Smith Nick: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Smith Nick: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:627;Page:22126] 
9.  
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
 to the  
Minister for Building Issues 
: Does he stand by his statement on Tuesday about the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service having Sound of Music Cowboys and Indians and Pacific Island theme parties: “I have approached this matter with a certain degree of jest because it sounds so absurd.”; if so why did the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service say yesterday that allegations it had wasted taxpayers’ money are untrue? 
Hon CHRIS CARTER (Minister for Building Issues) 
: 
 Yes because it did sound absurd. But of course much that has been claimed in this House about those events by that member has been exaggerated or incorrect. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Now that the department has confirmed it has had five of those parties—and I have identified only four—over the last 14 months at taxpayers’ expense and notably that it flew nine staff to Auckland especially for a Pacific Island awareness day with Auckland staff which involved kava drinking and Pacific Island dancing and cost $6670 why did the Minister’s officials say yesterday that the department had not wasted any public money and does that not indicate a rotten culture of extravagance in an agency that is actually meant to be fixing rotten homes? 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: The five events the member has referred to which were discussed yesterday in this House in my absence ranged in value from $632 to $2563 and to $6000 for two training days on Pacific Island culture. The other functions were a Christmas function and an office-moving function. As I said on Tuesday those are trivial matters. Their importance has been greatly inflated by that member but they do nevertheless indicate a culture that has gone on in that department but that has now ceased. 
Russell Fairbrother 
: What changes have taken place within the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service since the social functions and staff training courses occurred? 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: The service has now been incorporated into the Department of Building and Housing. That took place 28 days ago. The new manager has set out the standards of financial and performance accountabilities expected of public servants. My department has been looking at ways of improving the service it provides to homeowners affected by failures in the building system created by the last National Government. I will be discussing those likely changes when I meet with affected homeowners in Auckland tomorrow. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Does the Minister agree with the comment Dr Cullen made yesterday that I should apologise for saying staff had flown between Auckland and Wellington at taxpayers’ expense for a theme party when in fact the kava drinking and hula dancing that the nine staff flew to Auckland for was not a party but a Pacific Island awareness activity or does he think this Government owes an apology to leaky homeowners for having staff hula dancing and kava drinking while they lived with the misery of their rotting homes? 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: I have a transcript here of an interview that that member gave this morning on the radio where he said there was an all-day kava drinking and hula dance party at one of the flashest hotels in Auckland “for just 17 people costing $6600”. That was a Pacific Island training day which involved a cultural group from a local high school coming in at the end of the training session to give a performance. Those were not hula girls. There was a kava ceremony at the end of a day’s training for the staff. That member as usual has totally distorted the whole event by exaggeration and embellishment. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I seek leave to table a media release from the Minister’s Department of Building and Housing which states that all the points I raised on Tuesday were correct: that the Pacific Island awareness day cost $6679 that it involved 17 staff at a cost of $392 per staff member and that it involved a formal kava ceremony and a local cultural group—and furthermore the participants have confirmed they spent some time hula dancing with the girls from the school. 
Document not tabled. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: What does it say about the politically correct culture in the public service under this Government that an agency charged with fixing leaky homes which is thousands of cases behind in its workload sees fit to have a Pacific Island awareness day and how many other Government agencies that we have not yet found are engaging in that sort of politically correct nonsense? 
Hon CHRIS CARTER 
: What it does say about this Government is that we set up a service to fix a problem that the previous National Government which that member belonged to created.