Prebble Richard: Building Bill — In Committee Procedure 
Prebble Richard: Building Bill — In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:619;Page:14848] 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE (ACT) 
: 
 I want to respond to a few points made by the honourable member opposite who said that I was just relying on the free market and that this bill would help people. Also Mr Catchpole remarked that because all the rest of the world has licensed building so should we. First in the case the member cited he pointed out that builders had gone broke or had gone out of business. If they had gone broke this bill would not have solved the problem—unless it is the Government’s intention that ratepayers will be the insurers of all new buildings. If that is what is intended then that will be very very expensive. 
On the question of licence New Zealand has been a country that has never licensed builders. I ask members to look around this nation and see how we have managed to build it without licensing. Now suddenly we are told we have to have it. I can give an example. I said I was in the building industry. When I was out of Parliament or had been retired by the voters— 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: Rejected. 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE 
: —or rejected; I like to think I was given a holiday. However there I was in Vietnam and I noticed that the New Zealand Government intended to build an embassy there. It was going to get an Australian company to do it and I thought: “That’s no good; we must have a New Zealand company build it.” I persuaded a New Zealand company to put in for the contract and it won it. I rang the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and said that the contract was needed immediately. I was told that it was OK; that because the building was an embassy it would be under New Zealand law. I told the officials that they did not understand because in Vietnam there are so many regulations—everything is licensed. The biggest problem would not be building the embassy; it would be the time it took to get the regulations through. However I put in the application and the Government—the Vietnamese Government—literally wanted to know my grandparents’ names. The application documents were almost as big as this bill. I was visited the next day and told there had been a terrible mistake. I asked the officials what it was and they asked me where my company’s licence was. I told them that in New Zealand we do not have to be licensed. They said that that could not be so; that everybody is licensed. I said that we have a licence in Hong Kong and in Singapore but we do not have one in New Zealand. In the end I told them we were members of the Master Builders Association and I got the permit. 
Darren Hughes 
: Was that a fib? 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE 
: No it was absolutely true. In fact I rang the Master Builders Association saying that it had no idea how much it cost to make a call from Vietnam and asked it to send me a copy of our licence immediately. It was sent by DHL Worldwide Express. Vietnam does not accept faxes. I would never dream of fibbing. I actually knew what the next question would be: “Where is the Master Builders Association licence?”. How would the member answer that question? I had a day to think about it because I knew I would be asked. I said that the Master Builders Association was licensed and I produced the certificate of incorporation as well. 
All I am saying is that that did not make our embassy building any better. Neither did it improve the building standards in Vietnam. People who think that licensing and bureaucracy result in better building are out to lunch. We have managed to build this whole nation by doing it the Kiwi way and we now have a Government whose Ministers appear to be saying that they think there is too much political correctness but are now trying to tell the nation that 358 pages of extra bureaucracy will result in better lawmaking. I say to members opposite that that is nonsense. This is rubbish legislation. It will take us down the bureaucratic route—the route of the loony left that thinks that having more and more rules is the way to govern New Zealand. The truth is that it should always be a matter of buyer beware. People contracting with a builder have a responsibility to find out whether that person is a registered builder. At the moment—if the member thinks that registration is important—people can go to a master builder; but if a Kiwi decides that he or she wants to take a risk why should we remove risk taking from our community? 
Hon Damien O'Connor 
: Who’s a master builder? 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE 
: A member of the Master Builders Association. Has the Minister never heard of that association? 
Hon Damien O'Connor 
: Anyone can join. 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE 
: No that is not true actually. Where is the Minister’s master builder’s certificate? He cannot produce it. I can produce mine. In fact is there anyone in the Labour Government who is a member of the Master Builders Association? There is not one.