Minister Defends Building Policy

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31016, 23 March 1966, Page 13

Minister Defends Building Policy

(Neto Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, March 22. The Government is desirous of freeing the building Industry of all programming as soon as possible, the Minister k)f Works (Mr Allen) said today.

( His statement was [prompted by the New | Zealand Institute of | Architects, who last I week described the I building construction [programming regulaItions introduced last I year, as secrecy I shrouded, costly and I wasteful. ■ “In my experience it is sethorn a Minister of the Crown In as been treated wit h such 'scant courtesy and particularly by a group of professional people,” replied Mr Allen. He said he established the Building Industry Advisory Council and gave representation on it to architects, engineers and builders for the very purpose of finding out what could be done to bring the industry into balance and

if possible to eliminate the need for programming. Mr Allen said it was discouraging to find members of that council acting unilaterally and before the council has offered alternative proposals.

“The Government is desirous of freeing the building industry of all programming as soon as possible,” Mr Allen said. “Programming was introduced to take unnecessary and embarrassing peaks off the industry.

“The Government’s assurance was, and still is, to have a full-committed building industry, but definitely not an over-committed one, which led to delays and increased costs.”

New Zealanders, he said, were entitled to a genuine price, not an inflated one.

The Minister said he has on three occasions received deputations from builders and

architects to discuss the regulations. On a further occasion he went to the Commissioner of Works’ office and met representatives of builders and architects and offered them the establishment of a building industry advisory council.

On these occasions, Mr Allen said, he explained fully the reasons behind the regulations and the concern of Government that expenditure was exceeding both the strength of the building industry and the ability of the country to support such rapid growth. “The architects referred to a group of anonymous civil servants.” the Minister said. “From the outset the name of the Building Programmer has been public knowledge. He is Mr R. F. Paris, a member of the Ministry of Works staff.

“Mr Paris had an unenviable task and to help him carry it out he consulted with the Department of Industries and Commerce, the Treasury, the Department of Statistics and the Labour Department. This has been publicly stated before.”

The name of the officers of those departments have not been specified because they might not always be the same people, but they are known to representatives of the industry (the Building Advisory Council). “Emotional Outburst”

“The outburst by the New Zealand Institute of Architects was emotional rather than factual,” said Mr Allen. "If there are so many ‘wrong things’ being done with the Economic Stabilisation Regulations as alleged in the published statement, I think the Institute of Architects should cooperate with other members of the Building Advisory Council and with the Government to help put them right. “We are all in this together. The only way to achieve results is to have amity and co-operation from all interested parties,” the Minister said. “Such outbursts benefit nobody, and in fact could cause disruption at a time when best use of resources is all important,” he said.