SpeechHon NICKY WAGNER (National): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. As the Minister has already said National will be supporting this bill because it's the next step in the parliamentary legislative response to the Canterbury earthquake sequence of 2010 and 2011. Our first legislative response was the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act of 2011 which really focused on the immediate recovery and rebuild of the city. That Act morphed into the Greater Christchurch Regeneration Act 2016 which really marked the shift from post-earthquake immediate recovery to the ongoing regeneration of greater Christchurch. This bill is the next step in the process and provides for a transition for decision making back to local government and local stakeholders.The Greater Christchurch Regeneration Act did have a sunset clause—it had a clause that the Act would expire in June 2021. So this amendment bill means that that will just happen a little bit quicker. The bill has three main amendments. The first is the repeal of the powers that were given under section 71 of the principal Act which allowed the Minister to work with local stakeholders to fast track resource management decisions that underpinned approved regeneration plans. It was designed to support essential urban renewal and development and to empower that to happen as quickly and as cost effectively and efficiently as possible.Stakeholders that were involved in these decision making mechanisms included all the local government bodies in greater Christchurch Ngāi Tahu and Regenerate Christchurch. Now Regenerate Christchurch was the agency that was established to consult with the community to bring parties together and to deliver on development plans. The Act really allowed for the fast tracking of rebuilding repairing improving and converting land buildings and infrastructure. But all of that had to be done within regeneration plans and plans could be proposed by any of the local stakeholders.It was an empowering piece of legislation but unfortunately it was rarely used. In actual fact there were only two regeneration plans that were propagated. The first was in 2017 and that was already in process before the Act was passed and another was in 2019. It was envisioned at the time that these powers would be extremely helpful to the regeneration of the city but disappointingly they were not really appreciated or embraced by local authorities making them largely redundant in the long term.The second amendment to this bill is the disestablishment of that agency: Regenerate Christchurch. Now this body has spent the last four years developing plans for the Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor and for other parts of the city. Work was supposed to be completed by June 2021 when it was to be wound up. Unfortunately much of that proposed work is still not finished and I'm hopeful that that work that has been done won't be wasted.The third proposed amendment was to extend land powers for title reconfiguration within the Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor. This will support regeneration by preparing the land for future activities—something the people of Christchurch are eagerly awaiting. As the Minister has noted this bill went to the Governance and Administration Committee in early March. There were nine written submissions three oral submissions and the oral submissions were received by video conference because of COVID-19. I would like to also thank the members of the committee for working on this bill during lockdown.The select committee recommended two main amendments. The first was to clarify the geographical description of the land in the Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor. This land includes sites that the Crown has held under previous legislation but also adjacent land owned by the city council. This new description doesn't change the amount or the type of land included; it merely changes the way that it is described. Also an indicative map and further detail will be attached to the Act to assist in interpretation.The committee was also concerned that the bill as introduced did not contain any transitional provisions following the repeal of the section 71 powers and planning process. The committee believe that transitional provisions are required to allow for the completion of any proposals that are presently under way. They recommended the insertion via clause 29 of sections 10A 10B and 10C—all part of New Part 2—into Schedule 1 of the bill to allow for this transition.As I've said this is the third piece of legislation pertaining to the 2010 Canterbury earthquakes. It repeals the special powers that were put in place to fast track the regeneration of Christchurch and it winds up the body established to manage those regeneration plans. All decision-making powers will now go back to local government and I think this is an indication that greater Christchurch is now returning to a more business-as-usual governance arrangement.The last decade in our city has been enormously traumatic. We've had thousands of earthquakes liquefaction and flooding lethal fires and terrorist attacks—and now of course a pandemic but we are generously sharing that with the rest of the country! I'm hopeful that the passing of this bill will see greater Christchurch return to a new normal that we can all embrace and I'm also very hopeful that this is the end of any emergency or disaster-related legislation in Christchurch and Canterbury for a very long time to come. Thank you Madam Speaker.