Dean Jacqui: General Debate 
Dean Jacqui: General Debate 
[Volume:670;Page:17273] 
JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki) 
: 
 I want to begin by extending my thoughts and best wishes to the people of Japan who are enduring the worst calamity possible with the major earthquake followed by a tsunami and now a developing nuclear crisis. 
In our own country the aftershock in Christchurch on 22 February brought fresh sadness to the people of Canterbury. We got away with only property damage in the September earthquake but the February earthquake was indeed a tragedy for the families and friends of those people who died in New Zealand and throughout the world including some folk from Japan. Also there was a sadness for all of the rest of us throughout New Zealand and further afield. 
I want to pay tribute today to the Prime Minister John Key and his Ministers for their swift decisive effective thoughtful and compassionate response to this tragedy of ours. The job now is rebuilding Christchurch. Mayor Bob Parker and the Minister of Civil Defence John Carter have been absolutely tireless in their efforts to restore essential services to the people of Christchurch because once we begin to deal with the shock the grief and the horror of what has happened to people we then have to get down to the more mundane aspects of this tragedy and start thinking about and acting on the challenges of the practicalities of providing essential services. 
A massive recovery operation is required and the declaration of the extension of the state of national emergency ensures that the maximum possible coordination and cooperation between central and local government and between central and local resources will be most effective in response to this disaster. Essential infrastructure throughout Christchurch was absolutely devastated. Power services reticulated water and sanitation ceased for many many people in Christchurch. 
Life changed immediately for the people of Christchurch who as well as being traumatised and fearful of what happened and of the aftershocks still to come were also coping maybe for the first time in their lives with having to deal with the very practical business of going about living drinking eating going to work and using essential services. So it is encouraging and it is to the credit of all those involved including those I have named that the services are well on the way to being restored. The job is not done obviously and a lot of work still needs to be done in the short medium and long term but there is a plan and many many gains have been made. 
Power has been restored to nearly 100 percent of customers and that has been done by the power companies working tirelessly 24 hours a day day and night on restoring that essential service to customers. 
Inside the central business district the area that has been absolutely devastated 50 percent of central business district customers have been reconnected. As we know those services are fragile and fluctuating and the system is still not secure. However it has certainly made many gains. Approximately 95 percent of households on a mains water supply have now been reconnected and I know that the lack of reticulated water—water still has to be boiled—has been of particular concern to people. They cannot cook they cannot bathe and they cannot wash their hands without water. I know that the connection of that service was the highest priority and 95 percent of that has been achieved.