Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. The ACT Party said we would work constructively with the Government on severe weather response legislation. On the first bill that was introduced to this House over a month ago we did work constructively with the Government and on the select committee and were happy to be able to nudge some changes. But it didn't go far enough. What ACT was seeking in fact was an economic development plan and a significant liberalisation of the environmental rules of the labour rules and other constraints on rebuilding in places hit by severe weather. But ACT can't support this bill because of the Henry VIII" powers that it gives Ministers in this Government and even a future Government which as the Hon Gerry Brownlee pointed out might even involve an ACT Minister like me. We don't think it's acceptable for a Minister to have the powers that this bill confers on that Minister. But again Labour in all its wisdom believes that that's what it needs. But why?It's been three months since Cyclone Hale just after New Year 2023; 2½ months since West Auckland was flooded and Pīhā and Muriwai devastated by slips and flooding; and two months since Cyclone Gabrielle. We still don't know what Labour would do to assist the recovery—we don't know; it's not clear. They've sent Sir Brian Roche and a task force. I would assume he's lost up some metal road in Hawke's Bay because we haven't heard from him! And the Minister the Hon Kieran McAnulty wasn't prepared to say what he has found and what he has recommended to the Government. It would be really interesting and ACT would support a briefing into what Sir Brian Roche and the recovery task force have found and how that might inform recovery.We've heard a little bit from the Minister today that he's considering bespoke legislation which would allow for the Government to value people's land when it takes it off them if it says they can't live somewhere any more. That's what they call "managed retreat." Well ACT said "Look the Public Works Act has a formula. It's fair. People understand it. If you disagree with it you can go to court and litigate it." But instead the Government is going to come up with its own formula apparently. They're going to make it up and there's going to be three days for the panel of experts to review it.Then I want to come to managed retreat and where the Green Party is in this managed retreat debate because while we have had some very positive contributions from the Green Party from the Hon Eugenie Sage when it comes to pointing out flaws and suggesting amendments to the bill what is completely missing is the climate adaptation Act that the climate Minister Green Minister James Shaw was supposed to introduce. Apparently it's coming. Well it would have been very helpful if there was already a piece of legislation which said how New Zealand might respond to sea-level rise to ongoing flooding and to other natural hazards. But despite a climate emergency being declared by Labour and Green MPs and Ministers saying we've only got one more year—or two or three or four more years—before the planet burns we still have no idea what they think climate adaptation should look like. But the Green Party will continue to offer solutions around that that actually don't help. What ACT will do will is offer practical solutions when it comes to working out formulas and actually adapting to climate change by funding financing and building infrastructure.I just want to come very briefly to who wins from this piece of legislation. Well clearly the officials who will be able to draft Orders in Council and won't have to subject their proposed policy changes or changes to legislation to parliamentary scrutiny. The officials will win and Government Ministers who are floundering around and still have no idea how they're going to actually craft a response to those farmers to those people in Hawke's Bay whose land is covered in silt to the pack houses who've had all their equipment destroyed who have no apples to process—we have no idea and they have no idea what economic response what support what wage support what capital support what loan support might be available to them. They're not just living in limbo; some of them are losing hope. As the farming representative Charlie Reynolds said this morning they feel they've been abandoned and the ACT Party says it's unacceptable 2½ months since Cyclone Hale. I just want to come finally to the people of Marlborough. This legislation covers a whole lot of regions but it excludes Marlborough and the Marlborough District Council and others including engineers submitted that actually Marlborough is the test case. Their roads were devastated. There are large areas of the Marlborough Sounds where jetties were decimated in floods and storms in 2022. And yet they are suffering under the same impenetrable red tape—the Resource Management Act—having to ask and beg for permission from a whole range of people in order to rebuild infrastructure. They're also limited by the funding constraints that the New Zealand Transport Agency imposes on local councils in terms of what they can use money for from the Land Transport Fund. And Marlborough said we'd love some recognition we'd love some support with our recovery but we're not included and our storm was just as bad.I think that really signals how important it is that we move from a knee-jerk reaction as this Government has done—supposedly great crisis managers although the crisis manager in chief has just quit and gone off to the UN or some other country. But look what we really need is not knee-jerk crisis managers we need a well-designed piece of recovery legislation as proposed by the New Zealand Initiative and that would include establishing a recovery agency and a framework within which it would be much simpler and quicker to respond in the face of these—no doubt—emergencies we will face whether it's an earthquake or a tsunami or a volcano or whatever it is. So the ACT Party supports the submission that New Zealand Initiative made. And what we will also be seeking from the Minister is a briefing on the work that Sir Brian Roche and the task force has undertaken because it will be very helpful for all parties in the House to understand what's going on there. We'll also continue to advocate for property rights. We believe it's important that people whose land might be taken by the Government or by councils supposedly in the name of managed retreat have the right to a fair assessment and a rapid assessment of their needs and of the value of their property if they're to be told they can't live there anymore. The people of West Auckland—the organisation West Auckland is Flooding—have been begging for a formula that enables people in their community where they can't return to their homes to move on and the ACT Party would urge the Government to get on with that. And we look forward to working constructively with the Government on what a fair formula might be. But the ACT Party can't support this piece of legislation. We won't be supporting it today but we encourage the Government to get on with the recovery and to include all parties in the House in the method for doing that."