van de Molen TimTIM VAN DE MOLEN (National—Waikato): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's a privilege to be taking a call on this. This is an exciting time for me I have just been appointed the building and construction spokesperson for the National Party so I'm delighted to be able to stand and be talking on this bill. I'd like to thank Todd Muller our new leader for the opportunity to represent our party in this important area.Before I get into the bill though actually I do just want to take a moment to acknowledge all of the hard workers involved in the building and construction sector—all those business owners all the stakeholders especially given the last couple of months it has not been easy. I appreciate there have been some very challenging times through that period and I just really want to acknowledge that and thank them for the hard work they have done for the challenges they've been able to work through and indeed for the work and the role they all play as we try to rebuild the economy and recover from the impact of COVID-19. The building and construction sector will play a vital role in that and it's important that we get the policy settings right as well.Now this bill coming before us today is a nice step in addressing some of those issues. There's a bit more to be done but it's a good first step. Just before I delve into that though I am excited to have this opportunity. Whilst I don't profess to be a qualified builder or have a long history in that industry I did spend a couple of years—well it's a few years back now but I ran my own little building and fencing business based in the Waikato and did a number of projects so I do know which end of a hammer to hold and can pour a bit of concrete although it has been a while since I laid a slab of concrete. But that aside I do understand some of the challenges but I'm very much looking forward to engaging with the sector with those that are in it on a daily basis understand those challenges at the coalface but actually the key industry stakeholders as well from a broader policy and regulatory perspective too. Simeon Brown: Cementing yourself in.TIM VAN DE MOLEN: Cementing myself in thank you very much Mr Brown that's a very good building anecdote that I will continue forward in this role.Now this particular bill is looking to make a number of changes that we've heard from the Minister. One of the key ones for me is around the manufacturer certification and registration scheme for the modular components. Now this is an area that we've seen massive progress in over the last few years as the method of construction the products being used in those processes have changed dramatically and that is for the better. It enables us to be able to build more efficiently to deliver a wider variety of products to the end-users and to do that in a manner that has varied but is more efficient than it might have been previously.However the settings need to change to allow for that. So that's where it's important that having this scheme will reduce the consenting time. That is one of the big challenges when we look at the time taken to go through the whole consenting process at the moment: it is simply too long. It needs to be better and this I believe will address that. So I commend the Minister for bringing it to the House in that form. It's an important step that I think will be very much appreciated by industry.What you often see is these modular components they may be built in an area that's not the final location it may not even be in the same territorial authority it may not even be in the same country. They can come in from overseas there's a whole range of different facets to it. So to be able to have a standard process where the consenting authority that has to provide the final sign-off is able to do so with confidence that an appropriate scheme has been adhered to and those products turning up in part-form or as a whole house whatever it may be have met already a set of key criteria—and having robust rules around those criteria is a really important part. Being able to streamline that consenting process removing a number of those inspections whether it's the pre-clad inspection the post-clad inspection pre-lining inspection taking out some of those aspects will certainly improve efficiency. So that is fantastic to see coming in.Likewise with the information on products giving greater confidence to those building consent authorities to be able to provide that consent based on a core standard strengthen their product certification scheme CodeMark it'll be great to see more use of that and I think this will provide a bit of extra confidence in that space.There are a couple of concerns I do have. I'm always a little wary when there is talk about widening the scope of use of a levy to provide greater capacity. I accept there does need to be an element of that but that's something I do want to scrutinise more closely as we go through the select committee process on this bill as well.The other one for me was around the entry access. We've actually seen in a number of areas—and I don't want to be scaremongering about it but we saw with the National Animal Identification Tracing legislation in the agricultural space enabling warrantless searches of property. We've seen it just recently with the public health response bill to COVID-19 enabling warrantless entry or the police to enter premises if they suspect people are breaching rules. So we've seen from this Government several areas where they're giving the ability for entry that may be a little more than is actually needed. That also happens in this place the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment are given significantly increased powers to enter any building if there is concern around the manner in which a product has been used or the validity the quality of that product. So that's something that I do want to scrutinise a bit more closely as well and I look forward to hearing from submitters about that whether they share any concerns or whether there are any other particular issues around that part of it because it is important that we maintain rights. But at the same time we need to ensure that clear scrutiny can be undertaken on the products that are being used to ensure adherence to the systems and to give confidence to those end-users.Also increasing the penalties there—I think that's a fair measure to look at giving more confidence I guess again. Of course being able to impose penalties or having a longer period to file a charge these things will come after the fact. So if you're getting to a point where that's in play you know you've already got a problem with the product. But of course hopefully it acts as a bit of a deterrent to tighten up any issues where people might have been looking to potentially cut corners in that space. So from that perspective it's good; there are some good aspects there.I mentioned at the start actually that I was excited to take a call on this as the building and construction spokesperson. I'm the first National MP to be able to take a call on a building amendment bill in this term of Parliament. This is the first bill that has come up from the Minister this term. So we've had 2½ years and this is what we've got. There are some good elements to it which are as I've outlined but actually there are some broader issues in the industry. Members over there they can comment all they like but if they go and talk to people within the construction sector—builders suppliers manufacturers; any stakeholder within that industry—they will get a raft of issues bombarded at them that need to be addressed. This picks up on some of those but actually it shouldn't have taken 2½ years to get to the point where we're just seeing the first bill coming in—Hon Scott Simpson: Nearly three years.TIM VAN DE MOLEN: Nearly three years Mr Simpson points out.So it's good there's more to be done and one of the key areas for me is around the building code. We've got to see some improvements made there and I look forward to hopefully seeing something from the Minister in time about that and also in the liability space. When we look at the consenting and the inspections process there are a number of elements there where liability I think is one of the fundamental issues. Everyone is concerned about being responsible for an issue and so they might err on the side of caution and we potentially end up with over-engineered additional costs coming into the process—and all of these things flow through to the end-user: the house owner. That person has to pick up the extra cost for council decisions on what level of strengthening needs to be made. But actually those territorial authorities as well can often be the backstop. So we need to look at that liability issue and I really look forward to engaging more with industry outside of this particular piece of legislation to get their thoughts on that aspect as well.Now I would just like to finish on a positive note in terms of commending the Minister on her recent announcements just in the last week I think it was Friday outlining the move to take away the need for consent for small buildings—so a car port or a water-tank stand or water bladders you know a number of different projects smaller than 30 square metres type projects—farm buildings for example. That is great. That will streamline it that'll reduce the number of consents. Fantastic. The issue was though by making that announcement everyone who was looking to do one of those projects suddenly went I'll put the brakes on that; I won't do it until that rule comes into play." And therefore all those businesses the builders the suppliers now have lost that cash-flow stream which they were desperately looking for post-COVID. So I hope that will be put in place soon and I look forward to covering this more over the next weeks."