Adams Amy: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Adams Amy: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Sitting date: 29 January 2013. Volume:687;Page:7534. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon AMY ADAMS (National—Selwyn) 
: 
 Can I take the opportunity to start by wishing the House a happy New Year and saying how nice it is to be back here for another year of what I am sure will be robust and healthy debate over the course of the year. Actually my view is that 2013 is going to be a good year for New Zealand. I can tell you one thing: it will be the fifth year that this National-led Government will have led New Zealand through the recovery through the global financial crisis and through the Christchurch earthquakes that have devastated us not only socially in lives lost but also economically. It is the fifth year that John Key and this team will commit all our resources all our attention and all our focus to help New Zealand make the most of its potential and to continue being what I believe is the best place in the world. 
Over the time since our election in 2008 we have delivered. We have delivered for New Zealand. We have delivered a plan of reform that has seen us get through some of the most difficult international conditions any of us I think can remember. This year that will continue. We will continue to deliver real gains for New Zealanders in health in education and in their public safety. We do not talk just about how many reports and committees we have created and how much money from the public we have spent. We measure our success in terms of how many operations New Zealanders are getting. We measure our success in terms of how many of our kids are getting the education they need. We measure our success in terms of the crime rate whether New Zealanders are safe and we measure our success on whether we are building conditions that allow our businesses—our hard-working entrepreneurial innovative Kiwi businesses—to get ahead to hire staff to build futures to export to the world and actually to prove to the world that there is nothing New Zealand businesses cannot do. 
 That is happening all around the world. If there is one thing I have seen over the summer—because I have had more time to travel around—it is how often you come across incredible innovative Kiwis who are leading fantastic successful world-leading businesses often from very small humble little spots in New Zealand and all they want from their Government is for it to build the foundations that allow them to succeed to support them in the ways that the Government best can and then to get out of the way. That is what our Business Growth Agenda is about. It is about recognising that we do not create jobs but we do build the conditions that allow business to create jobs. That is what we have been focused on and it will continue to be our focus. That is why you are continuing to see New Zealand put its trust in John Key and put its trust in this National-led Government. I am incredibly proud that for the fifth year we will help New Zealand to that brighter future. 
So we have been focused on export markets on skilled and safe workplaces on natural resources on capital markets on innovation and on infrastructure because these are the things that do make a difference. These are the things that build the conditions for business. I want to talk about a couple of those. 
The first will be no surprise to the House—I want to talk about our roll-out of ultra-fast broadband. I do not think this gets enough air time in this House because this is a fantastic initiative which Labour opposed by the way. This is a $3 billion infrastructure project that is happening right now that has created more than 2000 jobs in the build alone and that is ensuring that New Zealand—New Zealand kids New Zealand businesses all New Zealand citizens—will have access not only to high-speed broadband but also to the markets the customers the services and the resources of anywhere in the world. It does not matter whether you are at a small school on the West Coast of the South Island or in a remote community on the East Coast of the North Island you can compete you can learn and you can access resources. By June of this year 300000 homes and businesses will be connected to ultra-fast broadband—will have the ability to connect. Thirteen hundred schools and 30 hospitals plus another 100000 rural homes in that very important rural community will have access to faster broadband. 
The information and communications technology sector which ultra-fast broadband particularly supports of course is a $20 billion sector—$20 billion. It employs 40000 Kiwis and makes $5 billion a year in exports. This is the sort of project that they need to remain competitive in the world and this is the Government that is providing it. We are very proud to do it we are committed to it and I am very proud to be the Minister in charge of it. 
Of course I also have a role with Gerry Brownlee in the recovery of Christchurch. You have heard the Prime Minister say this afternoon that this is one of the four key goals for us this year as it has been since the earthquakes. Can I update this House. To date the Earthquake Commission has now completed more than $1 billion worth of work. Thirty thousand homes have been fully repaired under the Earthquake Commission processes alone. We have had nearly 1000 demolitions in the central business district plus there have been $145 million worth of building projects consented in the central business district alone to date. 
We are really on the road to getting there. It is still a long road and there are still a lot of difficulties but we are on our way and Canterbury it will be no surprise to anyone has some of the best economic data in the country. Our job numbers are up our unemployment numbers are down the volumes going through our ports are at record levels—we are flying. Canterbury is the place to be and this Government is right behind it every step of the way. 
Can I talk for a moment about water. Water is to my mind our most valuable natural resource. It is one of the things that set New Zealand apart economically and also in our very important Kiwi way of life. Water is at the forefront of my programme for the environment for 2013. We are going to continue our focus on clean-ups of polluted sites. To date we have spent more than $101 million in the 4 years we have completed in office and that will continue. That is more than four times what was spent in the last 4 years of the Labour-Green Government. 
We are very proud of that work and it will continue. We recognise that there is a huge amount of work still to be done to get the resources and the framework around water right and so this year we will be continuing to develop the work that we have put in place through the national policy statement on freshwater which the National Government delivered and continuing to develop further the important work of the Land and Water Forum which the National-led Government put in place. We will be delivering a framework that makes sure New Zealand is able to make the most of this vital resource. 
 I also want to touch on the other key focus for me in the environment portfolio for the year which is continuing to reform the Resource Management Act. The Resource Management Act has for too long been a sacred cow. It has for too long been a barrier to growth. It has been an ongoing saga of time money and opportunities lost—thrown away and spent on consultants—battles and often not moving the outcome anywhere from where it could have got to far more quickly. The bottom line is that we need fewer and higher-quality plans that give communities far more certainty provide proactively for the future growth of their communities and properly balance economic and environmental interests. 
The consent processes have to be more time efficient and they have to be proportionate to the impact of the proposals. Let me just give you a couple of examples of the frustrations from these things that have been seen across this country. Many members of this House will remember Project Hayes the wind farm proposal of Meridian Energy. I am not focusing on whether it was a good proposal or not. I want to look just at the process. That was a $2 billion project and by the time—after 3 years—it was eventually refused by the Environment Court nearly $9 million had been spent to get it to that point and that would have been just the applicants. There would have been many hundreds of thousands more I am sure in community and submitter costs. The Environment Court made a specific point in its judgment of criticising the fact that if it were not for the inconsistent inaccurate and uncertain plans of the local authority much of that cost could have been avoided. We cannot continue to put communities and applicants through those sorts of hurdles because the plans are not up to scratch not clear-cut and not consistent. We have to make better choices than that. 
There is a plan change in Auckland at the moment seeking to provide for another 250 residential units. We all know how short on housing Auckland is. That plan change for 250 residential units went in more than 4 years ago and it is still waiting to become operative. So there we have a process trying to get 250 more housing units into the central parts of Auckland and 4 years on it is still not operative. These sorts of delays cannot continue they help no one and they will be something we will be tackling this year.