Carter David: Building Bill — In Committee 
Carter David: Building Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:619;Page:14767] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (National) 
: 
 I rise to support my colleague Lindsay Tisch and the National Party’s opposition to the Building Bill. In my mind it is the most cynical useless legislation that the Labour Government and its supporting parties of New Zealand First and United Future will be involved in during this term of Government. The bill is now before Parliament— 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: The most useless bill. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: Richard Prebble interjects. [ 
Interruption 
] I suspect that this will be the most useless legislation. It affects so many New Zealanders and it is just such disastrous legislation designed entirely to take the leaking-home problem off the front pages of the newspaper. The Government’s response to that problem is 350-odd pages of legislation. We do not have builders any more. They have to be licensed building practitioners! This sort of nonsense will only add to the cost of building homes. We now have a situation where it is becoming more and more difficult for people to purchase their first homes and the Government is passing legislation that will make it worse. When I look at the commencement date of this legislation—this goes to show the mess and the disarray this Government is in—it states that the provisions come into force on 1 July 2004. I do not think we will have this bill through by 1 July 2004 considering that that was about 6 weeks ago. 
Murray Smith 
: Have a look at the Supplementary Order Paper. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: I have had a look at the Supplementary Order Paper and it states that we will pass it by November. This legislation was originally brought into the House under the name of the Hon Lianne Dalziel. She has not been a Minister for some time. What a disastrous response from a Government to put a huge piece of legislation into the House cynically to try to allay the fears of the owners of these leaky homes! It does nothing to do that. All the Government has achieved is to take that scandal off the front pages of the papers and try to tell those people who own leaky homes that the problem is under control and new legislation is on its way that will fix the problem. 
This legislation does nothing to fix those problems. All it does is to make it far worse from now on for anybody to try to buy his or her first home. Government Administration Committee members were told that it cost $6000 for a relatively small first home and typical of what New Zealanders buy as their first dwelling—that is an additional $6000 of red tape that delivers nothing. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: Probably closer to $10000 now. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: Lindsay Tisch and Shane Ardern were the members of the National caucus on the select committee. They did the work when Government members would not do the work. 
Hon Dover Samuels 
: They agreed with it. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: They do not agree with it. They think it is just a crock. This sort of legislation should really be given due scrutiny by the Government or at least the Government should acknowledge that it will not solve the problems for the people who have leaky homes—$10000 of additional costs. One has only to look at clause 3 which is the purpose of the legislation. Clause 3 contains a whole lot of words that mean very very little. It is my contention that the purposes as listed in clause 3 will not be at all satisfied by this legislation. Mark my words shortly after the next general election when National is in Government—after we have passed all the other important stuff—this will be some of the first legislation we will have to come back and tidy up because the Government is simply intent on conning New Zealanders with this legislation.