Advocacy

Master Plumbers represents member businesses as the leadership voice for our industry.

At Master Plumbers, we advocate for our membership on issues that impact business operations or public health and safety.

Apprentice training delivery, the transition to renewable gases, and lead-free drinking water delivery, are among our top priority advocacy projects. 

We are a leading industry voice and collaborate closely with the sector through our involvement in key committees such as the New Zealand Construction Industry Council (NZCIC) and the Skills Group Selection and Performance Committee.

Our CEO, Greg Wallace, is a ministerial appointee on the Construction and Specialist Trades Industry Skills Board and a director on the board of Master Plumbers Australia and New Zealand (MPANZ).

In his work with MPANZ, Greg helps facilitate knowledge sharing and strategic development between the two organisations and the wider industry, both here and across the Tasman.

Our members commit their knowledge and expertise to a range of standards committees. These include AG-006 Gas Installations, AS/NZS 3500 Plumbing & Drainage, NZS5442 Hydrogen Blending, as well as  the P3652 hydrogen standards committee and the backflow standards committee.

We also speak up for future generations of plumbers, gasfitters and drainlayers through our Apprentice Representative Group.

Find out more about our advocacy work below or read our Advocacy Action Plan.

View our consultation submissions

For media enquiries, please email [email protected] or call 0800 502 102.

Productivity & Workforce Capacity

Master Plumbers supports self certification for the plumbing and drainlaying trades. After significant advocacy work, we welcome the commitment to by the current government to making this a reality.  Read our media release here.

Allowing plumbers and drainlayers to self certify their work – as gasfitters already do – will reduce consent delays, increase efficiency and help lower building costs. 

Targeting workforce shortages in the plumbing industry is also essential if New Zealand is to have a qualified base of professionals. This requires investment in apprentice growth and high-quality training delivery. 

We are engaging with the government to ensure its review of vocational education and training results in a fit-for-purpose, well functioning apprentice training regime. 

Master Plumbers continues its efforts to grow the industry, primarily by training apprentices through Masterlink but also by promoting the migration of skilled tradespeople into New Zealand. 

Climate & Environment

As New Zealand transitions to a net zero carbon economy, biogas and hydrogen are already being trialled and developed as an alternative energy supply to fossil gas. 

New Zealand’s first large-scale food waste-to-bioenergy facility at Reporoa is turning 75,000 tonnes of organic waste into renewable energy. A biogas upgrade facility at the site started injecting biomethane into the gas grid in late 2024 for the very first time. 

Master Plumbers welcomes the government’s commitment to renewable gases and wants gasfitter training to be developed, with a Centre of Excellence set up to provide this training. 

Public Health & Safety

Master Plumbers has lobbied long and hard for lead to be removed from New Zealand’s drinking water and drinking water plumbing products 

So, we are thrilled with the government’s decision in late 2022 to move to lead-free plumbing products from 1 May 2026. We are now pushing for mandatory product labelling to make it easy for tapware purchasers to be sure the product they are buying is lead-free. 

The actual water supply must also be lead-free. We are advocating for a maximum acceptable value (MAV) of 0.005mg/L lead in New Zealand water supplies and for greater transparency of regional water quality reporting. 

Apprentice Representative Group

The Master Plumbers Apprentice Representative Group (ARG) gives a platform for plumbing, gasfitting, and drainlaying apprentices to actively contribute to our industry, representing apprentice interests, fostering growth, and encouraging leadership within the industry. 

Master Plumbers Advocacy Action Plan

Read Here