Prebble Richard: Building Bill — In Committee Procedure 
Prebble Richard: Building Bill — In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:619;Page:14871] 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE (ACT) 
: 
 I rise to speak to the title of the bill which I think is misnamed; this is not a Building Bill but it will be a bureaucratic nightmare of a bill. It is worth drawing to the attention of the Committee that Government members have not got up to defend the bill and have not set out what the bill is supposed to do. The bill was originally as a result of the so-called leaky buildings weathertightness syndrome but I notice that the Minister now says that it is on behalf of battlers—the idea being that battlers are somehow helped by bureaucrats who will put up the cost of housing. That could account for the fact that under this Government the affordability of housing for people in the Auckland area—the members’ own constituencies—has deteriorated considerably. The Minister has not actually denied that the bill will worsen that problem. Some figures have been given as to what it will be. I tend to be on the pessimistic side because I think bureaucracy is like an acorn: one ends up not only with an oak tree but eventually a forest although one must have been cut down in order to print the bill. 
I do ask the Government where it found the figures for the fines that are provided for in the bill. There is a fine of $200000 just for not having a certificate a piece of paper. It does not say that the building is a bad building. As Mr Shane Ardern pointed out this is an example of taking a problem and then saying that there has to be a law. Well what we actually know about the leaky building syndrome is that it was caused by two different things: firstly fundamentally the introduction of new materials and people not knowing how to use them; and secondly regulations. 
 When we insisted thanks to our Green friends here on buildings being energy efficient they were sealed. People have been referring to old buildings being weatherproof. That is nonsense. The truth is that most buildings in New Zealand have leaked but the water has flowed right the way through and out the other side. It is thanks to the Green Party that they had to be energy efficient so they were sealed. The water came in then had nowhere to go and it rotted the buildings. It is part of the problems that the Greens have given us. But this is the second part—and I notice they are consistent and are voting for it— 
Shane Ardern 
: The rot set in the moment they came into Parliament. 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE 
: No there was a bit of rot here before that; they have just made it worse—sort of sped it up. But I say to the Committee that this is bad lawmaking. It will not help battlers. It will not help the construction industry. Well actually it will help those who are in it. Those who like me are established will do well out of this bill because it will cut competition. It will make it harder for people to start building businesses and become bigger because this compliance cost as dozens of studies have shown will fall disproportionately on companies according to their size. For large companies compliance costs are small in relation to their overall business. They have the ability to employ people full time working just to meet the council’s requirements. But for small builders—and most residential buildings in New Zealand are built by small builders—this will be a very very heavy compliance. 
Of course if one runs into a council such as the Waitakere City Council—with my friend who wants to prosecute me over my swimming pool—one will get hit with a $200000 fine and there are very very few builders who could survive a fine of that magnitude. A Government that passes such a police-State measure and then says that it is in the interests of the country deserves to be thrown out. So does the United Future party. What is the point of having an MMP Parliament if parties like United Future and New Zealand First compete to see whether they can say “Yes” before the Government can? That is all we have seen tonight. We have not seen any proper scrutiny from those parties. They are a complete waste of space.