4. Question No. 4—Building and ConstructionJAMIE STRANGE (Labour—Hamilton East) to the Minister for Building and ConstructionQuestion No. 4—Building and Construction4. JAMIE STRANGE (Labour—Hamilton East) to the Minister for Building and Construction: What progress is being made to reduce critical shortages in the supply of plasterboard?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister for Building and Construction): Since forming the task force last month to help resolve the plasterboard shortage good progress is being made. There are now four alternative plasterboard products that meet the requirements of the building code—three of which meet standards for fire water and importantly bracing. The fourth meets fire and water and bracing will be included in the 5 August update on the guidance. This will reduce any reluctance to specify them in plans or approve their use in building consents and product substitutions. There are now also 12 importers of plasterboard—four of whom are new entrants. And about 100 containers are currently on their way to New Zealand holding approximately 220000 square metres of plasterboard—enough for around 440 complete homes. These containers will be arriving in the coming weeks. We know there is more work to be done but I want to thank the members of the task force for working at pace to provide significant progress on this problem.Jamie Strange: What actions has the Government taken to improve the availability and ability to use alternative plasterboard products?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: On Friday a step-by-step product substitution guide for plasterboard merchants and builders is being rolled out to enable switching to alternatives. This kind of practical guidance is what is needed to provide confidence to the market. I've also written to building-consent authorities today to ensure their organisations are engaged on the issue and freely allowing product substitutions.Jamie Strange: What else has the Government done to encourage more plasterboard alternatives to enter the New Zealand market?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: We heard from the task force members that one of the challenges importers faced was having confidence that there would be demand for alternatives given the historical dominance of Gib in New Zealand. To help provide confidence of future demand stimulate additional imports and take pressure of domestic supply chains Kāinga Ora (KO) is procuring alternative plasterboard product for its retrofit programme. This means that over the next 12 months of retrofits—about 400 houses' worth—the KO supply agreement is in place already and the first product is expected to be going into KO homes in August leaving more in the market for others and underpinning confidence in how easily alternative products can be substituted.Jamie Strange: What feedback has she received on progress to date?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: I've heard about the importance of making product substitution easier from task force member and developers like Shane Brealey of New Zealand who is quoted in the media as saying As far as taskforces go it's already been effective in terms of what it's charged to do. We've been working well with MBIE [and its] been very helpful" and "This is about making sure territorial authorities understand what equivalent products should be accepted—not so much removing the word Gib from consent documents." I've also heard positive feedback from the sector including half of the respondents to an MBIE survey stating they were confident or very confident when making decisions on plasterboard substitutions. We want to see that number further improve."