1. Earthquake Kaikōura—Government ResponseANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSEarthquake Kaikōura—Government Response1. ANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: What are the priorities for the Government in assisting communities affected by yesterday's earthquake?Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): The Government has a number of priorities to help those communities over the short medium and long term. First we are ensuring that people in the worst-affected areas including in and around Kaikōura receive the immediate support and emergency supplies they need and we are evacuating people who need to get out. Second we are working to restore vital transport and communication links. We expect to restore local road access between Kaikōura and Christchurch in a matter of days but the huge scale of other damage means that it will take some time to restore all rail and road routes. Finally we have ensured that the Government provides the financial support needed for a successful recovery and rebuild. The overall cost is unclear at this stage but Treasury's early assessment is that our strong economic and fiscal position leaves us in a resilient position to provide that support. Andrew Little: Will he ensure that civil defence which has done an outstanding job so far has all the resources it needs to help affected communities in the recovery?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Yes and I think one of the things to reflect on is that as time goes on physical exhaustion is always an issue for those on the ground as well as the fact that we should not underestimate the impact on people's mental state because of the ongoing aftershocks and the impact that has on them and their families. I think as we both witnessed yesterday it is a small community it is doing extremely well but it will need more support physically on the ground. Andrew Little: How far developed are the Government's plans for a possible business continuity assistance package for tourist-dependent Kaikōura?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The Minister for business and innovation has asked his ministry to put together a plan and to give that to me as Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance to review. I am not entirely sure how long it will take to have that but obviously we would hope to get some information pretty quickly. At some point I would like to get back to Kaikōura if I can and speak to the business community there. It will not solely be Kaikōura that will be affected. I think there is certainly likely to be other businesses up and down that coast that will have had some impact as well. So we just need to give some consideration to what would be appropriate taking into consideration the precedent we set in Christchurch and also what would be realistic for future natural disasters. We will work our way through that but we should have some information relatively quickly. Andrew Little: Does he anticipate a dedicated recovery agency will be needed after the earthquake? Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I have not had any discussions with senior Ministers about that. I think that is less likely. I think the component parts of this earthquake are reasonably easy to identify. They are clearly around transport issues communications and the like. There will be some issues around economic and business issues but unlike Christchurch—where you were dealing with the red zone and the issues around that; you were in the CBD of the second-largest city with some very complicated issues around insurance; and just the sheer scale of it—I think it is less likely that we would require that.