Dalziel Lianne: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Dalziel Lianne: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 11 December 2012. Volume:686;Page:7327. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
10. 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL (Labour—Christchurch East) 
 to the  
Minister for Building and Construction 
: How quickly will he respond to the building performance assessment and construction recommendations of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Building Failure caused by the Canterbury Earthquakes? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (Minister for Building and Construction) 
: 
 As the Government said when it released the final parts of the royal commission’s report it expects to release a full response by early to mid next year. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Can he assure the House that the regulatory system behind the building control system today would not allow a repeat of the sequence of events that ended in the tragedy of the CTV Building? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Yes indeed I can assure the member. Some of it was under the Labour Government and some of those changes have been under the current National Government where we have done full accreditation of things like the building consent authority and from December next year building officials who work within those will actually need to be qualified to perform the work. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Can he confirm that specific concerns about poor seismic-resistant design were raised with him by the group of engineers who approached him in his electorate office in 2008 and will he now urgently review those concerns in light of the royal commission’s findings? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: I presume the member is talking about the individual John Scarry raising it with me. He raised concern about the entire engineering profession in New Zealand and about poor standards across modern building practice. I have got a copy of notes from the things that he said at the time and what was interesting is that the CTV Building was built back in 1986 a time Mr Scarry was not referring to. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Can he confirm that specific concerns about poor seismic-resistant design were raised with him by the group of engineers which included Charles Clifton associate professor of civil engineering and the structures group leader at the department of civil and environmental engineering University of Auckland and will he now review the concerns that were raised with him by the group of engineers in light of the findings of the royal commission? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: By my recollection of that meeting some many years ago there were three at it. They made the claim again on this morning’s radio. Mr Scarry said two Prime Ministers—that is Helen Clark and John Key—have both ignored him and eight building and construction Ministers which I presume is seven from Labour followed by me have ignored him. He feels terribly ignored and the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand Inc. is ignoring him as well. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Can he confirm that specific concerns about poor seismic-resistant design were raised with him in 2008 and will he now specifically review those concerns in light of the findings of the royal commission? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: It is very hard to recall the meeting. It was in an electorate office; it was not with officials. It was a couple of engineers: the two who have been mentioned plus one other. The general concern was across the entire engineering profession that all the buildings that we were currently building were not up to standard and I needed to do something. I have made it clear on a number of public occasions that if Mr Scarry can get the support of the engineering fraternity—that is the Institution of Professional Engineers the Structural Engineering Society New Zealand and a whole lot of other engineering associations—and it backs his claim which it does not I will take it seriously. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: In light of the fact that the royal commission report volumes 5 and 7 acknowledge that the regulatory system behind the building control standards is more lax now than it was in 1986 which was the point that was raised with him and given the recommendations for improvement will he now review those matters that were brought to his attention all those years ago? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: All of the recommendations made by the royal commission will be looked at carefully and considered carefully and then a final considered view will be put by the Government. But I just do not accept that the current regime is more lax than it was back in 1986. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: I seek leave to table an email that Charles Clifton—whom I described in one of my questions—emailed through to Radio New Zealand this morning after he heard people saying that the system today was nowhere near as dangerous as it was back then. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is no objection. 









Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.