Doocey MattMATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri): Look can I start by saying as a very proud Cantabrian there is a saying that when Canterbury rugby is doing well the All Blacks will do very well. It's great to see Canterbury at the top of the Super Rugby table. Long may that last for the All Blacks' success.Look I want to join in in this bipartisan approach across the House today and acknowledge the current leadership with the Hon Megan Woods as the regeneration Minister ably supported by the Hon Poto Williams and also that Minister's local advocacy in Christchurch East; to another Canterbury member of Parliament for the Green Party Eugenie Sage; of course for the Hon Ron Mark; and MPs who are no longer here: Denis O'Rourke from New Zealand First. I must say we miss Denis. Bring back Denis is what I say.What we do have to remember is that here we are talking about the Canterbury earthquakes not just the Christchurch earthquakes. Of course the town of Kaiapoi in my electorate was hard hit in the first earthquake in 2010. I want to acknowledge former Waimakariri MPs the Hon Kate Wilkinson and the Hon Clayton Cosgrove as well. Of course on my team how good is Gerry Brownlee—how good is Gerry Brownlee?Hon Gerry Brownlee: What about the mayors and Jim Palmer?MATT DOOCEY: I'll get to that Gerry. The speech you wrote for me I'll say that in the next paragraph. But how good is the Hon Gerry Brownlee? His leadership post-earthquakes—the history book on the earthquakes will show that the success of the earthquake recovery and regeneration was largely due to the huge role that the Hon Gerry Brownlee played. Yes there'll be some who say that they actually you know didn't agree with everything he said but he made a decision. You know I won't get too political but I tell you what: we're lucky we had a Government that was confident in making decisions because if it had been a different Government—wow. What a difference that would have made.Could I also acknowledge the Hon Nicky Wagner for her role as the regeneration Minister as well and of course her huge advocacy for Christchurch Central and of course the CBD that was hugely affected in the Christchurch earthquake in 2011.My colleague Jo Hayes based in Christchurch East for her advocacy of a region that is hard hit and still needing a lot of support. So that's where I'll start my contribution. Even though we are saying this bill will be a transition back to local leadership of regeneration I must say we should be very clear that we do not want to see the Government or Parliament walking away from Canterbury from Greater Christchurch from Christchurch because Cantabrians still need central government and we need to play a big role in that.Also I think we need to be clear in this bill—what are we talking about when we say local leadership? Because times have changed down there. When I grew up in Bryndwr and I went to Belfast to play rugby as a young fella and I would have been taken over the Styx Mill Bridge that was a day trip. You'd pack your lunch. Belfast was out in the country out of town. Now Belfast is actually in Nicky Wagner's electorate of Christchurch Central. So spatially how we view Greater Christchurch has changed. Now towns like Kaiapoi Rangiora Lincoln and Rolleston are all part of the bigger picture for Greater Christchurch. So I will acknowledge at this time the Mayor of Selwyn Sam Broughton the Mayor of Waimakariri Dan Gordon deputy mayor Neville Atkinson and Waimakariri councillor Joan Ward. Joan and her husband led Continental Catering—a huge North Canterbury company that was hugely affected by the earthquakes and will know firsthand the stresses that those earthquakes put on local businesses that ultimately employ local people in our community and support them and pay wages.So I know they will be thinking as well as leaders of local government what does local leadership look like? Because when we say local leadership we can't default just to Christchurch City Council. Those days have gone. And you look at the issue playing out at the moment—to my alarm Environment Canterbury (ECan) wrote to the local government Minister Nanaia Mahuta and in a law change made it possible for ECan to pass on public transport. Lianne Dalziel when she was elected in the last election on her first day in front of the Christchurch press said she wanted to take control of public transport—that won't be good for Greater Christchurch. We need an overarching—Hon Phil Twyford: Why not?MATT DOOCEY: The Hon Phil Twyford says Why not?" And he's allowed to. He's the transport Minister but I know transport Minister Phil Twyford is going to be looking forward to meeting the Waimakariri mayor for his advocacy of the Woodend bypass. And I'm sure the Hon Phil Twyford in his role as transport Minister will respond accordingly in the upcoming Budget to give the town the Woodend bypass that they need. We're looking forward to that Minister as well.What we are also talking about here is ensuring that things keep moving because I'm pretty sure in the next few days or the next few weeks we're going to hear how the Christ Church Cathedral has not got back on track and in fact behind the scenes has stalled. I think in the next few weeks we're going to hear about the Christchurch Convention Centre that is not going to open on time and there's going to be significant delays. I think we're going to hear how we're not going to get a stadium on time and how we're not getting the Metro Sports Facility on time. So there's a huge role. You can't just dangle $300 million. We need action. That's why it's important that the Government stays involved—whoever that Government may be—with the people of Christchurch. Christchurch is the second-biggest city. We punch well above our weight not only in rugby but in GDP as well and they need to make sure that central government keeps it a priority because of course in the last National Government the rebuild was one of our top four priorities. So when we hear of infrastructure announcements when Auckland gets billions and Canterbury only gets $159 million we want to make sure that people are listening to us and we feel heard.My final point I want to raise today is this bill will also disestablish the Regenerate Christchurch entity and I want to join some of my other colleagues who have voiced the opinion that potentially there has been too many entities. We have some council-controlled entities that people are unsure what their roles are but they are taking significant ratepayer money. We need to ensure that when we transition back to local government there are the right structures in place; that they are going to deliver for the people of Christchurch but also the people of Greater Christchurch because I can't stress enough that this view of Christchurch has changed significantly since the earthquakes. No longer are we talking about Christchurch City Council but everything we talk about is how it impacts on Christchurch City Council but also Waimakariri District Council and Selwyn District Council as well. I proudly support this bill to the House."