Smith Nick: Building Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Smith Nick: Building Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:645;Page:14756] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 What Government members do not understand is that New Zealanders have had a gutsful of a busybody Government that wants to interfere in everybody’s lives as we are seeing more of in this Building Amendment Bill 
Let me put some basic common-sense questions to the Minister in the chair Shane Jones. Does he think it is reasonable that the standard building consent form from the Rodney District Council for a person who wants to put in a drain is 110 pages long? The silence is deafening. Why can the Minister in the chair not come to the common-sense conclusion that every National member can come to which is that it is unreasonable and it is bureaucracy gone mad? I put the question to the Minister again. Does he think it is reasonable that the building application standard pack for anybody in the Rodney District Council area wanting to get a consent for anything from a home to a drain to putting in a kitchen unit is 110 pages long? 
Hon Shane Jones 
: Address the Rodney District Council yourself! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: The Minister in the chair Shane Jones says “Blame the Rodney District Council.” I have spoken to the Rodney District Council and it says that this building legislation that has passed creates exactly that scenario. I have spoken to my own— 
Hon Shane Jones 
: How? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Let me tell the Minister how. This bill sets up the charging process around the accreditation of building consent authorities. His department is going to talk to building consent authorities in every corner of New Zealand and members of that department as busybodies will tell them what they have to put on their building consent application forms in order to be accredited. And that is how many pages it takes to meet that requirement. 
Does the Minister know how many of those 110 pages have the Department of Building and Housing’s logo on them? Sixty-two! The Minister in the chair says we should blame the Rodney District Council but 62 of the pages come from his Department of Building and Housing. 
Hon Shane Jones 
: No. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Well I tabled them in the House last week. What is even better is that on those pages are the words: “New Zealand Government—the key to sustainability.” Can the Minister explain to me how every one of our 70000 building consents each year that are covered under this Act— 
Hon Shane Jones 
: How many? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: We have 70000 building consents each year. 
Hon Shane Jones 
: Sorry! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Well I say to the Minister that those are the numbers provided by Statistics New Zealand. I do not know which planet the Minister is on but 70000 building consents at 100 pages each means a pile of paper that is just over a kilometre high. Does he think that that is a reasonable set of building regulations for New Zealand? 
I come to another question. This Parliament has set up the Commerce Committee inquiry into housing affordability. The Registered Master Builders Federation which builds 65 percent of New Zealand’s houses has told the housing affordability study that there is an extra $30000 of unnecessary bureaucracy coming from this Government’s building regulations. That is not me saying it; that comes from a very detailed submission in which the Registered Master Builders Federation sets out what that $30000 is made up of. I ask the Minister in the chair whether he believes it is reasonable to have $30000 of unnecessary building regulation costs being put on to the price of a new home. Again the Minister is silent. I say to the Minister that for him to justify his $240000 salary his ministerial car and his ministerial house he actually needs to be able to answer those questions because his Prime Minister cannot shed crocodile tears about housing affordability when her own Minister is imposing those sorts of extra costs. 
Let me tell members about my own experience. I applied in January for a building consent to put a solar water system on my house. I thought that it was a good thing to do; it reduces greenhouse gas emissions. 
Hon Shane Jones 
: A what? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: A solar water heating system on my house. Do members know what I got back from the council? I received a note that asked whether I could please submit a plan telling the council where my fire alarms were. I asked the council why it had done that. I thought that putting some water on my roof was unlikely to increase the fire risk for my house. But the council said that the Department of Building and Housing requires anybody who lodges a building consent to automatically provide a plan of where his or her fire alarms are. I say to the Minister that that is the sort of mad bureaucracy that he is imposing on New Zealanders and that is one of the reasons that he and his lot will get the arse later this year.