Carter John: General Debate 
Carter John: General Debate 
[Volume:666;Page:13780] 
Hon JOHN CARTER (Minister of Civil Defence) 
: 
 I want to talk about the greatest natural disaster that this House and this country have experienced in over 80 years and that is the Canterbury earthquake. I start by saying thank you to all the people who have been involved—the three mayors the civil defence people the police and all the people who have been involved in the recovery work down in Canterbury. I also acknowledge the civil defence staff at the national headquarters in our bunker in Wellington—John Hamilton and the team—and all the work they have done. It has been an outstanding job. I am pleased to say that it shows that we have a first-class structure in this country. It does and can respond when it is needed and it has in this instance. Our biggest thanks need to go to all the people right across the region who have stepped up helped and given assistance to anybody and everybody who has needed it. I must say that that has been one of the features of the whole event. People in Canterbury have stepped up and worked to make sure that everybody else is safe and secure. All the other New Zealanders who have offered help have also been extraordinary. It makes one proud to be a New Zealander. 
I also compliment and thank all our colleagues across this Parliament. There have been numerous offers of help from right across every sector and I thank them all for the offers of support and help. I particularly commend the Canterbury members of Parliament. All of them have been out with the people in Canterbury helping and giving assistance guidance and support. That has been a great feature. To that end I am having a conference call at 4.30 this afternoon and I have invited all of the Canterbury members of Parliament to be on it so that I can give them a full brief and answer any questions in case there are issues they need to know about to pass on to their constituents. That is the sort of thing this country would expect. We have a common interest in this issue and in getting it resolved. 
I said earlier in answer to a question that there are two issues that we need to be concerned about. The first is the welfare of the people. Although we have welfare centres occupied by a number of people nevertheless we can expect that that number will swell over the next few weeks and possibly months as we grapple with the enormity of this issue before us. Unless people have actually been down there on the ground they do not comprehend how massive this event has been. Quite honestly it is staggering when one gets to see it. There is some good news. We are starting to get some reports that the effect on housing may not be quite as severe as we first thought but it is a bit early for us to say that. 
The second ongoing problem—one I spoke of earlier as well—is that a house school or building that was OK yesterday is not OK today because of aftershocks. So if we think we have this event summed up and understand the impact of it quite honestly we have not. Most important people need to understand that it may be some time before we understand the issues that we are addressing. The Government has stepped forward and done all it can on behalf of this Parliament and on behalf of the rest of New Zealand to provide all the support that one would have expected. There are whole numbers of funds and welfare offers for people to accept. I am spending all the time that would be expected down in Christchurch itself as well as working back here in Wellington. 
Finally I conclude my thanks by thanking the Prime Minister for the leadership he has shown in this event. On behalf of Parliament and on behalf of the people of this country I say that we are lucky to have John Key leading us at this time and in this place. It was needed and his presence down in Canterbury has given the people down there huge confidence. We place on record our thanks to him on behalf of the nation for the work he is doing in this regard. We have huge challenges ahead of us but by working together we will get through and resolve them. Thank you very much.