Burns Brendon: Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Financial Assistance Package) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Burns Brendon: Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Financial Assistance Package) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
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BRENDON BURNS (Labour—Christchurch Central) 
: 
 I am very pleased to take a call as we go through the second reading of the Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Financial Assistance Package) Amendment Bill.I will pick up on the comments of Chris Auchinvole the chair of the Local Government and Environment Committee that considered this bill and go back to Labour’s history on this issue. 
I want us just to remember where the weathertightness issue emerged. It emerged in the early 1990s— 
Hon Christopher Finlayson 
: Helen Clark said it was a beat-up. 
BRENDON BURNS 
: —as Mr Finlayson would well know when the then National Government deregulated the industry and took away the requirement that timber be treated in building sites. The National Government took that requirement away and the Minister who is leading this bill was part of that very same Government. Let us not forget that. So although he comes to the House triumphantly with this bill to mop up a mess the bill has it origins back in the Government of which he was a principal part in the 1990s. 
Let us not forget another component of that cocktail of disaster which was National saying that we did not need to have apprenticeships supported by the Government; the market would provide. That was another important component of that comedy of errors which has led according to the Minister’s estimate to an $11 billion repair bill. The reason the Government is now stepping up to the plate in respect of $1 billion is that the Government of the 1990s under National walked away from training young builders to get the appropriate level of skills to deal with the other elements that came to fruition in the early 1990s which were the new building products that were emerging and the new Mediterranean-style flush designs. That was the origin of the leaky building disaster which is still with us today and which this bill is attempting to remedy. But let us not try to sheet the blame home to the last Labour Government. The origins of the leaky building problems rest very firmly with the Bolger administration of the 1990s and the push for deregulation which have had enormous consequences for us. That is what we are trying to mop up with this bill. 
Let us still say that Labour is supporting this bill because this is as good as it gets to this point. Therefore we are duty-bound to support this bill. But that still leaves many unanswered questions of detail about the bill. I would like the Minister at some point during the bill’s passage to give the House an assurance about where the banks are on this issue. The bill requires that homeowners meet 50 percent of the cost of repairs but they will not be able to do that unless the banks have come to the party. I would like the Minister to tell the House before this bill is passed by it whether any of the major trading banks have stepped up to the plate have entered into his embrace and have said that yes they are with him and they want to commit to supporting those homeowners who want to repair their homes under this package of assistance. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Certain banks have already said that. And we will have them all on board by the time— 
BRENDON BURNS 
: Well if the Minister is able to give the House that assurance more formally through the course of this bill it would be very useful. We need to know that this measure has the capacity to work. It has good detail but in terms of the fine print we need to know whether there will be support from the major trading banks because that is a key matter. 
There are some fishhooks in this legislation as I think the Minister will observe. This is in fact the second iteration of the package. A year or two back the Minister put forward a package in which the Government component was going to be only 10 percent. Quite rightly local bodies squawked indignantly at the thought that they should be bearing the lion’s share of the cost alongside homeowners. They came back to the Government and we now see the Government stepping up to a 25 percent share. 
The Minister attempted to say in his introductory remarks to the second reading that the Government cannot be legally bound to this process. But if we go back to the origins of this problem—to the deregulation that happened and the waning away of apprenticeships—we see that the Government of that time took steps that at least in moral terms if not in legal terms say to me and to members on this side of the House that the Government has some moral obligation to step up and try to sort out this disaster which by the Minister’s estimate will cost $11 billion. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Why did Labour do nothing for 9 years? 
BRENDON BURNS 
: No I tell the Minister that we are not talking about doing nothing; we are talking about doing what is just and proper and we are talking about sorting out a problem that began when that member was first a Minister in this House. He favoured taking the “heavy hand of the State” off the building industry and we are seeing the consequences manifested through this bill today. So the Minister should stand up and take some responsibility for the mess he helped to create. Let us not just have the triumphant blowing of trumpets because he was in part responsible for the disaster that we as a Parliament are trying to resolve today. 
That is what this bill is about. It is a step forward but it has many unanswered questions and quite naturally people who have had a decade or more of distress will want to know whether this bill will sort out their particular problems. Yes it will help some people; yes it is a step up; yes the Government is now contributing 25 percent of the cost; and yes the ratepayers of various councils will be paying 25 percent. But that still leaves people who were innocent parties—absolutely innocent—with costs to pay. Mums and dads who bought houses investments and properties in the 1990s after the National Government had deregulated the building industry and had said: “You don’t need treated timber.” still have costs to meet. Those are the facts that led to this disaster yet mum and dad investors will still have to step up and meet those costs. We are hearing from the Minister—and I hope we will hear it more formally—that the banks will be stepping up and assisting those poor homeowners to pay the price. Fifty percent of the costs will still be sheeting back to homeowners 25 percent to ratepayers and 25 percent to taxpayers. 
I ask the Minister another question: what assurance can he give the House about the competence of the Department of Building and Housing? That department will be providing the assessors who will make the judgments on whether houses are able to be repaired and whether they will fit the criteria for this funding. I have to say that the Department of Building and Housing has a mixed bag of a record. I have worked for the Department of Building and Housing so I suppose I speak with some authority. It has done some things very well—tenancy services seem to be proceeding pretty well—but I have to note that in my city of Christchurch most recently— 
Hon Tau Henare 
: What do you mean your city? 
BRENDON BURNS 
: I am the MP for Christchurch Central unlike the member opposite who will never be a constituency MP— 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I do not like to interrupt my learned colleague but I understand there is a Standing Order against members moving seats for the purpose of interjecting. Mr Tau Henare has certainly moved his seat and is certainly incessantly interjecting. I think Mr Burns’ speech is worth listening to but I cannot do so through that noise. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: I am not sure that the member moved intentionally to get an advantage to interject. But I do have some discomfort at members who continue interjectory discussions—if interjectory is a word; I think members understand what I mean—apart from the member speaking. The member will desist. 
BRENDON BURNS 
: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. I was saying that I am very proudly the member of Parliament for Christchurch Central. I am a constituency MP which is something that some members opposite will never be able to achieve. 
We had the unfortunate situation post the 22 February earthquake when the Department of Building and Housing without any reference it seemed to the community of Christchurch spent a million dollars to hire 300 campervans and park them in the middle of the AMP showgrounds as a temporary housing measure to assist people who had lost their homes in the quake. Do members know how many people took up the offer of a campervan in the middle of the AMP showgrounds at the cost of a million dollars to taxpayers? One—one! One campervan was taken up. So I would like some assurance. 
Now the department is moving to establish temporary villages—again with no reference back to the communities in which those villages are being sited. So I would like the Minister to give us an assurance that the Department of Building and Housing has the competence to go out and do the assessments that will see ordinary mums and dads ordinary battler Kiwis still having to find 50 percent of the cost for remediation of homes when they should not have had to bear that cost. We acknowledge that a quarter of the cost is being met by the Crown and a quarter is being met by ratepayers but that still leaves a huge cost. 
We also have a question about local authorities. Obviously they are still concerned about the issues of liability. They are concerned that they still face some liabilities for existing legal action in which parties can still sue local authorities for a further contribution towards the repair bill. This issue is very topical for local authorities. The Minister needs to give some assurance that the ratepayers’ 25 percent contribution under this bill is the only cost that councillors councils and ratepayers are going to face.