It has has cost $50 billion to repair to substandard leaking
houses
in New Zealand after
housing regulations were removed in 1991.
Can you record an audio track for this webpage?
E
We have just spent all our life B
savings
So our B7 kids would be
warm, safe and E sound
Now we've found out our E7 house
has gone A rotten
And our B7 building firm
just can't be E found.
We built in the very best suburb
A flat roof, without any eaves
We felt that it made quite a statement
Then it rained and it leaked like a sieve. I’ve got a house just like your house,
You’ve got a house just like mine.
The building firm made lots of money.
Using untreated, rotten old pine.
BRANZ used to research the best practice
Test materials, offer advice
But Carter Holt Harvey ignored them
Said untreated dry pine would suffice.
And the Clerk of Works used to watch closely
Making builders keep all of the rules.
Then the Government made them redundant
So builders now treat us like fools I’ve got a house just like your house,
You’ve got a house just like mine.
The building firm made lots of money.
Using untreated, rotten old pine.
Each tradesman was once an apprentice
But building firms like to cut costs.
It's much cheaper to hire unskilled labour
All the old building skills have been lost.
Last week I chanced to trip over
And fell through the wall with a thud
The wall had just crumbled like Weetbix.
'cuz the framing had all turned to crud. I’ve got a house just like your house,
You’ve got a house just like mine.
The building firm made lots of money.
Using untreated, rotten old pine.
The leaky homes disaster
Most New Zealanders have been hit of the 1990s leaky
building disaster. Some have been made sick by
mould-infested homes, many have lost their life savings
trying to fix them, and the rest of us having to pay the
astronomical national bill for this avoidable crisis –
and in 2020, it's not over yet.
All of us are paying higher rates because our local
councils have ended up footing the bill for the
incompetence of PM Jim Bolger, Treasurer Ruth Richardson
and Housing Minister Murray McCulley who took a
functioning building safety system and wrecked it.
Pinus
radiata was was used after World War 2 as a solution to
a shortage of native timber. It was prone to rot,
but far-sighted research by the Department of Scientific
and Industrial Research (DSIR) had found a solution in
the form of boric treatment.
This carefully regulated treatment regime ensured
buildings were rot and insect-proof, but in the
1980s there were calls to reduce red tape and meet a
demand for more buildings, more quickly, at a cheaper
cost.
The idea arose that the market could somehow police
itself.
1. A local and national regulation and inspection system
was deliberately destroyed.
2. Untreated radiata pine could now be used for interior
parts of a building that would "not be exposed to damp."
Yeah, right!
3. In the same decade, new protective building materials
such as mono-cladding and sealants were introduced,
but...
4. Architects and designers did not how to make use of
these new materials properly, and....
5.
The training system for apprentices was hollowed out, so
skilled tradespeople were thinner on the ground,
consequently....
6. The new materials were used on ignorantly designed
structures built by unskilled laborers, water leaked in,
black mould grew on the untreated radiata pine and its
toxic spores made homes unlivable.
In 1988, we were spending 11% of our income on housing,
but by 2015, that had risen to 28%. The "reforms" failed
even at the one thing they set out to do – reduce costs.
Leaky buildings have cost the country more than $50
billion dollars.
The State House Song
Rottenomics Blues is a parody of the State House Song by
Dave Jordan I've got a house just like your house,
You've got a house just like mine.
It's a great house, it's a State House, and it's my
house,
And the Government plan's mighty fine! MORE Urban
working-class housing in New Zealand in the 19th century
was of poor quality, with overcrowding, flimsy
construction and little public space. In 1936 the first
Labour Government started building well-constructed
houses, mostly in the suburbs with spacious sections.
Workers could rent them for about 1/3 their wages.
By 1950 the government had built 30,000 of them. This
project gave sound training to hundreds of building
apprentices who went on to build thousands of private
homes of similar sound construction.
inus
radiata was was used after World War 2 as a solution to
a shortage of native timber. It was prone to rot,
but far-sighted research by the Department of Scientific
and Industrial Research (DSIR) had found a solution in
the form of boric treatment. 
.
The training system for apprentices was hollowed out, so
skilled tradespeople were thinner on the ground,
consequently....
Urban
working-class housing in New Zealand in the 19th century
was of poor quality, with overcrowding, flimsy
construction and little public space. In 1936 the first
Labour Government started building well-constructed
houses, mostly in the suburbs with spacious sections.
Workers could rent them for about 1/3 their wages.