Moving Auckland Forward

10 September 2004

Mayor concerned about builders and home owners

“I am very concerned about builders and home owners and the extra costs they now face in delays and consent fees,” said Auckland City Mayor Hon John Banks today.

Mr Banks’ comments follow the news that councils will have to review the work of Auckland company, Approved Building Certifiers (ABC), after the Building Industry Authority (BIA) deregistered them for incompetence and negligence.

“The Auckland City Council is looking into the issue and we are determined to keep the hundreds of projects that were being assessed by this major building certifier moving forward.

“The building industry is too important for Auckland to have such a dark cloud of uncertainty hanging over it. We need clear skies out in front and we need them soon. The BIA needs to act urgently.”

Last night’s council meeting included an extraordinary item where the mayor moved for a bi-partisan working party to be established to finalise an Auckland City Council position.

The council’s chief executive Bryan Taylor will then write to the BIA outlining the need for the authority to provide practical solutions for those projects that local authorities can’t progress any further. This may include issuing compliance certificates for buildings partly inspected by ABC, thereby covering liability on those buildings for the next 10 years.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>