Last Wednesday I was presenting to the Construction Industry Council. An excellent organisation, despite their lapse in judgement regarding the calibre of their guest speakers.
As I waited my turn, between checking my phone for the revelation on who would emerge as this week’s Prime Minister and silently checking X, a senior executive from the construction division of MBIE was addressing the conference on upcoming and ongoing reforms.
The 1993 Building Code, you see, has not been properly updated since, well, 1993. It has been that long, this senior executive explained, since the sector had a minister who was sufficiently engaged to endeavour to grapple with the minutiae of building regulations. The name Penk was cited by several participants who had dealings with him, who had presented their case for reform and were impressed.
Meanwhile, our mutual friend, the MP for the electorate formerly known as Helensville, was in the process of ending his political career. What happened?
You will note, if you were paying attention, and there is no reason why you should have been, that an excited phalanx of political journalists, commentators, experts and pundits were spilling pixels by the millions on the topic of Luxon’s impending demise. It was Bishop, Stanford, Mitchell, maybe even Goldsmith, and if someone threw in Butterick, no one would have questioned the information.
Luxon survives second caucus challenge as Penk stripped of portfolios
None of them had Chris Penk on their bingo card of potential kings. Or kingmakers. He was the nowhere man silently working eight days a week on his ministerial responsibilities, trolling supporters and detractors on social media while silently working the phones and doing the numbers.
Let’s take a closer look at the Honourable Christopher Aidan Penk.
While his colleagues in the building portfolios were failing to progress the updated Resource Management Act, the now former minister for building and construction Penk quietly passed the Building (Overseas Building Products, Standards, and Certification Schemes) Amendment Bill. No one outside the construction sector noticed, but this legislation is one of Luxon’s failing administration’s greatest legislative successes.
If a product has been certified in reputable overseas jurisdictions, it is considered fit for New Zealand. The need to get every widget, plasterboard or insulation foam tested for New Zealand conditions was replaced by a sweeping approval process. Up to 200,000 products previously forbidden to these shores will be available.
This simple measure reduces substantially the cost of construction, undermines the effective monopoly of suppliers of standard products like GIB board, and unlocks a bounty for builders and their customers. It is a simple idea in theory, which would have required discipline, attention to detail and Penk using his skills as a legal beagle to battle with the drafting minions to push through the legislation.
While his predecessors saw dysfunction and were content to let it be, preferring photo opportunities to the hard times necessary to achieve sustained progress, Penk went to work. He allowed ‘granny flats’, up to 70m², to be built without a building or resource consent, forced improved consenting times on councils and relieved local authorities of the liability for building defects and imposed mandatory warranties, with insurance, on builders.
Penk is thoughtful. In his maiden speech he spoke of the paradox of making laws that offer choice in theory but have the opposite effect in practice. “A person who is offered by the law (and accepts) the choice of taking an addictive substance will suffer from a lack of choice as a result of doing so.” He spent opposition in lockdown writing a book, Flattening The Country.
He is a conservative, not a libertarian, for those playing at home, but when the responsibility of letting in or banning controversial American speaker Candace Owens fell on his desk, the instinct was to pursue the unpopular decision and overrule the cowering ministerial advisors who wanted to keep her out. And he did. She never visited, but the episode revealed a politician guided by conviction and not the whims of an exercised mob.
While the current prime minister was selling deodorant and navigating his way to the cockpit of Air New Zealand, his former defence minister was serving in the navy, including a stint in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He understands, and believes in, service. His political career began, by his own admission, with great expectations. It has ended long before it should have.
Chris Penk is one of the most honourable, decent, and effective members of this parliament and one of the few consistent ministerial performers. I do not know the details of what happened, but it is evident that he assessed the premiership of Mr Luxon and, from his front-row vantage point, believed it was best for his party and country that it came to an end. And he was willing to sacrifice his own career if the attempt failed.
