You've been in the hot seat of an organisation of public interest with a chequered past for almost a year. So why not engage with the media, and by extension the public?

The new boss of the regulatory body in charge of our plumbing industry has been in her flash gig since September last year and she’s yet to give one media interview.

The chief executive of the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board (PGDB) is being paid up to $280,000 each year, the PGDB won't tell me exactly how much despite being asked more than once, to be the top dog of an industry integral to public health.

Consumer education is included in the role, alongside licensing for the sector, and meting out punishments for tradies who do bad things, and regular people that have a crack at plumbing when they’re not meant to.

So I thought I would have a yarn to Aleyna Hall. Maybe get a feel for what she thinks about the industry, industry issues, and the ongoing discontent with the PGDB’s fees-always-go-up attitude. I sent through a bullet-point list of things to discuss. 

But Hall didn’t want to talk to me. She is too busy until after the PGDB's board meeting in September.

And yet Hall, after being appointed to the top job almost a year ago, hadn’t been asked to give one interview to one media person in that entire time. Until me.

Nothing I wanted to talk to the new CEO about is new, or scary.

In fact, the history of the PGDB is one that is long, troubled, controversial, and often featured intervention from upon high when the PGDB yet again failed to do its job well, or fairly.

I am sure none of this is news to its new boss.

So let’s recap the recent, turbulent history of the PGDB shall we?

We can begin in 2006.

Then, the tertiary education minister of the day, one Michael Cullen, commissioned lawyer Hazel Armstrong (who often does these when-it-all-goes-wrong-in-government reports) to dig into an alleged breakdown of relationships between the PGDB and the industry training organisation.

This report found the relationship between two critical parts of the overarching plumbing system was dysfunctional, and while other sectors managed to hammer out their differences and work together — the plumbers and gasfitters couldn’t, leading to “industry paralysis”.

Armstrong found the PGDB was working outside its statutory role in a few aspects, and recommended, among many things, that it do basic things like consult with plumbers and gasfitters about licensing. Groundbreaking stuff.

In 2008 the Auditor-General agreed to look into the statutory body that is the PGDB after the then minister for building and construction, Shane Jones, pointed out the board was beset by a large volume of complaints by those trapped under its regime.

Now this was after, the Auditor-General said, it had been asked to review specific aspects of the board's activities several times since 2000, "resulting in advice at different times to the board, ministers, and the Regulations Review Committee of Parliament". And in the midst of all this was the suspension, and then sacking, of former CEO Phil Routhan after he took thousands of documents from the PGDB offices. 

The report published in 2010 by the Auditor-General was a damning indictment of the management of the PGDB. It found problems in most functions of the board.

It found a shaky legal basis for many of the board’s policies and actions, a closed and defensive culture, actions it took were often inconsistent and in essence, found the industry didn’t trust the people responsible for regulating them. Suspicion and discontent abounded, and for good reason.

Among its 15 recommendations was that the PGDB comply with legislation. 

Yes, the statutory body responsible for setting and enforcing the rules wasn’t following the law. 

Plumbers and gasfitters also complained the fees and levies set by the board were excessive, and challenged the legal basis by which the board had been charging disciplinary levies.

Further industry complaints were made to the Ombudsman and Parliament’s Regulatory Review Committee, which were mostly upheld. The Ombudsman found the PGDB had extracted about $600,000 from plumbers and gasfitters through its “unlawful” disciplinary levy.

Then, the unlawful taking of that money was locked in. 

Retrospective legislation was passed, entrenching that wonderful truth; regular people get smashed if they do the wrong thing. Authorities and those in power get misdeeds swept away, forgiven, or even laws are passed to right their previous wrongs. 

The Ombudsman recommended the board give back the cash it took unlawfully from the tradies. Of course, it did not. 

The Auditor-General also pointed out the board didn’t have to take licence fees every year, either, and could choose to licence plumbers for up to five years.

In a move that should surprise absolutely no one reading this, the PGDB did not make that change either despite the Auditor-General finding this policy, without having a clear reason, could be seen as a revenue-gathering exercise.

Call me cynical, but I am pretty sure the PGDB never failed to take fees and cash while it was mucking up most of the other things it tried to do.

A 2014 follow up report from the Auditor-General found a much improved PGDB.

However, it noted, near the top, that it “continues to receive complaints each year from plumbers and gasfitters”. 

“Most of the correspondence we receive is directly or indirectly about costs, and the effect that they have on tradespeople’s livelihoods.”

Fees for the industry went through a triennial review this year and the PGDB decided to put them up again. It did this time, at least, consider industry feedback.

