Bennett ruined Welfare now she is doing the same to housing:

Crazy Bennett now knows all about building.

Labour’s Phil Twyford summed up the feelings of many – including most building industry players – in his media release responding to Bennett’s remarks:

“This is just another example of National’s mindless ideological love of deregulation. Back in the 1990s they cursed thousands of good hardworking Kiwi homeowners with the leaky homes catastrophe. Paula Bennett says the country has moved on from the leaky homes catastrophe but it’s clear she hasn’t learned from previous mistakes. Ms Bennett’s rules reduction taskforce is nothing more than a political stunt. Back in May she was justifying the task-force by pointing out how ridiculous red tape that banned lolly scrambles and required people to wear a harness when using a step ladder was. Four months later she is back saying the taskforce found out those supposed ‘loopy rules’ were just misconceptions that had become myths. Now that really is ridiculous!”

- See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/09/24/moving-on-paula-bennett-releases-her-loopy-rules-report/#sthash.xRvZ2NPC.dpuf

Peter Grove.

Wheelers Corner Blog contributor Peter Grove comments on the strange behaviour of Paula Bennett in regard to builders signing off their own work...by giving us an insight into past behaviours in gone by...it makes such good sense that I thought it should be shared...

Peter wrote:

"Recent events in Parliament include the proposal for Builders to sign off their own work.

This is dangerous, Parliament letting the uninitiated loose on the technicalities of building. Those experts would be better advised to reserve their expertise to arguing the merits of flag design!

Opponents are insisting any sign-off should remain the province of Local Authorities? 

What did we see in Christchurch with the enquiry into the 10 second collapse of the six storey CTV Building, 

The court of enquiry found the building was designed to minimum standards to reduce costs. It was claimed all the drawings had been vetted by the Council’s Building Department and approved.

The owner and Principal of the Engineering Company responsible for the design tried to shift the blame for his incompetence to a more junior engineer  ‘Who had previously designed nothing more that two story buildings’ What does that say about the company’s competence, that his work appeared to have been unsupervised. It was submitted to the City Council for approval.

What depth of expertise exists in Council Building Departments to vet plans with the complexity of a six storey reinforced concrete building? Reportedly that vibrated every time trucks drove past on the street below. 113 people perished in that horrifying ten seconds of the collapse. Pictures seen after the collapse showed broken vertical columns with reinforcing verticals wound with heavy gauge wire on a very wide pitch that would have no effect in containing the concrete, which with the reinforcing, imparted strength to the building.

After outpourings of protest from the NZIE, I have it on good authority, they have no facility to discipline any of their members. 

Who has been held accountable? Nobody! 

In another example,Politicians with absolutely no knowledge of Building took it upon themselves to approve the use of untreated Dry Frame Radiata pine for building use. Building Research went along with the suggestion not realising that use of Radiata in preference to native timbers was never a choice in earlier years due to the inherent nature of Radiata to deteriorate rapidly in the presence of moisture. The stupidity of the change was shortly exposed by the Leaky homes saga, exacerbated by design features unsuited to New Zealand’s normal weather conditions.

Changes in building techniques contributed to the problem. In days gone by, house frames once erected were left for several weeks after the roofs were completed to let the sun and wind partially dry out the frame before interior and exterior cladding was installed. 

Under today’s pressure cooker building practices, once the frame is erected and the roof is on the frame is enveloped in a plastic reinforced wrap in place of the earlier tarred building paper, Exterior linings are fixed, followed by interior linings glued to the frames, in effect, this hermetically seals the building frame cavities, that when subject to the heat of the sun, cause the sugar content of the timber along with the moisture present on the frame to ferment and so give rise to the dreadful rot seen in the Leaky Homes saga. 

OK. The critics will say ‘It’s Dry Frame, there isn’t supposed to be any moisture. The timber is delivered from the merchants in plastic envelopes once it gets to the site it will be tipped off the delivery truck onto the ground breaking open the packaging. From there it will be exposed to the ambient atmosphere absorbing moisture while it is being cut to size and assembled. In any building project it is an absolute rarity for it not to rain at some time during the proceedings.

Now how dry is the Dry Frame? 

Herein lie some of the dangers of letting Builders certify their own work. The case was made that Plumbers and gasfitters as well as electricians certify their work on completion. Those trades are subject to registration and subsequent inspection  of their work which is something entirely different for the average builder, many of whom have simply picked up the trade, buckled on a nail bag and hammer and called themselves ‘builders’, relying very much on the expertise of the time served men they employ.