Uffindell SamSAM UFFINDELL (National—Tauranga): Thank you Mr Speaker. I note that the National Party will be supporting this bill. When the Canterbury earthquake struck in 2011 the Earthquake Commission (EQC) was inadequately prepared especially for the magnitude of the damage that occurred. So the National Government at the time announced a legislative review of the Earthquake Commission Act and eventually led to a public inquiry which was chaired or led by Dame Silvia Cartwright. The inquiry reported back in March 2020 and included within that report around 70 recommendations. Now it was quite clear following the earthquakes in Canterbury—and later Kaikōura—that the functionality and range of the Earthquake Commission's reach needed to be clearly defined. Ultimately from the commission's report it has led to changes and some caveats that have been discussed at the Finance and Expenditure Committee and subsequent readings. This bill in principle adopts the recommendations of the public inquiry and seeks to amend the so-called failings of the EQC.It's useful to note that the select committee process has ironed out some of the potential problems from in the first reading and I would commend everyone involved for their hard work. I hear Barbara Edmonds has been congratulated several times today and I haven't been a part of it but you've obviously done a very good job there Barbara. I noted that the National members there put forward some suggestions around the commencement time frames around insurers ensuring they had enough time to implement these vast operational changes. Having the legislation come into effect on 1 July 2024 allows them that time. Now we realise that the EQC needed to be updated and we needed to take into consideration the public inquiry which was done in response to Canterbury. It's important to note that there are effective and secure systems in place for when a natural disaster occurs and the principle of this bill is to allow those systems and processes to be strengthened. There are various aspects of the bill that we do support. We support aligning the cover under the bill with standard private insurance practices. So this effectively means that the commission and insurance firms are working from the same playbook. It reduces room for dispute and reduces room for different interpretations of the bill because insurers are effectively acting as agents for the EQC and as such it's critical not to be operating from two different standards. We support improving consistency between the rules used to ensure determining around mixed use. That was discussed by my Green Party colleague Eugenie Sage who went into that and the resulting cover for that building. In the past there have been difficulties around that that have been experienced in trying to determine whether EQC cover is available and if so what homeowners are entitled to. So the amendments around that should clear that up. Requiring the commission to participate in disputes resolution is also a positive step and ultimately should lead to faster resolution of any issues.Extending the commission's ability to delegate claims settlement functions to private insurers should also increase the speed in which the process is undertaken. This is really important because in almost all instances as we saw in Canterbury you're dealing with people who have gone through you know immense physical and mental trauma. They've lost their homes—part or all of that—and ensuring that that is appropriately and quickly addressed to provide them with peace of mind in obviously very trying circumstances. But a clear and established and fast route forward is very very good. There are various parts of the bill which we do have issue with or would want to seek clarification on. Part of that is increasing the residential dwelling cover from $150000 to $300000 and making insurance premiums in high risk areas such as Canterbury equal to those in low-risk areas which is likely to lead to excesses in those low-risk areas—take Dunedin take Northland—increasing. I commend this bill to the House.