Sandra Goudie MP

National Party Associate Local Government Spokeswoman

11 August 2004

No place for 'tikanga Maori' in Building Bill

National Party Associate Local Government spokeswoman Sandra Goudie is questioning why 'tikanga Maori' is relevant to solving the leaky buildings crisis.

"As the Government well knows, tikanga Maori can be interpreted in many different ways.

"The inclusion of this phrase in the new Building Act will load further costs onto local Government and ratepayers throughout the country. It's likely home buyers will also face extra costs.

"This is another example of Labour's secret PC agenda. The Government has tried to sneak this clause through without any fuss.

"It's inappropriate that Labour, which claims to be reviewing race based policies, is still slipping inflammatory clauses like this into legislation.

"A search for the word 'tikanga' in Learning Media's on-line Ngata Dictionary returns 106 results."

Among them: code, condition, convention, culture, custom, depend, element, entail, ethic, fashion, formality, must, normally, order, procedure, purport, rights, ritual, style, suppose, trend and trick.

"Tikanga can also mean 'suit', as in 'suit yourself', and in golfing terms it can mean par.

"This will lead to uncertainty and it threatens to create another layer of Treaty related bureaucracy.

"It's hard to see how the Government can write reliable, responsible laws when they include words which can be interpreted in a vast number of ways," says Mrs Goudie.

ENDS

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