11. Building and Construction Industry—Fire Safety Reports and ReviewANDREW BAYLY (National—Hunua) to the Minister for Building and ConstructionBuilding and Construction Industry—Fire Safety Reports and Review11. ANDREW BAYLY (National—Hunua) to the Minister for Building and Construction: Why did she wait four months between receiving expert fire engineer Dr Tony Enright's report on concerns with aluminium composite panel cladding on 19 November and commissioning a peer review on 6 March?Hon JENNY SALESA (Minister for Building and Construction): I'm advised that during the four-month period the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) consulted the relevant accreditation bodies the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand and CertMark International for feedback on the report as well as seeking supporting evidence from Dr Enright. MBIE then started the process for engaging an engineer in February who began the peer review in March. As the member will appreciate when MBIE are assessing whether building materials are to be suspended that process must be appropriate it must be fair and robust and that takes time.Andrew Bayly: Why did she wait for four months when Australian building authorities have already accepted the findings of Dr Enright's reports and one banned their cladding product in February?Hon JENNY SALESA: I want to point out to the member that the state of Victoria has only banned certain aluminium composite panel (ACP). Also the state of Victoria originally identified more than 1300 buildings as most likely having ACP cladding. But here in Aotearoa New Zealand interim preliminary results provided by most councils indicate that there is not a prevalence of combustible ACPs installed in high-rise buildings in New Zealand. Banning a product is a very serious imposition and has only been done once before under the Building Act of 2004. I am very confident that the appropriate regulatory process is currently being followed. Suspending code mark certificates without robust evidence is something MBIE does not do lightly.Andrew Bayly: Has she met with Dr Enright; and if not why not?Hon JENNY SALESA: Dr Enright as far as I'm informed lives in Australia. The issue of dealing with Dr Enright is something that my officials do. MBIE are currently ensuring that the report that Dr Enright provided is being peer reviewed. We are waiting for the peer review of that process and we will get the peer review in the next few weeks.Marja Lubeck: What steps is the Minister undertaking to review the products regime which includes products such as ACP?Hon JENNY SALESA: I am undertaking a review of products. We know that reviewing products here in Aotearoa New Zealand is something that has not been done for many years. We know that there are issues with some products and we are doing a first-line review. The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment is undergoing a review right now and that is something that we are very glad as a Government that we will be doing very soon.Andrew Bayly: Why didn't she simply suspend the use of the product rather than allowing her ministry to waste four months consulting only with those agencies responsible for issuing the disputed cladding certification?Hon JENNY SALESA: I refer the member to the answer I gave just before. Banning a product—suspending a product—is something that has only ever been done in New Zealand once before under the Building Act 2004. We are going through the right process right now to ensure that the right decision is made. We are going through a peer review process and we will have that report from MBIE very soon.