Watts SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. It's always the most challenging times that bring our communities together and I was proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with members of the North Shore community with people that went above and beyond in regards to responding to the floods that impacted large parts of Auckland nearly 45 days ago. Many of these individuals worked hard in order to get food and shelter even when their own homes had been impacted. And that was the real true Kiwi spirit that I am happy to support and am happy to support—as the National Party are—this bill the Severe Weather Emergency Legislation Bill to pass through this House. It will without doubt help in regards to the response to both the flooding and also Cyclone Gabrielle.I also want to again express my support and thanks to local government and councils. We've always said on this side of the House that we fully support what they do and the way in which—particularly local government our councils councillors and other members within that community—they have responded to the disasters that we've seen over the last period. It's very much a credit to all of those individuals. It very much reinforces the fact that local people are best placed to deal with local issues. They very much have shown that they are able to deal with these challenges; they're able to take the leadership position despite the challenges that are thrown up against them. I do wish to acknowledge in particular our mayors across the regions impacted for their work and continued work in regards to this.I also wish to acknowledge the Governance and Administration Committee which very diligently has undertaken the work under what has been a very short period of time chaired by the very impressive Ian McKelvie. He is a statesman—a statesman—in this House and I think that comment would be shared across the House: that the way in which he has conducted that committee is without fault and yeah I wanted to acknowledge that.We heard before from the Minister for Emergency Management in regards to the 14 written submissions and 13 oral submissions. I also wish to acknowledge the Minister for the continued work that he has been undertaking across the country in regards to in particular the emergency management portfolio. The work that he has been doing across our regions has been over and above and beyond and I do acknowledge the workload that that has placed upon him.As noted in the first reading of this bill we have raised our concerns—and we raised our concerns yesterday in the House and at select committee—over the bill's inclusion around the reversal of changes implemented under the Water Services Entities Act. And to be clear these changes and the inclusion of the provision in the Water Services Entities Act in the first place which stops councils from including water services in long-term plans should not have been there in the first place. Our concern was that the Government was using this bill to make those changes because it was a mistake not because it was directly related to the rest of the other changes in the bill. And councils have also and had already raised these concerns about this well before the cyclones and floods had impacted. We're happy to see obviously that this ridiculous restriction on councils has been fixed as a result of this bill. It's just simply that we would have preferred that the Government had done that properly.I want acknowledge the councils that made submissions as part of the select committee process—as others have noted Hawke's Bay Napier Gisborne. While they're still dealing with the challenges that are in front of them across their regions they took the time to be able to implement into this process. And it was noted by a prior speaker that it very much reinforces the value of ensuring that we do have a public submission process albeit only for a sure period of time.People in cyclone-affected areas will be pleased to see this bill pass through this House with the expediency in which it has and also the overwhelming support across this House. And despite minor differences I think it is clear that we have come together across this House to pass meaningful legislation that will make a difference in a timely manner. Even though this natural disaster has caused significant pain and hurt for many people in many communities across this country the country has stood together in regards to how it's dealt with this and I am confident that should and when we are faced with a similar incident in the future we will continue to do and act in the way in which we've seen in the past 45 days. I commend this bill to the House.