Leaky buildings crisis kept secret at top level

By ANDREW LAXON

The Government-appointed Building Industry Authority took part in a secret media strategy last year to conceal the industry's slow response to the leaky building crisis.

Confidential minutes from the Weathertight Buildings Steering Group - the top-level body the industry set up to handle the crisis - show members spent large parts of their meetings debating how to put a positive spin on the story.

In June last year, all those present, including Building Industry Authority chief executive Bill Porteous, agreed on the principle of not acknowledging or even suggesting a long history of inaction.

In other meetings media consultant David Peach advised the leading industry players to:

* Create no expectation the problem would be solved.

* Avoid "dobbing in" other parts of the industry.

* Not help the media find examples of leaking homes.

* Not give out photos, which are "emotive and not controllable".

The 52 points recorded under "media issues" at the June 26 meeting - which ran over time at the expense of training and research initiatives - advised that without a proactive approach, the media's natural targets would be builders, cladding manufacturers James Hardie and the polystyrene-based cladding EIFS, which has been controversial in the United States.

It added that the derogatory "chillybin" nickname for EIFS was banned in all media statements.

The minutes, obtained by the Green Party, show that in August the group agreed that its media strategy should apply to all forms of public response, including contact with politicians.

In December it noted that "political masters do not appear to care".

The group identified untreated timber as a key issue but worried that publicity would have a negative effect on timber exports.

It also reported concerns from Auckland mayors and the Auckland Regional Council that people would be put off living in "medium-density housing" - the modern terraced houses and apartments that tend to leak.

Green MP Sue Kedgley said she was alarmed that Dr Porteous and the authority had been involved in the media strategy.

"This is completely inappropriate," she said. "The BIA is supposed to be an independent Crown entity charged with managing New Zealand's building industry legislation - not helping the industry put a positive gloss on its tardy response to the crisis."

Green MP Mike Ward has asked Internal Affairs Minister George Hawkins in a written question whether Dr Porteous supported the agreement not to acknowledge or even suggest a long history of inaction by the building industry.

Mr Hawkins said the BIA advised that Dr Porteous did, because "the general agreement of the group was that it would be more constructive to work at solving the problem than trying to apportion blame".

Yesterday, Dr Porteous said he joined the group at its request to keep the authority informed of what the industry was doing.

He said he took no part in the meeting's decision to conceal the industry's slowness to respond from the media.

"I don't believe the BIA has in any way formally endorsed any effort to obscure the truth or to twist facts or anything else like that."

Prendos building surveyor Philip O'Sullivan, who represented the Claddings Institute on the committee and has been an outspoken critic of the authority, agreed.

"I don't think there was any cover-up as such. I think the BIA just didn't understand its role in the whole thing."

The Herald revealed the level of industry concern about leaking buildings in May last year - a month before the group agreed not to talk publicly about the industry's lack of action - and then exposed the true extent of the crisis this April.

In September the Herald revealed that the Building Industry Authority was warned for four years that New Zealand faced an epidemic of leaking and rotting homes but took no effective action to solve the problem.

* Members of the Weathertight Buildings Steering Group were: Adrian Bennett (Building Research Association), Graham Coe (Master Builders Federation), Bill Haywood (Fletcher Challenge Forests), Maurice Hinton (Building Officials Institute), Philip O'Sullivan (Claddings Institute), Bill Porteous (Building Industry Authority), John Sutherland (Unitec architecture school), Stewart Knowles (Window Association), Garry Shuttleworth (Certified Builders Association).

* If you have information about leaking buildings,
email the Herald or fax (09) 373-6421.

Further reading
Feature: Leaky buildings

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