Leaky Building Issues Were Not Discussed With Hawkins

21 November

Media Statement

Building Industry Authority chairman Barry Brown confirmed today that leaky building issues were not discussed while Internal Affairs Minister George Hawkins attended a meeting of the Authority in September 2001.

Mr Brown said the Authority did discuss weathertightness issues at its previous meeting, in August 2001.

“The minutes of that meeting were confirmed in September, but the Minister was not present during that time. The Minister had been invited to the meeting simply to meet the members of the Authority, most of who had been appointed in June 2001.

“He was not provided with the minutes of the previous meeting, he did not see an agenda for the meeting and, in fact, there were no weathertightness related matters on the agenda.”

Mr Brown confirmed:
- The September 2001 meeting began at 9:30 am
- The first item on the agenda was confirmation of the August 2001 minutes
- Several other matters were discussed
- The Minister of Internal Affairs attended the meeting between 10:20 and 10:45 to meet the new Authority members, and at no time were weathertightness related matters discussed.

Mr Brown also confirmed that at the following meeting of the Authority, in October 2001, it began the process that led to the formation of the Weathertightness Overview Group led by Don Hunn.

He said the Authority first raised the leaky building issue with the Minister by letter in April 2002.

The Overview Group presented its preliminary report to the Authority in May 2002, at which stage the Authority sought a meeting with the Minister to inform him of the Overview Group interim findings.

ENDS

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