Carter John: Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Carter John: Weathertight Homes Resolution Services (Remedies) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:641;Page:11093] 
JOHN CARTER (National—Northland) 
: 
 It is a great pity that my colleague Nick Smith has already taken his time because as always his contributions are certainly well worth listening to. However I will endeavour to reach his high standards. 
 I want to draw the Committee’s attention to an issue that is a worry right across this country and it would pay for the members opposite to listen because the Minister in the chair Clayton Cosgrove is doing the building industry local government and homeowners in New Zealand a grave disservice. It is an absolute disgrace that we are here today considering this bill for two reasons. Firstly this Minister knew many many months ago that the deadline he gave to local government would not be achieved. Local government authorities told him that the Building Officials Institute of New Zealand told him that and members of Her Majesty’s loyal Opposition—including myself—advised the Minister of it. But this Minister would not listen. He carried on saying that he had set the deadline and that local government authorities would achieve it. Well the sad fact is that local government authorities were never going to achieve it and it was impossible to achieve it. 
One of the reasons why local government authorities were not able to achieve the deadline is that this Minister and his department have been taking experienced people from local government and employing them in the Department of Building and Housing. I have already told the Committee—and it is worth repeating again—that the Department of Building and Housing has risen in staff numbers from the equivalent of 31½ people employed in 1999—I think the half might have been the Minister—to in excess of 300 people. Where would those people have come from? Obviously they would have to have some experience in building although with the stuff that is coming out of the Department of Building and Housing one would hardly think so quite honestly. Some of the rubbish that comes from that department is an absolute shame. 
The point is that a lot of the people who are now employed in the Department of Building and Housing have come from local government authorities which of course has left local government authorities short of staff. Local government cannot attract experienced people to be building inspectors and as a consequence people cannot achieve the goal of being authorised as building inspectors by the date set by the Minister. The Minister knew that. He must have known that and it surprises me that he has not taken a call and at least once endeavoured to defend the fact that he now has to extend this deadline. But the Minister carries on arrogantly saying: “Well so what? It does not matter.” Well actually it does matter because the Committee also needs to understand the negative impact this issue is having on homeowners in New Zealand. 
The fact is that the Department of Building and Housing is out of control and it passes regulations day after day that are unnecessary that are hugely costly and that are causing stress and delay. In some cases it is so difficult to comply with the rules and regulations that the Department of Building and Housing is putting down that a number of builders are saying they will have to exit this industry. They cannot afford the delays they cannot afford the costs of the delays and they cannot afford the cost and the time it takes to fill out the paperwork that is required by the Helen Clark - led Labour Government and as a consequence by their local authorities. 
What is even worse is that the building industry is telling me there is absolute confusion from district to district as to exactly what is meant by the rules and regulations being passed by the Department of Building and Housing. I wish I had time to gather the volume of rules and regulations that have been passed under this Minister’s ministership. Seriously it would choke a horse a whale or any sort of large animal that we might like to try to get to digest it. In fact it would actually—