SpeechHon KIRITAPU ALLAN (Minister of Justice): It's 14 March today and on 14 February one month ago in Te Tai Rāwhiti we were about oh 15 or so hours into an event which will become one of the most devastating in our region's history. Always in Te Tai Rāwhiti in terms of weather events we have benchmarked and looked to Bola as the event that kind of defines—it's before Bola or after. That changed us in 1988. Well Gabrielle certainly put Bola in its place. When you get up into the region and you look over the damage that's been done throughout the entire landscape it's like deep fingernails have scratched through the surface impacting towns communities—22 communities in Te Tai Rāwhiti. Currently we have 1100 people still disconnected and the road ahead is really long.This legislation brought by my colleague the Minister for Emergency Management the Hon Kieran McAnulty it's incredibly helpful and has been requested by the councils and people of our place. So I want to acknowledge our colleague Minister McAnulty for responding in such a pragmatic and efficient manner.Before I just turn to the nuts and bolts of the bill and the ways in which the provisions in this bill will assist communities like mine Te Tai Rāwhiti I really want to put on record just some of the beyond human almost stories from the people that responded one month ago in our region. There's a particular chap though—his name's Frank. Frank had only been in the civil defence role for Te Karaka for about three months I think and I met Frank on about 16 February. That was about two or three days after he had taken about 500 people from a small township called Te Karaka up two hills at 5 a.m. on the morning of the 13th when the Waipawa breached. When I met him two days after that and a couple of other hundred from Te Karaka they sat for 27 hours up on those hills because as it played out all of the ordinary communications that we've become so reliant on—phones internet you name it—she was gone. So they didn't know what to do because there was simply no information to help guide them. But they watched from those two hills in Te Karaka as their homes were destroyed.You know you go up the coast a little bit and you meet with somebody like Lillian Te Hau-Ward who has essentially been in response mode since really 10 January—that was when Cyclone Hale presented itself. That's 10 January and we're in 14 March now. People are tired but it's people like Lillian Te Hau-Ward who runs a very very tight ship up there in Tokomaru Bay servicing the hundreds of people that are reliant on people like her her leadership—it's just hard to comprehend and hard to share and hard to grapple with the nature of the things that they're dealing with in our little hometowns. So I bring these stories to this House to uphold and acknowledge them and to put a spotlight on them because they are heroes and they are heroines and they are still right now in that state of response because the roads are out and there's a long task ahead of us.This bill I said in my opening remarks had been called for by local government. In my neck of the wood I want to acknowledge our mayor Her Worship Rehette Stoltz and her chief executive Nedine Thatcher Swann and the Controller Ben Green. Now those three have been this indomitable sort of tripartite that've led us through these two most recent events but seven severe weather events over the past 18 months.One of the things that this bill will do—there's two things. One it'll enable them to be able to have meetings because currently people can't practically physically travel from Ruatōria and Tokomaru Bay and all the way up the coast to the council meeting. So I'm sure that the likes of—oh well you know all of the councils up the coast will be a little bit pleased; I'm thinking of you Rawinia Parata. But they'll be able to continue with their council business and it's so important that those voices are around the decision making the council-making tables because it's those communities that are in absolute isolation.But secondly too there's just the flexibility that we're providing through this bill and whilst the Opposition found some negative comments to make there being able to amend those long-term plans particularly with regards to their water infrastructure is going to be absolutely fundamental. It's just completely shattered itself in a region like ours. So those powers that this bill provides to those councils have been sought and I commend the Minister for responding in the way in which he has.Turning very briefly to the amendments that this bill makes in the Resource Management Act as has been said in this House a few times now our horticulturalists particularly in my region and of course our farmers sheep and beef specifically are working like the clappers—you know we're still getting a strong grasp in terms of what the nature of the devastation is and I've just got to acknowledge every single one of them that have had crops destroyed farms absolutely decimated. But they are undertaking that task which is you know moving silt and actually getting stock off property and doing what they need to do. They're taking preventative and remedial action which is required. Now you know this ordinarily requires permits for a lot of the work that's been undertaken by those on the land but I appreciate what these amendments will mean to people that are just cracking on and doing the job. Now's not the time to be doing that paperwork.I want to acknowledge the environmental issues because I know that there's some concerns there but in a time of crisis it's not unusual for Governments to be able to bypass the ordinary processes in order for that expediency.So look with my full support in my role as the Minister responsible for the recovery in Te Tai Rāwhiti and the Bay of Plenty I want to commend—and I want to acknowledge our colleagues who have been working tirelessly on this including the Minister Grant Robertson to make sure that our response is locally led and that these provisions that come through in this legislation tonight enable that locally led response. So therefore I wholeheartedly commend this bill to the House.