Speaker: The government's Rules Reduction Taskforce went on a witch hunt, and couldn't find any witches
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"We were always at war with RMAsia”.
That sounds like a direct quote from the book 1984….
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Rather than reprint all of the advertising material, they actually just got someone to cross the word out in marker pen on a bunch of them.
That is amazing.
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Bennett is even more cynical. Helen Kelly has pointed out that the Minister was pushing those ludicrous myths herself on TV in June, to justify said taskforce.
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I suspect the real reason for the Rules Reduction Taskforce is sour grapes for most of the urban centres being held by red-green leaning mayors. Kind of a covert and pale imitation of Livingstone vs Thatcher in the UK.
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It shouldn't cost tens of thousands of dollars to consent a house though. The lack of lower-cost options in the market seems to be due in part to the fact that consenting makes the margin on smaller houses considerably lower.
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John Grey from the "Home Owners and Buyers Association" whoever they may be, says that Builders should only be allowed to sign off on "A dog house or a garden shed, maybe"
Well thanks for the insult you stupid man. I have been a Builder for over 40 years and know what the fuck I am doing. When the Government under Bolger fucked up the system, that was working quite well, they gave us the "Leaky Building Crisis". It was not the builders that were at fault, it was the designers and developers being allowed to use cheap and shoddy materials and practices. Builders were told to use unconventional materials in ways that they were never intended for, Hardiflex and untreated timber shouldn't even be used for a doghouse or a garden shed but the powers that be allowed the big supply companies to have their way and what did we get?.
I am no longer a Builder, I will not bow down to those self inflated little people who pretend to be our guardians to make a quick buck so I will not become a "Master Builder" by paying a fee to those sods. I will not become "Registered Builder" by paying some no-nothing bunch of pretenders to write my name in a book.
The fact of the matter is that anybody can become a "Registered Builder" or a "Master Builder" by joining a club for cash.
Blah blah blah rant rant....
Jeeze this shit pisses me off.
grrrrrr -
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Sacha, in reply to
the powers that be allowed the big supply companies to have their way
and regulators still haven't tackled them.
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I had plenty of fun last summer with a deck and the bloody council, but it wasn't the rules that were the problem, it was the penny-ante business processes used to work around the rules. Got a twenty day ticker for approving consents? Start the clock a week after you've received them to give yourself administrative headroom. Got a missing piece in the application? Sit on it for three weeks then send it back to the designer rather than follow it up when the client calls to see what's happened. And by no means should you employ enough people to be able to answer accurately where someone's application is at. Or post a letter that's been sitting fully addressed in someone's inbox for a week.
Getting an inspection was a dream compared to dealing with the administrative arm.
Changing the rules won't fix that. Improving administrative support might, but that's not real work in the govt's mind.
I have some sympathy for the poor person who had to decide whether to pulp thousands of dollars of printing or get the marker pen out. It's a bad look either way.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
throwing in the trowel…
The fact of the matter is that anybody can become a “Registered Builder” or a “Master Builder” by joining a club for cash.
You’ll be wanting those FreeMasons, then…
/coat and hat…
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
You’ll be wanting those FreeMasons, then…
Up here, far north of Auckwood, Past the Valley of Dome, beyond the Bendyraewyns we have "cheap chippies", housing for hippies, fencing and framing on the farm rather than Free Masons forming fortresses for feathered nests.
Up here it is not about building consent it is about building forgiveness.
;-) -
Matthew Poole, in reply to
I have been a Builder for over 40 years and know what the fuck I am doing.
You mean "was", I think, but anyway. How many of the builders who spent their early years under National4 would you trust to build you a dog house? And how many of their apprentices would you trust to build you a planter box?
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
You mean "was", I think, but anyway.
Ok, "I was been a Builder for over 40 years and know what the fuck I am doing."
Somehow doesn't do it for me...
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
How many of the builders who spent their early years under National4 would you trust to build you a dog house?
That point is moot, I wouldn't but then why hire someone to do what you should be able to do yourself. Having a Prime Minister that can't even hit a nail on the head does not mean the rest of the country are an incompetent hamfisted wunch of Bankers.
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It seems a convenient smokescreen to distract attention from the problem of cartels, protectionism, kickbacks and price gouging in the building supplies industry.
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WSW,
We built a house about 6 years ago and had major problems with a supplier ( of colorsteel) and a sub-contractor who worked for the supplier applying their cladding.
We were getting nowhere with complaints to the supplier about their substandard product and their sub standard 'subbie'...( they both claimed that everything was fine and we were just fussy ) until we had a scheduled visit from our Council Building Inspector who looked at what they'd done and promptly failed their work. After that we got action.
I dread to think what would have happened - how long we would have been in dispute with these people - if we hadn't had a neutral Building Inspector.
We also would have had a building that was rotting away from the inside , as a person hired to fix their shoddy workmanship pointed out when he pulled their work apart and re-did it.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
It seems a convenient smokescreen to distract attention from the problem of cartels, protectionism, kickbacks and price gouging in the building supplies industry.
You hit the nail on the head there...
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
We built a house about 6 years ago and had major problems with a supplier
What exactly was the problem?
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
eats shoots and leaves?
It seems a convenient smokescreen to distract attention from…
… did you mention Panda Bears? cuddly Panda Bears?
Due to the world unicorn shortage
Everyone in New Zealand is to get a Panda!
or was that to get pandered to?
- it was a bad line…I saw the pandas in Tokyo zoo recently,
poor bloody things, pacing around their enclosures
none of the bears/animals at that zoo looked like happy campers
the pandas were borderline psychotic…
too cruel to bring them here just to dance at Dr Key’s Indulgetarium and Circus of the Daily Breads…
Nevermind the airlifts of exotic bamboos, these promoted raccoons eat column centimetres, airtime and bandwidth like nothing on earth! -
A pair of panda cost an up front donation of many millions to Chinese environmental work, and an annual lease of a million or so a year with a 10 year lease (pandas generally lose their draw card bonus for the zoo after 3 or so years). New Zealand will not be able to swap some kiwi for them.
Due to some recent dead Panda china is also cracking down on Panda conditions and people making money from having them, don't expect the economics of Panda ownership to get any better.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/china-watch/culture/11758922/panda-lease-system-china.html
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Russell Brown, in reply to
I dread to think what would have happened - how long we would have been in dispute with these people - if we hadn't had a neutral Building Inspector.
When we did our extension, we had good builders. And they moaned mightily about having the bloody nitpicking building inspector around, while I thought "this seems good to me."
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
Bogan.
How dare you Sir....
I resemble that remark...
[not the Aussie kind though] -
Joe Wylie, in reply to
Bogan.
How dare you Sir....
I resemble that remark...
[not the Aussie kind though]Surely you're thinking of bogong*, as in let bogongs be bogongs?
*AKA the Australian coffee moth. Once it's found it's way indoors it will unerringly seek out a freshly made mug of coffee, where it will noisily drown itself.
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It is also relevant that this whole circus was kicked off during a time when they had the numbers to gut the RMA. Due to no longer having the numbers for that, I assume that recommendation was pulled in order to save them the embarrassment.
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Yes, yes, yes, I do see that there is a real dilemma here. In that, while it has been government policy to regard policy as a responsibility of Ministers and administration as a responsibility of Officials, the questions of administrative policy can cause confusion between the policy of administration and the administration of policy, especially when responsibility for the administration of the policy of administration conflicts, or overlaps with, responsibility for the policy of the administration of policy.
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