Hoggard AndrewHon ANDREW HOGGARD (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. I too commend this motion on behalf of the ACT Party. A couple of points I'd like to make on this. Firstly I understand there has been a lot of work previously done on this by the Environment Committee and we would like to ensure that that work carries through to the new committee and that it isn't lost.One other thing we would be really keen to see is an emphasis in the committee looking at how can we help remove the red tape that often gets in the way of people being able to do some of this adaptation work on their own. This is especially important in the rural community. And you know adaptation isn't just about Government doing everything for you; often it's been you being able to do stuff to make sure your own property is prepared to survive extreme events.I'd like to talk a little bit—I'll just give you three examples of where that red tape has gotten in the way of people being able to adapt their own farms. Firstly culverts: they seem like a very boring subject.Chlöe Swarbrick: We love green infrastructure.Hon ANDREW HOGGARD: Yeah excellent. They're great for keeping stock out of waterways stopping sedimentation. But then we have an issue where in the recent Gabrielle cyclone we had issues where the water was so intense that culverts were often blown out in farms. When the farmer goes to replace that culvert the challenge is they have to get a resource consent if they want to put in a bigger culvert. Now mother Nature has just told them they put in one that was too small to start with. So why are we creating this cost and making this barrier to people doing the right thing and putting in correct and sensible infrastructure?Another example again highlighted really close to home for me during Cyclone Gabrielle was around emergency repairs where often the rules got in the way of people being able to strengthen up riverbanks to put stuff in place to prevent further destruction happening on their properties of riverbanks being eroded away putting more sediment into waterways affecting critical infrastructure. Often there were rules in place where No no you can't go in there; you can't do anything; you can't put that in there. We'll get to it. The council will take care of it. Just wait. Just wait." And it never happened. We've got to get out of the way of this.Finally gravel extraction: it's an issue for many farmers up and down the country. I'm not talking about sending a digger into the river itself; I'm talking about being able to stay out of the waterway but remove that gravel from the bed of the river. At the moment there's so many rules and regulations getting in the way of people just being able to do sensible extraction being able to keep the gravel banks low in many areas against their properties and this is going to just create more of an opportunity for floodwaters to extend into farmland to housing to everything else.And so it's vitally important that the committee spends the time looks at all of these bits of red tape that may get in the way of people doing this sensible work. So my plea to the committee is to look at how they can make common sense a little more common. Thank you."