08 September 2004

Building Bill Shortfalls Evident In Manukau City

New Zealand First housing spokesperson Brent Catchpole says the Audit NZ review of Manukau City Council’s building consent procedures highlights the shortfalls of the Building Bill.

The review was commissioned after the council found examples of poor quality infill in housing developments in Howick, and blames a lack of staff at the council for hundreds of “shoddy” building developments in Howick and Pakuranga.

“The results of this review have confirmed the concerns New Zealand First has over certain aspects of the Building Bill,” Mr Catchpole said.

“The building industry in New Zealand is desperately short of skilled workers, not only to build, but also to train and pass on their knowledge, and the Government’s Building Bill simply rebrands the old building apprenticeship scheme,” Mr Catchpole said.

“The cyclic demands of the building industry means that in lean times, experienced builders are lost to the trade as they are undercut by the cheaper, less experienced labour that are rushed in to take advantage of demand during a peak.

“Population increases in areas like Auckland have put enormous pressure on the issuing of resource and building consents.

“The Government needs to ensure the industry is vibrant and able to meet building needs for the future without having to import cheap foreign labour. It also needs to ensure that territorial bodies don’t fall behind with their compliance statements,” concluded Mr Catchpole.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

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>>