Simpson ScottHon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): Thank you Mr Speaker. Every time I enter this debating chamber I do so as the proud member for Coromandel and I always have uppermost in my thoughts when I'm in this debating chamber the people the communities the neighbourhoods and the businesses of the beautiful Coromandel. But mine is a region that has been pummelled and pummelled badly by weather by nature and by a range of circumstances that have set the region back many years.Now it's been more than three months now since the devastating impacts of firstly Cyclone Hale and then Cyclone Gabrielle really bashed the Coromandel Peninsula and neighbouring regions so badly. Now I don't want to take anything away from the devastating impact in parts of the East Coast Northland or in other parts of the country but as I rise and speak today it is raining in the Coromandel again and communities are wondering and concerned about what that might mean as autumn rolls on and as winter approaches. So I want to thank the contractors the workers—the people who go out in very heavy weather events day after day under difficult challenging circumstances to try and keep the roads open and to try and keep communities connected. But they do their best under difficult circumstances more and more frequently.Strangely enough often it is at times of great adversity that individuals and communities are often at their best and that certainly has been the case in the Coromandel. There have been outstanding stories of commitment of neighbourliness and of care and compassion for people in circumstances that have been in some cases life threatening.But it's on State Highway 25 the main arterial route across the Coromandel that I want to focus some thoughts on today in this debate. That road from Kōpū on the Thames side of the peninsula through to Hikuai on the eastern seaboard has been closed for more than three months now and still—and still—we are waiting from the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) a decision about what will be their preferred repair option. Now that's simply unacceptable—absolutely unacceptable. Now I know they're busy—I know that they've got a lot on. But for the people and visitors to the Coromandel not knowing and not having certainty about what's being proposed let alone any sense of when the road might eventually be opened it is concerning and it's causing enormous angst but also real financial hardship and health risks to the people who live in or visit the Coromandel.We're told that it may be more than a year before that highway is open. That would mean a devastating fourth miserable summer period for the Coromandel and for its businesses. Now we've had two previous summer business periods completely ruined due to COVID and then this summer just gone has also been impacted by cyclones and weather events. The prospect of a fourth consecutive summer is just too dire to contemplate for businesses in my part of the country and the reason is simply this: the financial model that works so well in the Coromandel relies very heavily on a summer peak of tens of thousands of visitors every summer. So for many of the visitors and businesses that's the time when they spend time and money in the region. But for the businesses that's when they do the bulk of their revenue taking and if they can't get revenue over the summer period there's very little prospect of them making up over the winter months.So I want to continue to put pressure on the Government continue to put pressure on our local council and continue to put pressure on the New Zealand Transport Agency to give us certainty to give us clarity about what they're going to do and then do everything possible to make it happen. There is no sense of urgency I'm getting from either our council our Government or the NZTA about fixing State Highway 25 and the other fragile roads around the Coromandel Peninsula. As we go into what will be a long wet cold winter I'm fearful for what that might mean for the people of Coromandel but I will continue to fight for them every day that I'm in this place.