Eagle PaulPAUL EAGLE (Labour—Rongotai): Thank you Madam Speaker. I want to talk about the electorate of Rongotai here in Wellington and who can't talk about it when the incumbent has a majority of 19207 votes? But can I just divert for a minute and acknowledge those five vulnerable citizens who died in the blaze at Loafers Lodge on Tuesday 16 March and I know that on the 15th of this month at St Paul's at 5.30 p.m. there will be a memorial service there. Can I thank all of my colleagues for the mahi and for the compassion that you have put in for those people.Today I want to talk about the best part of the electorate. Wellington's south-east? No it's Rēkohu Wharekauri the Chatham Islands and I too want to start with an acknowledgment to Mrs Raana Tuuta who was the recipient of a Queen's Service Medal in the recent King's Honours List. I want to acknowledge her work of more than 60 years. For those who land on the Chathams at the Inia Wiremu Tuuta Memorial Airport you will see her smiling face and—she won't mind me saying this—at 85 she's still working there. She'll probably make you a cup of tea if the plane's a bit late. But none the less she's wired to serve and certainly she's been on the Chatham Islands County Council on that Department of Conservation conservation board she's taught kapa haka at Te One School there but most of all I think she runs a farm still and looks after the golden oldies. So if any of you get down there for lunch the mutton's in the oven the blue cod and the crayfish are out and it'll be Raana Tuuta who is serving you. So you are truly deserving.I digressed for a minute there but I want to now talk about the four entities on the island and they are the Chatham Islands Council the Chatham Islands Enterprise Trust Hokotehi Moriori Trust and Ngāti Mutunga O Wharekauri Iwi Trust. They are the four entities who make up the Chatham Islands and provide that on-island leadership. It's been demonstrated through an investment strategy—a mechanism produced and led by them to say These are the bread and butter things that we need for Chatham Islanders." and the first thing—and I want to thank all of those four stakeholders for their mahi—is the broadband. Many of you won't know that up until 18 months ago you couldn't make a cellphone call on that island. They didn't have a broadband network—the basics. They couldn't make calls from their farms out on the coast out on the water or just everyday life—the basic things that we take for granted. That's been put in place for $11 million. The key thing though is that the Chatham Islands are now in the jet age. Thanks to that runway extension put in there by the Ministry of Works all those years ago and thanks to the enterprise trust for their leadership there'll be a jet plane about to land on that island. So that's a significant thing too.But I say that the biggest thing is the renewable energy: $10 million to ensure that they can decarbonise the island. But more than that this is about making sure that their power bills which are some of the highest in the world are cut in half or slashed even further. I want to just read out something from one of the islanders. She said "When power is so expensive per unit those on fixed income be it sickness superannuation or similar—something has to go. Whānau here are paying up to $800 for their power in winter. We have a wood-range fire with a wetback a wood fire in the lounge a gas range for cooking no electric water and still our power bill is roughly $400 to $500." These are some of the costs that are affecting our people—New Zealanders living 800 kilometres offshore—and those that tried to save power had damp homes leading to deteriorating health. "Heating the stars" is their favourite saying as housing repairs for many are needed. These are the things that are really making a difference for everyday New Zealanders.Can I finish by acknowledging Owen Pickles the retiring chief executive of the Chatham Islands Council with 53 years of local government service and 21 years as the chief executive. He was sent there to sort the council out close it down or look at another option. What he did was he came up with a viable alternative through a Crown appropriation. We're all paying for the council to operate but it's the right thing to do because they want to govern themselves and so they should. All the best to you Owen and your wife Lynette. Kia ora."