Watts SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): Forty-five days ago the rain began to fall in Auckland. I remember that evening and it was about this time because I ended up sleeping in the regional terminal at Auckland Airport as a result of not only planes not being able to fly out of that airport but the inability to leave that airport because of significant flooding. Watching the TV screens from the airport along with many other people through that evening and into the night and overnight it was very clear at that point that not only our city but one of the biggest regions in our country was embarking on a significant weather event that was going to have long-lasting implications that we continue to feel and continue to see today.The result and the response of those members of our communities particularly those first responders on that evening on 27 January and the days following were in all instances heroic and there are multiple stories that we've heard in this House in regards to those actions by those individuals common people average Kiwis across the country and across the city that went over and above what was required to help their fellow neighbour. That was a challenging time and then what we saw following not only a few weeks subsequent to that and further on were the other implications particularly in Tai Rāwhiti and the Hawke's Bay region in terms of the significant implications of the cyclone which brings us to where we are this evening in regards to passing legislation: the Severe Weather Emergency Legislation Bill.As has been noticed by our prior speaker the Hon Michael Woodhouse the National Party will be supporting this legislation alongside the Government and that is because it is absolutely appropriate and practical that we do take the appropriate steps to deal with a number of the aspects that need to be dealt with and in particular deal with some of the legislative elements that are holding not only the response back but also enable us to move forward should we be faced—and when we are faced—with a similar circumstance in the future. I think it is without doubt that with the amount of increased weather events that we've seen in this short amount this of time this year it is no doubt that that is something that we need to actively prepare for as we go forward into the future.The changes in this legislation as the Minister has articulated relate in regards to the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act. I'm not going to go into detail around those aspects. There were also changes in regards to the Resource Management Act in regards to the time frames around advising local authorities and being able to apply for consent in terms of emergency work.I guess those aspects in terms of the relationship between local government and our community are critically important. As National's spokesperson for local government and regional development I've absolutely seen and continue to get dialogue from councils and mayors across the country and in particular in the regions heavily affected that there are elements that we need to improve. But I do want to also acknowledge the significant efforts by those members of our community who work in local government and in local councils and our territorial authorities and those organisations and companies and entities that support those councils for the work that they have done and continue to do day in and day out. We've seen their faces on TV. And even though the headlines aren't hitting every night you can see in many of their faces the tiredness of the significant contribution that they have done for their communities. They are the unsung heroes in regards to providing that local on-the-ground response which is completely unmatched.While here in Wellington we may often think that we have a significant influence in regards to dealing with local events it is our local communities that are best placed to deal with local issues and those are the individuals and those are the elements within our community that really come to the front when we're dealing with such significant implications and those are the individuals that wear multiple hats in our communities. So while they may be a councillor on the local council or on the local board or even the mayor often their other hat is in a voluntary capacity whether it's a local fireman for the fire brigade or part of their local St John's or they're a member of one of the local charities that provide support or Red Cross and other elements in their family and all their elements are all linked as well. That's what happens in local communities across this country and particularly in rural and provincial New Zealand.There is one component that I want to raise in this bill which I think is disappointing: that the Government has used this opportunity to fix an error in regards to the three waters Water Services Entities Act. They've used this piece of severe weather emergency legislation to correct an error in the Water Services Entities Act in clause 14 in regards to the issue around long-term plans. This is not a clause related to the cyclone. The Minister didn't pay too much wording to this clause when he provided an overview and there's a reason why that is. It's because they're using this bill to push through this correction which is completely—well there's a number of words for it: a little bit or trickery a little bit of craftiness skulduggery. But that is the reality. Clause 14 of this bill needs to be very clearly looked at by the committee tomorrow. The question needs to be asked: is this clause directly related to the severe weather emergency events that we're dealing with or is this simply coincidental an opportunity because they made a mistake and it wasn't clear around what long-term plans need to be completed by councils as part of the three waters legislation and they've now created a precedent where councils are unable to do their long-term plans until the water services entities come into effect on 1 July 2024—and they know that's an issue because it's been raised by councils including in select committee—and they've used this legislation to pump through a quick fix.Well we can talk all night—and we will and many speakers will talk about the good elements of this bill. But it is a real shame that the Minister has decided that actually while we're pushing this through in good faith on all sides of this House now is the opportunity to just push through a little convenience clause to fix up an error on top of multiple errors in legislation as we all know in regards to the Water Services Entities Bill. So I want to raise that very clearly. I'd like and I expect to discuss that at the committee stage. I'm expecting to have a very clear articulation in terms of what is the true justification for clause 14 of this bill and why is it necessary that it includes councils and territorial authorities that are not implicated by the cyclone which is what the Minister said in his opening address—he said it quite subtly right? Might not have picked up on it but he mentioned it. That is important for us to go through because we're all here trying to do the right thing and I think we're all absolutely on board with that. But that does not provide an off-ramp for this type of opportunistic implementation of a clause in a bill that deals with issues because of poor regulation-making by a Government in regards to bills that are not related to this cyclone.So that is all I'm going to cover at this point. I'm looking forward to going through the committee phase that will follow and the shortened select committee process tomorrow. I acknowledge that all in all the majority of this legislation with the exception of the clause that I've noted is absolutely fully supported by this side of the House. I do hope and wish that the speedy pushing through of this legislation positively benefits those communities across this country that have been and continue to be heavily impacted by the severe weather events that occurred and started to occur just 45 days ago. Thank you Madam Speaker.