Dalziel Lianne: Statutes Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Dalziel Lianne: Statutes Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 11 December 2012. Volume:686;Page:7449. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL (Labour—Christchurch East) 
: 
 I had expected someone from the Government benches to take the call but I am happy to do so. This bill the Statutes Amendment Bill has been described by one of the National members as a housekeeping bill a makeover bill a simple no-brainer and common sense. Well apart from the use of the last two words I thought it might have been a looking-in-the-mirror description but obviously it was not intended in that way. 
Phil Twyford 
: No brain. 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL 
: Obviously a no-brainer in that respect—in many respects. 
I want to perhaps start where my colleague Denis O’Rourke ended and that is that we are ending the debate on legislation—so this is the end of the legislative timetable for 2012—and I have to say that as a Christchurch representative it is difficult to see the last item on the agenda as something that will make any appreciable difference to anyone in Christchurch. As Nicky Wagner said it is a housekeeping bill a makeover bill and a simple no-brainer and it is common sense but it is tidying-up. It is tidying up things that we have got wrong in legislation over the time. There are amendments to the Passports Act to the Insolvency Act to the Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement Act and to the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act—but as my colleague Phil Goff said these are not the real amendments that the public are looking for in terms of expanding parental leave in a meaningful way—and a slight amendment to the Health and Disability Commissioner Act. 
There are some more substantial amendments and—I have made this point before—Statutes Amendment bills can be used for the purpose of making substantial amendments. If they are non-controversial and have the support of the whole House then it is entirely appropriate to use a Statutes Amendment Bill. I did notice that under the Flags Emblems and Names Protection Act 1981 the unauthorised use of words and emblems relating to the 28thMaori Battalion has been included in this legislation. I really do not know the history as to why that has been included within the legislation but I just wanted to note it because I thought that it was an important gesture and symbolic actually given that it is the Flags Emblems and Names Protection Act that such a measure could be introduced as part of a Statutes Amendment Bill. I think that shows that there is considerable support right across the House for protecting the integrity of the 28thMaori Battalion and I did want to place that on the record. 
Going back to the comments that Denis O’Rourke was making there are people in Christchurch at the moment who will not look back on 2012 with great pleasure. In fact they will look back on it with great sadness and the sadness is derived from the fact that there seems to be a lack of understanding across the rest of the country of what Christchurch is still experiencing. It is as if the earthquake was so last year and that we are now over it and on our way to full recovery. 
 Christchurch’s recovery is a long way off and a lot of the things that have been happening in Christchurch have actually caused people great distress. I see that level of distress in my electorate office on a daily basis. The way I described it recently when I was giving a talk is that I can see people in my office whose mood I would describe as ranging from abject despair to incandescent rage and that can be describing the same person in the context of a half-hour appointment. 
The reason that people are feeling that way is that they are feeling abandoned and they are feeling that the Government is not hearing many of their concerns. That is why a Statutes Amendment Bill being the last bill to be brought to the House at this time of the year really is not sending the message that people would like to hear and it certainly is not repeating the message that the Prime Minister gave them straight after the earthquake which was that “We will stand alongside you. We will stand alongside Christchurch as they recover.” 
Actually there are people in Christchurch who feel utterly and completely abandoned by the Government. They have had a zoning decision made on their land that they do not understand. They have had to deal with the challenges of insurance companies and with the Earthquake Commission which God bless its soul was designed to provide protection for people but it has been dealing with this scale of incidents that really it was not set up to resolve and as a result it has not been doing a great service for the people who ought to be able to rely on it. So with the challenges that people are facing they are feeling that there has not been a Government that has been willing to listen to them. 
The lack of community engagement—I mean we have got amendments here that are dealing with electoral law. Well that just reminds everyone in Christchurch that we are not going to be allowed to vote for Environment Canterbury representatives next year. We were promised—promised—that we would get our vote back. We did not agree with the Government taking away our right to vote but we were promised it would come back. So when we see an electoral amendment coming up in this legislation—the last item for the year—it just reminds us that this Government is denying democratic representation in Christchurch. Of course you can have democracy in terms of your 3-yearly election under the Electoral Act but that is not what democracy means in its total. What democracy means is having a voice and having that voice heard. People in Christchurch have not got a voice that is able to be heard at the moment because the Government has taken control. 
Every time—every time—somebody opens their mouth they are accused of being a carper and a moaner. If they dare—if they dare—to participate in an online survey that is organised not by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority but by their own residents association because their residents association thinks it is important to know how people are feeling and what they are being faced with in terms of their insurance company oh no they are carpers and moaners and they have got all this time—I will not repeat the word that Gerry Brownlee used in terms of them working on Facebook. 
The other thing is that when the Christchurch 
 Press 
 dares to— 
Andrew Little 
: The enemy of the State! 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL 
: —actually challenge the Government on some of the things that it is doing it is the enemy of the recovery. 
The Speaker is asking me to relate this back to any one of the amendments that are here at the moment. So the amendment that I would like to specifically refer to is to the Children Young Persons and Their Families Act because children have been completely left out of the picture in Christchurch as well if you think about the schools decision. I mean announcing that shocking decision and leaving schools—last Friday was the last day that schools had to put in their submission. 
Hon Annette King 
: They wanted to shut Salisbury—why Salisbury? 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL 
: Yeah well the Salisbury School decision has been turned over by the court and I think that every school in Christchurch—every single school in Christchurch—is going to be poring over that High Court decision with a fine-tooth comb. I suspect that there is going to be more action in Christchurch next year—action taken against the Minister of Education. 
The Minister for Building and Construction might indeed smile because he may be the Minister of Education in the very near future but that is only if he misses out on the Speaker’s job. We think he would make an excellent Speaker. The reason is that he has good humour. I actually think that Maurice Williamson is the archetypal Speaker in the sense that you have got to be able to take the mood of the House for what it is. Sometimes people might not be strictly within the Standing Orders but if it has got the mood of the House— 
Hon Annette King 
: Let the game flow. 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL 
: —if you judge the mood of the House you let the game flow as my colleague quite rightly points out. That means that he would be a fair referee in this House. 
This bill does not represent what our city has been looking for from this Government. It is a shame in that regard that the final bill of the year is one that has not been able to address so many of the issues that Christchurch residents are experiencing. But I too join with other colleagues and wish everyone a merry Christmas and I hope that 2013 brings to New Zealand and certainly to the city of Christchurch much more joy than 2012 has done.