Twyford PhilHon PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū): As it has been in the Hawke's Bay Northland Coromandel and a number of other places it's been a very tough last few weeks in West Auckland.I want to start by paying respect to those people who lost their lives in both the Auckland floods and in Cyclone Gabrielle particularly the two volunteer firefighters who gave their lives while serving their community in Muriwai.My Te Atatū electorate has been badly hit; there are about 10 neighbourhoods that are built in floodplains and overland flow paths that have been very badly flooded. There are perhaps a couple of hundred homes in my electorate who had floodwater actually enter their homes—sometimes a metre or even two metres of water in their homes. It's turned their lives upside down. Stinking contaminated water has made those homes uninhabitable.It's been traumatic. The psychological toll for people who've had this experience is crushing and it's been particularly bad for those people in my electorate—the owners and residents of about 60 homes who were badly flooded a year-and-a-half ago in the 30 August 2021 floods.Many of those people who I've got to know well in the intervening months have spent the last year-and-a-half cleaning up haggling with insurance companies and repairing and rebuilding their homes only to be wiped out again in the anniversary weekend floods. One family in Swanson who've been living in a tiny home on their property and who have a young child—that tiny home lifted up off its foundations and floated 50 metres down the road. This was on the night of Friday 27 January as the floodwaters rose carrying one of the members of that family in the tiny home as it floated down the road. And when the floodwaters receded later that night the tiny home relocatable was left sitting on top of a parked car.In the middle of all of this it's been incredibly heartening to see the at-times heroic work of our first responders—particularly on the night of 27 January of the fire service and of the police who were out evacuating people in these neighbourhoods—but also the way that right across West Auckland in the communities I represent neighbours were out ensuring that the elderly the young and the disabled were looked after and were evacuated from their homes as the floodwaters rose. There are legion stories of really brave and courageous actions by people that night.I want to also acknowledge the way in the days that followed Government agencies and our community organisations worked together: the Ministry of Social Development; Kāinga Ora; Visionwest the outstanding social sector provider in West Auckland working alongside The Fono churches and community groups to deliver the welfare support that dozens—actually hundreds—of people who'd been displaced from their homes needed. It was outstanding to see the quality of the work as everybody pitched in together to house and feed and clothe people who'd been displaced from their homes.I also want to recognise Carmel Sepuloni—the Deputy Prime Minister the MP for Kelston and the Minister for Social Development—who was out there day and night day after day in the evacuation centres coordinating and supporting and motivating and working with our communities. I also will say that in West Auckland the elected members—the members of Parliament the councillors the local board members—were almost without exception out there on the front line with their communities working with people and doorknocking with the Student Volunteer Army teams of volunteers out there helping residents clean up their backyards. It was really great to see.But it's now time to start talking about the build back. And we have to do that because time is running out for these people and they need longer-term solutions.