Brewer CameronCAMERON BREWER (National—Upper Harbour): It gives me great pleasure to rise to speak in the first reading of this bill and as others have said its key purpose is to extend the remediation time frames for earthquake-prone buildings by four years. It's an extension that will provide clarity and certainty both for building owners and territorial authorities as well as the Minister announced recently that the review of the management of seismic risk in the existing buildings and subsequently any legislative amendments has been brought forward from 2027. So I want to acknowledge that. We've got to strike a balance and that's what this Government is committed to with both this bill and with the review. If we don't strike that balance we will only see more earthquake-prone buildings rot in our rural towns and our city centres across the country and if members want to know what that looks like I invite them to check out the old Molly Malone's building on the corner of Courtney Place and Taranaki Street in central Wellington. It's been abandoned it's been deteriorating it's almost unsellable and it's been in that situation for 10 years.Another well-known Wellington building that I want to point to is the former Press Gallery Annex at the back of the Beehive—earthquake-prone but having architectural merit according to Heritage New Zealand. Architectural merit—brutalism. It's too hard at first blush to remodel for ministerial offices so subsequently it remains empty right here in the parliamentary precinct. We want to see less examples of empty buildings than more hence why the Minister is acting with some haste but with a lot of consultation with his expansive review.In Auckland interestingly enough more than 1700 buildings are registered as being earthquake-prone which is a big proportion of the over 5000 earthquake-prone buildings nationwide. Auckland Council's general manager of building consents Ian McCormick has welcomed the Government's review: We support the review to ensure the investment by property owners to upgrade their buildings is proportionate to Auckland's seismic risk." Nearly 500 deadlines are set to expire over the next four years so this gives us time.Again I want to give a lot of credit to the Minister for Building and Construction the Hon Chris Penk for bringing forward the review of the earthquake-prone building rules and extending remediation for four years. This is a great day and a big sigh of relief is being exhaled by councils mayors property managers property owners and business associations up and down this country. We are giving them more time and that's what they've asked for and as one property manager said in the media just recently an extension is a godsend. But also let's have a look at this review that that's under way and will be completed next year—2025—and again it has been brought forward from 2027. It's a wide-reaching review. There will be extensive consultation across the property sector and across local government which will result in legislative changes. It will result in legislative changes but then they will go through an exhaustive select committee process and will then be reported back to this House for debate for further consideration and ultimately for ratification.So for Auckland where the Mayor of Auckland has said that there's been no signs of earthquake activity for 100000 years—well we know that the Mayor of Auckland sometimes exaggerates and has a turn of phrase. But for Auckland it makes sense. We're a low-risk area we need more time and our response needs to be proportionate. So I commend this first reading to the House."