That fact should worry the remnants of his cabinet even more than losing one of the most talented and popular ministers. Penk was a navigator in the navy. He can see the icebergs and reefs ahead and sought to avoid HMNZS National running ashore. They threw him overboard instead......The full article is published HERE
Damien Grant is an Auckland business owner, a member of the Taxpayers’ Union and a regular opinion contributor for Stuff, writing from a libertarian perspective
Meanwhile, our mutual friend, the MP for the electorate formerly known as Helensville, was in the process of ending his political career. What happened?
You will note, if you were paying attention, and there is no reason why you should have been, that an excited phalanx of political journalists, commentators, experts and pundits were spilling pixels by the millions on the topic of Luxon’s impending demise. It was Bishop, Stanford, Mitchell, maybe even Goldsmith, and if someone threw in Butterick, no one would have questioned the information.
Luxon survives second caucus challenge as Penk stripped of portfolios
None of them had Chris Penk on their bingo card of potential kings. Or kingmakers. He was the nowhere man silently working eight days a week on his ministerial responsibilities, trolling supporters and detractors on social media while silently working the phones and doing the numbers.
Let’s take a closer look at the Honourable Christopher Aidan Penk.
While his colleagues in the building portfolios were failing to progress the updated Resource Management Act, the now former minister for building and construction Penk quietly passed the Building (Overseas Building Products, Standards, and Certification Schemes) Amendment Bill. No one outside the construction sector noticed, but this legislation is one of Luxon’s failing administration’s greatest legislative successes.
If a product has been certified in reputable overseas jurisdictions, it is considered fit for New Zealand. The need to get every widget, plasterboard or insulation foam tested for New Zealand conditions was replaced by a sweeping approval process. Up to 200,000 products previously forbidden to these shores will be available.
This simple measure reduces substantially the cost of construction, undermines the effective monopoly of suppliers of standard products like GIB board, and unlocks a bounty for builders and their customers. It is a simple idea in theory, which would have required discipline, attention to detail and Penk using his skills as a legal beagle to battle with the drafting minions to push through the legislation.
While his predecessors saw dysfunction and were content to let it be, preferring photo opportunities to the hard times necessary to achieve sustained progress, Penk went to work. He allowed ‘granny flats’, up to 70m², to be built without a building or resource consent, forced improved consenting times on councils and relieved local authorities of the liability for building defects and imposed mandatory warranties, with insurance, on builders.
Penk is thoughtful. In his maiden speech he spoke of the paradox of making laws that offer choice in theory but have the opposite effect in practice. “A person who is offered by the law (and accepts) the choice of taking an addictive substance will suffer from a lack of choice as a result of doing so.” He spent opposition in lockdown writing a book, Flattening The Country.
He is a conservative, not a libertarian, for those playing at home, but when the responsibility of letting in or banning controversial American speaker Candace Owens fell on his desk, the instinct was to pursue the unpopular decision and overrule the cowering ministerial advisors who wanted to keep her out. And he did. She never visited, but the episode revealed a politician guided by conviction and not the whims of an exercised mob.
While the current prime minister was selling deodorant and navigating his way to the cockpit of Air New Zealand, his former defence minister was serving in the navy, including a stint in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He understands, and believes in, service. His political career began, by his own admission, with great expectations. It has ended long before it should have.
Chris Penk is one of the most honourable, decent, and effective members of this parliament and one of the few consistent ministerial performers. I do not know the details of what happened, but it is evident that he assessed the premiership of Mr Luxon and, from his front-row vantage point, believed it was best for his party and country that it came to an end. And he was willing to sacrifice his own career if the attempt failed.
That fact should worry the remnants of his cabinet even more than losing one of the most talented and popular ministers. Penk was a navigator in the navy. He can see the icebergs and reefs ahead and sought to avoid HMNZS National running ashore. They threw him overboard instead......The full article is published HERE
Damien Grant is an Auckland business owner, a member of the Taxpayers’ Union and a regular opinion contributor for Stuff, writing from a libertarian perspective
1 comment:
Courage is a rare commodity in parliament and when exposed is quickly dealt to by the spineless.
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