Sage EugenieHon EUGENIE SAGE (Green): Tēnā koe Madam Speaker. I'm pleased to take a short call on the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Amendment Bill. It's interesting the last speaker's comments because if they had actually read the bill listened to the Minister's introduction they would realise that these provisions for withholding information actually follow those in the Official Information Act. We had with the district health board in the Waikato last year a major cyber-attack. This sort of information is exactly the sort of information that may be shared with local authorities about risks to them and that it may be appropriate to withhold. We don't obviously want to see that being used widely but it is appropriate to have these grounds potentially in the bill for the public to comment on.But getting back to the major part of the bill we live in the Shaky Isles. We've got major natural hazard risks from earthquakes land instability and volcanoes we have a major flood event around every eight months and as the regulatory impact statement (RIS) notes the Government estimates that it spent $11.4 billion over the last decade responding to natural hazards. So this bill is making a small but important step in ensuring that buyers when they go to make one of the biggest investment decisions of their lives in purchasing a house if they can afford it—and that's a whole other issue—have an opportunity to be better informed as to whether there are any natural hazard risks on that property. As the Minister noted there's been quite wide variability in the information that is included in a LIM. The Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act the principal Act says that land information memoranda can identify special features or characteristics of the land concerned including but not limited to potential erosion avulsion falling debris subsidence slippage alluvium or inundation or the likely presence of hazardous contaminants. So this bill will help buyer beware.But I think the Government actually needs to go further with the Natural and Built Environment Bill and the guidance that the national planning framework will provide in terms of having some national policy guidance to councils on natural hazards. It was one thing that a former National environment Minister Dr Nick Smith started but it hasn't been finished by the Ministry for the Environment. So we need that more comprehensive framework for guidance in what will be the regional spatial strategies the natural and built environment plans as well as this bill providing property purchasers with more information.The other issue is that it does require regional councils to provide the information and support local authorities as it's often regional councils which have got much greater natural hazard information. Some of them have got very good mapping tools and people can go on to their websites look at where their property is located look at the risk of sea level rise look at the risk of flooding in different weather events. So we hope that the way that these LIMs are developed now will include good access to these other portals.One issue is that of course for whenua Māori where you've got land passing down through succession according to the provisions and the rules of the Māori Land Court you don't have this purchase and therefore you're not getting this information to iwi hapū and owners of whenua Māori. I was disappointed to read in the RIS that the work that was being done through the community resilience programme was scaled back because of the level of funding in Budget 2021-22. It's these other information portals like the Earthquake Commission's risk and resilience portal where the Earthquake Commission is doing research and the information is put up on the portal. It's other communication tools that are really important for hapū iwi whānau and also for the general public in terms of renters and they don't generally go anywhere near LIMs either. So it's ensuring that the wider public is provided with information through other sources in an easily accessible clear and well-communicated form. Knowing that the natural hazard is there is one thing; assessing the actual risk to the property the vulnerability is another and I think that's where ongoing investment in research is really really critical to increase our understanding and then ways of mitigating those risks.But this bill is a useful step forward and I think the provision that councils don't have legal liability if they are providing the natural hazard information on the LIMs in good faith is really critical because we've seen court cases in Kāpiti where the council had identified coastal hazard lines then being taken to court by property owners. Those legal actions aren't often successful but they certainly I think had a chilling effect on Christchurch City Council when it was doing its coastal hazard planning. Property owners concerned about property values can seek to keep those financial values high which means that we're not actually coming to terms with the very real risks of a changing climate and the need to adapt to those risks and to take action to buffer from sea-level rise to give rivers room to move so that they're not flooding properties and to take a whole other range of adaptation actions.Taking action requires information. Unlike the National Party which seems to have its head in the sand in terms of any action to reduce emissions or adapt the Green Party supports the bill.