Carter David: Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Bill — Procedure First Reading Second Reading 
Carter David: Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Bill — Procedure First Reading Second Reading 
[Volume:666;Page:13916] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (Minister of Agriculture) 
: 
 I will start by acknowledging the special atmosphere in the House today. As all who have contributed to the debate acknowledge and as Clayton Cosgrove said we need to deal with this emergency without politics getting in the way. I have to say that I knew we were in for a special time when I came up to the Cabinet meeting on the Monday immediately following the quake to learn that the Labour Opposition in particular were prepared to cooperate by allowing all Canterbury members to remain in Canterbury and still have their votes count in the parliamentary process. I thank very much all the MPs who contributed to that idea. It was great for MPs to be able to be away last week in their home region. MPs from all political parties had that opportunity and Parliament was able to function. 
In my opinion Saturday 4 September delivered the greatest disaster New Zealand has ever seen. I acknowledge that if it were measured in terms of loss of life we were lucky. There was no loss of life and that in itself is an absolute miracle. When we consider the scale of the event and the fact that it hit Christchurch the second largest city in New Zealand and its surrounding regions in dollar terms there is no doubt the disaster is of immense proportions and is something that we have never seen before. 
I was not at home in Teddington on the night of the earthquake; I was in Auckland. It was a pretty scary experience to receive a phone call from home at 5.30. The terror and fear in my wife’s voice is something that I will never forget. The issue for me was to get down to Christchurch as quickly as possible. I walked into the emergency centre that had been established in the art gallery—I guess we got there about 3 or 4 o’clock with the Prime Minister—and immediately realised how the city had responded. It was quite incredible. One might see civil defence exercises and question the worthiness of them but to see an established civil defence emergency team working in such a coordinated fashion was a pleasure to behold. I congratulate everybody who was involved in that. I am talking about the major centre in Christchurch but other centres were established in Kilmore Street by Environment Canterbury and centres were also established in the Selwyn District and the Kaiapoi District. 
I spent my time on Sunday in the Selwyn District and again I say that I will never forget the resilience of the farmers who have been affected by this disaster. They cooperated to ensure that first of all they their families and their animals were OK and then they immediately looked to their neighbours whom they automatically assumed would be worse off than them. It showed the spirit of Canterbury and the spirit of farmers throughout New Zealand. We saw some tremendous examples. A dairy shed designed for 400 cows milked 3000 cows in a 24-hour period. I ask members to bear in mind that even without the earthquake for those involved in dairy farming this is the most stressful time in their annual calendar as they are in the midst of calving season. So I think the emergency stage worked particularly well and I congratulate everyone who was involved in that. 
We are now moving to the recovery stage and that is exactly what the Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Bill is about. It is extraordinarily powerful legislation and for it to be used correctly involves an act of faith from all of us who will vote for it. If we develop the spirit of political cooperation which I feel in the House today I have no doubt that as we move through the next stage of the recovery and deal with issues that we have not even thought of yet we will find a way for the bill being flexible as it is to work to help the recovery. 
How long will it take for Canterbury to recover? I do not think any of us know that. I thank and congratulate those who have been involved in the immediate recovery. Seeing Christchurch on Saturday 4 September and going back there a little over a week later one has to acknowledge the huge amount of work that has already been done to clean up our city. I do not suggest that every part of this recovery will be easy. It will not be. But to return to my original point and as Clayton Cosgrove said we have to keep politics out the recovery. If we do that I have no doubt that the recovery process will be a lot quicker and equally that we will build a stronger more beautiful and more vibrant part of New Zealand out of this disaster. I wish all Cantabrians well as we embark on that endeavour.