to commend it to the House because it moves on with making the tough decisions doing the job of actually improving our system so that we can build better. Thank you."