Peters Winston: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePeters Winston: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 30 June 2015. Volume:707;Page:4841. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]4.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First)to the Minister for Building and Housing: Does he stand by all his statements?Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for Building and Housing):Yes and particularly my statement today welcoming the third consecutive year of 20-plus percent annual growth in residential building in Auckland and the record $9.7 billion spent on residential construction in the last year.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Does he still stand by his statement on 19 February: “I have been assured by officials that imported cement must meet the New Zealand standard that the Drymix product referred to does in fact meet that standard”?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Yes that is the advice that I continue to receive from appropriately qualified independent engineers. I have repeatedly challenged the member to provide me with some engineering advice that there is a problem with this product. I have asked him to do that three times. I have had zip.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Can he guarantee that the concrete used in the $40 million taxpayer - paid for Manukau District Court does not exceed the alkali content for normal concrete as specified in New Zealand concrete standard 3104 of 2013; if not why not?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: No it is not possible for me as Minister for Building and Housing to guarantee the millions of cubic metres of concrete that are produced every year.Hon Member: Why not?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Well actually that is the responsibility of the commercial manufacturers of that concrete. There is a good system of quality control and there were issues as there were last month with some concrete being manufactured that was substandard and had to be replaced. If the member has got evidence of that then he should provide it—although I would say that he should provide it not from parties with commercial vested interests but from technical engineers and about legitimate concerns.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Talking about commercial vested interests when such non-standard cement causes concrete to rot from the inside out does he believe that he and the Cement and Concrete Association should have confidence in the supposedly independent report into this matter—this report here—when it was in fact paid for by Drymix; if so why?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: For a very wide range of building products it is the job of the person requiring certification to get a commercial company such as the Building Research Association of New Zealand and others to provide for it. I can assure the member that the advice I receive from my own engineers employed by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment—I have total confidence in their independence.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Is he confident that cement imported from Vietnam by Drymix was brought up to New Zealand standards through blending with other cement as Drymix claims and as he has said?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I do not have any specific reports on a particular batch of cement. My officials have assured me repeatedly that they are satisfied that both cement and concrete being produced in New Zealand meet the standards of 3104.Rt Hon Winston Peters: How can he defend when Drymix claims to have blending facilities and it does not that it would have blended the cement when the only cement blending facility is Golden Bay Cement which has never ever blended cement for Drymix? Why is he now repeating his argument that the cement was blended and that it was therefore satisfactory?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I had difficulty in deciphering that jumbled question. I have never made statements about blending—Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. If he finds it—Mr SPEAKER: Can I just have the point of order please.Rt Hon Winston Peters: If he was confused with the question I am happy to repeat it. He started by saying that.Mr SPEAKER: No I think the Minister has understood enough of it to be answering. He was in the process of it. [Interruption] Order! I will allow the Minister to complete his answer and then if I am not satisfied with the answer I may think about it.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I made no claims about this particular cement being blended. Those claims were made by the member.Rt Hon Winston Peters: When the claims in respect of blending are made in this report which says that because of that they became satisfactory and when Drymix never had the capacity to blend the cement because only Golden Bay Cement has it and it did not do Drymix’s concrete in that case and there are 39000 tonnes yet unaccounted for why will he not actually take a simple core sample of the Manukau District Court to tell us whether or not it is safe in the future? Why would he not do that?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I simply lay back the claim to the member that I have now given to him three times: give me a chartered professional engineer’s advice that the cement is unsatisfactory and I will look into it. While he continues to peddle the arguments of other commercial interests I will not take him seriously.