Doocey MattMATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. I'm sure you will agree with me when I say how good Christchurch is. What a fantastic city it is. And I must say it's a pleasure to be listening to the Christchurch MPs from across the House—to their contributions today. It clearly demonstrates how we get on well together as MPs from across the House but from one region. Unlike those other nasty MPs from different regions around New Zealand we clearly get on but I suppose what we galvanise behind is having the best rugby team in the world. That's what clearly brings us together. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): I might just ask for the clock to be stopped so you can go on. MATT DOOCEY: Yes—I seek leave to have a 20-minute call! But a bit more seriously today is another small milestone in what is a long journey in recovery for a great historical city. We do have a significant milestone coming up in September of this year which will be of course the first earthquake. Quite rightly we focus on the second earthquake in February 2011 with the fatalities involved but of course we had the first earthquake in September 2010 which severely affected a town in my electorate the town of Kaiapoi where we lost over a thousand residential houses and to this day we still have the only other red zone outside the Christchurch City area. But I must say it's great to see the recovery and strength of a parochial town like Kaiapoi as they bounce back. They've had huge Government and private sector investment. We've got the marina development now a new boat on the Kaiapoi River and we've got a proposal for a new international aqua sport park to be built on the red zone which is going to be great for the growing population out there and to bring some confidence and jobs and incomes for a town that was severely impacted.This bill seeks to bring some leadership and decision making back to local leaders. And of course I say that Greater Christchurch has changed significantly post the earthquakes and now towns like Kaiapoi or Rolleston and Lincoln and Selwyn are termed as part of Greater Christchurch. So when we do talk of this return to local leadership it has not only quite rightly Christchurch City Council but Waimak" District Council Selwyn District Council Environment Canterbury and very importantly Ngāi Tahu as well—and aren't we lucky to have an iwi like Ngāi Tahu down in Christchurch who are a strong strategic partner but also a cornerstone in the driver of our cultural recovery as well.We would say on this side of the House though that potentially some of the ability for this regeneration power in the previous bill where parts are being repealed today were underutilised. I think when you look at the impacts now of COVID-19 on local economies it's important that local leadership does have a lens for ensuring that they have strong local economies that drive jobs and better incomes for the benefit not only of the wellbeing of the residents but also for improving environmental standards as well. And why I say that is I feel potentially some of these powers that we are repealing today could have been used with more urgency to drive several key projects over the line. We are still left with a lot of questions around the stadium. As I joked before being one of the world's best rugby regions we should quite rightly have the architecture and infrastructure that points to that. You only need to go to some of the cities around the world who might be you know European premier football team winners. They have those big stadiums. And I think that quite rightly Canterbury deserves that again. We all have a lot of childhood memories of being on that embankment during the early 80s of the Ranfurly Shield era of the Canterbury rugby team and it would be great to see that return as well. The Metro Sports Facility is another one that's struggling to get traction and also disappointingly for Waimakariri commuters the northern corridor has been delayed as well potentially to the start of next year.So I think if we are going to repeal section 71 we are disbanding Regenerate Christchurch. It does put some responsibility on this local leadership team that will be picking this up to ensure we continue the recovery. I will acknowledge the Government for their mental health programmes that they have put in the schools in Greater Christchurch post-earthquakes. We know we still have a lot of young people—and not so young now as we are 10 years down the track—who are still struggling with the mental and psychological impacts of the earthquake. But this bill today isn't seeking that this local leadership will have the powers and the ability to make decisions to drive forward Greater Christchurch's regeneration—because we have a lot to do. We started off very aspirational saying that we wanted to rebuild the best small city in the world and I think we should hold on to that aspiration. It's pretty clear when you go round parts of Christchurch City and the central part of Christchurch there's a lot of work to be done and I know there's a lot of historical traditional families in Christchurch who could have taken their capital very easily to other parts of the world—Australia for example—but have decided to stay to invest into some of the infrastructure projects we're seeing now: the Riverside Market's a good example. And we just want to acknowledge that private sector who is backing Christchurch.But it is still disappointing. You know we don't hear much from Christ Church Cathedral. Regenerate Christchurch were going to do a lot more around the cathedral precinct. And that's why I think—you know we've heard from around the House today it is important we repeal section 71 and return that local decision-making. But what we want to ensure is that these local decision makers pick up that challenge and run with it because you know we are going to be on the back foot with the economic recession ahead of us with COVID-19 and what we want to know is that once we get through that we'll be focused again on our regeneration and looking forward to one day hosting the Rugby World Cup in the new Christchurch rugby stadium and to a Canterbury rugby player scoring the try to finally beat the French and put that there.Paul Eagle: That's going too far now.MATT DOOCEY: OK thanks Mr Paul—oh he told me to sit down the Wellingtonian. There was a good game in Athletic Park one day I went and—thank you very much for your leniency Madam Chair and I commend the bill to the House."