Minister for Building and Construction (New Zealand)
The Minister for Building and Construction is a minister in the government of New Zealand with responsibility for the government's building, construction and housing programmes. The position was established in 2004 as the Minister for Building Issues. The present Minister is Poto Williams, a member of the Labour Party. History. In 2004, following its 2003 review of the housing sector, the Fifth Labour Government announced plans to reconfigure government services related to building and housing into a new Department of Building and Housing, which would be created by disestablishing the existing Ministry  of Housing and transferring relevant functions from the Ministry of Economic Development, Department of Internal Affairs and Ministry of Social Development. The new agency was to report to two Ministers: the Minister of Housing (an existing role) and the new Minister of Building Issues. It had been suggested that John Tamihere, an Associate Minister of Commerce who had overseen the passage of the Building Act 2004, would be named Building Minister; however, he resigned from Cabinet in October 2004 and Commerce Minister Margaret Wilson was named the inaugural Minister of Building Issues instead. The portfolio was renamed Minister of Building  and Construction in 2007. In 2014, it was amalgamated with the Housing portfolio (as Minister of Building and Housing); this was reversed in 2016 with housing responsibility now sitting with the Minister for Social Housing. List of Ministers. Table footnotes: