Street Maryan: Canterbury Earthquake Commemoration Day Bill — Procedure First Reading Second Reading Procedure Third Reading 
Street Maryan: Canterbury Earthquake Commemoration Day Bill — Procedure First Reading Second Reading Procedure Third Reading 
[Volume:670;Page:17150] 
Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour) 
: 
 First of all I will begin by recognising and paying tribute to those who lost their lives in the 22 February earthquake in Canterbury. I think of their loved ones and the people who are grieving for them. I also wish to acknowledge those who have been injured and who are still suffering and trying to recover from serious injury. For some the mental injury will be the difficult issue to deal with and will linger for a long time. 
Just a few minutes ago on my BlackBerry I received a photo. It was a photo of the United States - New Zealand Partnership Forum of which I was a part. The photo was taken at the AMI Stadium about an hour before the earthquake struck. It was a forum that consisted of some very high-powered US delegates. Fortunately those on the largest congressional visit to this country that there had ever been had left earlier that morning for Wellington so were out of harm’s way. However Kurt Campbell the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Christopher Hill the previous Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs numerous business leaders from the United States corporate dignitaries an only recently retired senator and their wives and partners were all assembled with their New Zealand counterparts. It is good to have this lovely picture taken across the breadth of the AMI Stadium at that time. 
By the time the earthquake struck the conference had divided up into small groups to go out and visit and have lunch briefings with Christchurch businesses. I was at Tait Electronics out towards the airport; others were dispersed around the city. It was a circumstance that gave the American ambassador as he said to me later 2 hours of panic as he tried to assemble all his compatriots from around the city. I pay tribute to the Defence Force personnel and the staff at the Antarctic Centre where by about 4.30 p.m. we had all assembled mostly in one piece. People had been evacuated from around the city and assembled together by the good offices of the American Embassy the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and every remotely official person who was connected with the United States - New Zealand Partnership Forum. Stephen Jacobi who leads that forum deserves particular mention for his professionalism and his concern and care for our United States guests. At 12.51 p.m. we had just finished having a briefing at Tait Radio Communications part of Tait Electronics. We had just been told that we were in one of the safest possible buildings a round single-storey building and so it proved to be. 
The earthquake struck with a bang which I am not used to. Coming from Taranaki I am used to hearing earthquakes before they arrive or feeling them as little shudders building into a larger one. But this explosion took us all completely by surprise. The ferocity of the shudder the sideways movement was truly frightening. Then the power went out and the lights went off and the 10 or so of us who were around that lunch table dived under the table with glassware and crockery flying and smashing around us. When the power came on through the back-up system that Tait had we all went outside. The staff had been evacuated outside. Then the phone calls started and the stories started to come back immediately. In particular I remember two sentences from a woman who worked for Tait who was standing just a couple of metres away from me. She was obviously phoning in to a loved one in the central city. She was saying: “Gosh that was big wasn’t it?” when suddenly her face changed and she started repeating for those of us around her what she was hearing. The two sentences I recall most vividly were: “The cathedral’s down. There are dead people.” 
Suddenly the enormity of it began to strike us. As we evacuated I took a couple of American guests under my wing. They were very shocked by this event but I took them to the airport which by that stage had been evacuated. We took refuge in the Sudima Hotel. After a short time the American Embassy got messages through to its delegates saying: “If you are near to the Antarctic Centre go there.” Of course the Antarctic Centre is a matter of metres away from the Sudima Hotel out by the airport so we walked to the Antarctic Centre. That building was not in terribly good nick either—bits of ceiling had fallen in—but it was better than many others. By 8 o’clock that night all of the American guests and many of the New Zealanders present at the United States - New Zealand Partnership Forum had been evacuated by Hercules to Wellington feeling very lucky to get out so quickly. So to those Defence Force personnel and to the officials who rallied every available service I pay a tribute. I also pay a tribute to the Christchurch-based members in this House from all sides who have been working with their people alongside their people assisting them in their grief and in the catastrophic disruption of their lives. Those members have our support and if there is anything practical we can do—if staying away is the best thing we can do—then they need only to let us know. 
I will make another comment about the memorial day. I want to reflect on two cultures that are not my own: one is Maori and the other is Jewish. Both of them have something in common. They both wait a year after an event after a bereavement. They wait a year and then they return to the place and unveil a headstone. I cannot help thinking with all the reverence I can muster for the people of Christchurch that this memorial day is too soon. A year from now when people are learning to live with their grief—the grief that they cannot see a way through at the moment—they can return to the place and we can grieve collectively. 
Immediately after I returned to Wellington I had to go to China for an official visit that had already been scheduled. At every formal meeting I attended in China people began with a tribute to New Zealand and the expression of their condolences for the earthquake victims and the suffering that people were enduring in New Zealand. I in return was able to thank them for that and express our condolences for those Chinese students who perished in the CTV building collapse. In addition I was able to thank them for President Hu Jintao’s very generous financial contribution of US$500000 to New Zealand. In addition to that I thanked them for their immediate dispatching of search and rescue teams to assist us. They know what it is like. I visited the Tangshan earthquake memorial. They have a dignified memorial there to 240000 people who lost their lives in 1976. They know what it is like. Around the world regardless of numbers or scale grief and loss are the same. Kia ora koutou.