Much like the big banks, the PGDB always has its eye on an uncertain future and just has to salt away more money. Just in case. Rainy days. You just never know.

Its annual report released in June contained this simpering defence: “Ultimately the board considers these fee increases necessary to ensure financial sustainability.”

Is it broke? Please. Far from it. It has loads of cash, just like the always-worried big banks.

It had total revenue of $5.4 million for the financial year ended March 31, 2022, and more importantly, recorded a surplus of $1.1m because, like the banks, it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as it expected its finances were going to be, because Covid.

Staggering news, a trapped cohort of plumbers and gasfitters and drainlayers just keeps paying even in a pandemic. Otherwise they can’t legally work.

Licence fees accounted for $1.6m. The dreaded disciplinary levy took in $1.3m from 26,958 plumbers, gasfitters and drainlayers.

It had $1.5m in cash and assets, and $3.9m in investments. Yes, $3.9m invested. A statutory body. Which is raising industry fees in a cost of living crisis.

And it had total revenue of $5.18 million for the financial year ended March 31, 2021.

In that year it spent $4.6m, meaning a surplus of $507,429. Then it had $1.3m in cash, and a further $2.3m in investments.

In 2020 it had $613,574 in current investments. Now that number tops $3.9m.

The PGDB said, in a written statement, it needs to build-up cash reserves at a rate of $320,000 a year so after seven years there is $2m “set aside for a further upgrade of the practitioner database”.

"The Board is committed to operating in a cost-effective manner. All fees and disciplinary levies are calculated on a full cost recovery basis as the Board receives no government funding. When setting fees and levies the Board follows the Office of the Auditor-General’s good practice guidelines, Charging fees for public sector goods and services, as well as Treasury guidelines," it said.

Industry sources snorted at the idea it needs all this cash for IT, apparently. Although it does have a new app for licencing (gotta do that every year, remember) that I am told is OK. 

It has plenty of cash in the bank, and despite the current economic environment, cost of living crisis, supply chain crisis, and general everything-is-so-expensive crisis, it just had to keep hiking those fees. Of course it did.

This is a direct cost tradespeople are stuck with, and guess who will ultimately pay. Consumers.

There is still plenty of discontent in the industry, in particular with fees.

So what has the PDGB been up to with those fees?

The new boss proudly pointed out consultation, a new-look newsletter, stakeholder liaison, and said it “delivered a strong and comprehensive regulatory service in challenging circumstances”. And Hall is off on a roadshow within New Zealand, before travelling across the Tasman to meet regulators there.

It isn't having a challenging time financially, of course, And there's the app too, of course.

I could have asked Hall, in writing, what her vision for the industry was, but we can glean which platitudes may have been regurgitated in a written statement by reading her first annual report message.

“For me as Chief Executive,” Hall wrote, “in a world of ever-increasing change and connectivity, effective regulation involves keeping my gaze on the future and anticipating change and risks, while at the same time firmly focusing on the present and ensuring our organisation is structured and positioned in a way that enables us to drive forward.”

I too believe the children are the future, teach them well and let them show the way.

A cash stash also helps the PGDB team to sleep comfortably at night I am sure, the knowledge that there is a mattress of dosh just there must be of great reassurance. Just in case things go bad. Just in case.

Some regulators and statutory bodies may live in the land of ever-increasing assets milked from small business owners, tradies, and other people who want to do productive stuff, but ICYMI, life’s not like that for the rest of us.

Many outside the cosy and cushy world of a regulator are struggling. Tradies are struggling. All of our costs are going up.

And the industry problems remain the same. It isn't bringing in enough new people. It doesn't like the ever-rising fees. It's concerned about attracting the right people to the industry.

Plumbers, gasfitters and drainlayers are business owners, as well as people who have completed years of training (seven years for plumbing certification) to become skilled workers, that we rely on to keep us safe and healthy. Some of these businesses are huge. This is a critical industry.

So yes, Hall and co, I do hold you to a higher standard than someone on the street, or a small business owner. 

You are a regulator. You have power. 

We can’t escape you. There’s no opt out for dealing with the PGDB, or Licensed Building Practitioners Board or Electrical Workers Board or the Registered Architects Board.

New Zealand has a rich history of regulatory failure, and the PGDB takes up quite a few chapters.

You’ve heard my thoughts on regulatory failure before.

And much like those old rants, saying you are too busy (the building minister Megan Woods is easier to get hold of) feels like old news, and seems like the bad old days of the defensive PGDB.