Tremain Chris: General Debate 
Tremain Chris: General Debate 
[Volume:672;Page:18348] 
CHRIS TREMAIN (National—Napier) 
: 
 In the last few years this country has had its fair share of natural and economic disasters. Those disasters both economic and natural bring a clear focus on the need for a strong robust economy going forward an economy that Kiwis can rely on to provide support in those times when things get a bit tough. 
During the adjournment I had the very good fortune to host a couple from Christchurch who came up as part of the offer of the Napier City Council and the Hasting District Council to host people from Christchurch in Hawke’s Bay. A wonderful couple Henk and Marijke Lups came up to join us. They arrived for Easter and had a great Easter but then on the Tuesday morning it started to rain in Hawke’s Bay. It rained and it rained. I think that poor couple thought that disasters were following them. They were staying at Waipatiki Beach. There was a slip and they got stuck out at the beach. It created a real difficulty for them. But they went back to Christchurch having had a break and enjoyed themselves. 
Then we had another disaster in Napier. On the Napier hill itself a couple of major slips took out the underside of the hill from a couple of properties. In the wider Napier area it was not so bad but further south the Maraetotara River flooded Te Awanga and Haumoana and wiped out some of that area. It got progressively worse going down the coast. From Ocean Beach all the way down to Porangahau the flood stretched for 5 kilometres inland as John Hayes has pointed out to me. Some of the farms such as Te Apiti Station lost up to 80 percent—80 percent—of the hill cover. When we look at the photographs we can see that the slippage is terrible. There are about 340000 stock units down there. In the area around those big stations all of the fences have gone and much of the stock is wandering around. 
As in Christchurch we are seeing people coming forward and supporting those affected. Not only is the Government able to help as David Carter has done in issuing a statement declaring a medium-scale disaster but we have seen the local community step up. Federated Farmers are adopting stock which is absolutely fantastic and also establishing another Farmy Army that can get out there help to put perimeter fences around those farms and get them up and running which is excellent. This weekend we are launching a “Magpie Army” to go out to Waimarama to help those people whose properties were inundated. They do not have the structural integrity issues that people have down in Christchurch but certainly the water was over 8 feet deep in some areas—in Gillies Crescent in Waimarama. Those guys need the support of the community which needs to get in there and help bring those Waimarama residents back home. 
It brings into sharp focus the need for a strong economy and a strong nation that can provide support in times of disaster. That is what this Government is delivering—it really is. We have had a strong plan in action right from day one. We had those first 100 days of action rolling out legislation delivering on the promises of a six-prong strategy which we are continuing to drive and will take through to the election and beyond. That strategy started with building a better tax system and we have done that. We have delivered on that particular promise. We have been building infrastructure: roads rail and fibre. The investment in rail throughout the country has been fantastic. We have been building better trade opportunities and innovation which is a wonderful strategy that we are rolling out. The work that Tim Groser Murray McCully and John Key are doing around the world is absolutely fantastic. We are out there reducing compliance costs for businesses. That is the fourth prong to the strategy. We are building Government services for fewer taxpayer dollars. We are delivering on that all the time. It is absolutely fantastic. 
Today we saw another part of the sixth prong of the strategy which is to build skills and educational standards. We saw Minister Bennett with John Key out in Trentham announcing $55.2 million to help advance the skills of young people who are unemployed. That is another wonderful initiative to get young people employed and taking our economy forward so that we can provide the robust economy we need in times of economic and climatic disasters. Thank you.