ACT’s Building and Construction spokesperson Cameron Luxton is welcoming the passage of legislation to extend to remediation timeframes for earthquake-prone buildings, but says the 2016 legislation needs to be revisited in its entirety and scrapped.

“The looming remediation deadlines have created enormous uncertainty and costs,” says Mr Luxon, who is also Parliament’s only licenced builder.

“ACT was the only party to vote against the earthquake regulations back in 2016. The rules were developed in response to the tragic loss of life in the Christchurch earthquakes, but in policymaking real respect for life means making the rules work for the people who have to live with them.

“Good law making should be risk-proportionate, but an arbitrary, inconsistently interpreted standard of 34 percent NBS has been applied across the country, creating tremendous cost, stress, and uncertainty, not just for building owners but for ordinary people needing space to live, work, or gather.

“The Government was warned at the time that the rules would cost New Zealanders billions of dollars, including compliance costs of tens of thousands per building in parts of the country with low earthquake risks. The standards don’t even reflect building occupancy, meaning a historic church used a handful of times a year can face the same standard as an apartment block occupied day and night.

“The coming review of this legislation is welcome, but it needs to go further than tinker. We should scrap 2016’s legislation entirely and develop workable, risk-proportionate regulation. This debacle is a lesson in just how badly ACT’s Regulatory Standards Bill is needed.”

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