Whaitiri MekaMEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. E ngā mema o Te Whare nei tēnā tātou katoa. Firstly I want to thank a very learned colleague of ours the Hon Annette King for writing to the Speaker and of course yourself Mr Assistant Speaker to accept this as an urgent debate. I want to acknowledge the member who just sat down Craig Foss the member for the electorate of Tukituki or what some people in my electorate are calling Tikotiko" which is the Māori word for diarrhoea. All kidding aside I want to say to that member that bringing this important issue to the House so that you on that side—the Government—can say what you are doing about it is not grandstanding. It is not grandstanding. It is actually saying in this House that the biggest water-borne disease outbreak known to any place in New Zealand has happened in Havelock North. It is the largest water-borne outbreak that we are talking about here.So it is not something that we need to hide away from or not—we are in a political House. The issue is that the people of Havelock North have been left high and dry. That is the assertion here: they have been left high and dry. This is a serious matter. The people of Havelock North—13000 people. This outbreak has affected about 2000 people whom we know of—2000. By my calculation that is about 15 percent of the population of Havelock North. If this was an earthquake if this was a flood if this was a fire would we still be sitting on our hands days after we knew there was an outbreak? I would say no. We needed a Government of action not platitudes. They needed action in Hawke's Bay and Havelock North at the time that they most needed it. They absolutely needed leadership and they never got it.I live but 7 minutes from the village of Havelock North. I do not consider myself a local but I know the area really well. It is a very very good area Havelock North. I am also told that on Friday while we were going through whether or not it was contaminated we also saw the holding of the primary schools cross-country competition in Havelock North. Maybe not thousands but definitely hundreds of young people participated in the cross-country event in Havelock North. You can just imagine hundreds of young people running around Havelock North and of course they are going to drink because they are in Havelock North and they have just finished an event but they did not know to boil their water until 5.30 that afternoon—5.30 that afternoon. So it is a serious matter and I am yet to hear from that side of the House as to what practical steps those members are going to take.I want to commend the local leadership of the Hastings District Council Mayor Lawrence Yule who actually took it on the chin and took responsibility for the situation. But there was a point in time when I believe that we should have had intervention. I heard the member say that a communications breakdown did happen. I take from that that he was not informed until too late. I do want to say that the actions of the local Hawke's Bay District Council and the Hawke's Bay District Health Board could have been aided if the Government had come to the party early enough. It makes me ask the question: how well is our civil emergency system operating in New Zealand? How is it that the supply was tested on Tuesday last week—how is it that on Tuesday 9 August it was tested and the results were not made known until Friday 12 August? So Tuesday to Friday you are talking of about 4 days—4 days. We have heard the statistics. We have heard that 2000 people were affected. We have heard that there are 22 who at this moment are in hospital. We have heard of the impact that it has had on the elderly in the rest homes and also on the vulnerable families whom we have in Havelock North and yet we did not hear anything from this Government.Like I said this is the biggest the largest water-borne outbreak that we have seen in this country and the Government has been found wanting. Yes there is going to be an inquiry and I want to say to the member for Tukituki that I would put my hand up to be part of setting out the terms of reference for that inquiry as a person who lives in that area and because of the importance of water not only to the people of Havelock North but to all the people of Hawke's Bay. We are lucky in Hawke's Bay to be on an aquifer. The local iwi calls it te haukū nui—the giver of life—not only to the people who live in Hawke's Bay but also because it is the heart of the surrounding horticultural and wider agricultural sector.So we do need to urgently take this matter seriously. We do need to take urgent steps to make sure that the inquiry does ask those questions: how did this happen—how did we get animal contamination deep down in an aquifer? I share with many people from Hawke's Bay—we are all stunned that the aquifer can be contaminated. Nobody knows why and that is why the inquiry needs to ask those questions about how it occurred. But more importantly from my perspective we have to learn from this outbreak so that it does not ever occur again.This is the interesting thing about Hawke's Bay. We have had this major contamination in the suburb of Havelock North and yet just down the road we have two major water-bottling plants. I want to commend the water-bottling plant that has come to the party to offer free water for the elderly but I do believe that free water should be available for all communities in the community of Havelock North. This is because it is our gold—in Hawke's Bay our aquifer water is our gold. Every household in the Havelock North area and in the wider Hawke's Bay area deserves to have clean drinking-water.I join all members on this side to ensure and hold the Government to account which is our job to make sure that outbreaks like this are not only actioned through real practical suggestions—I have had reports that the local medical centres in Havelock North were just overwhelmed. Why did we not think about putting in some doctors or some emergency medical centre in Havelock North to alleviate the pressures that local doctors were experiencing? And some of the cases that were presented that were not specifically related to this outbreak were asked to defer. Why did we not do that? Why could we not do that? What stopped us from doing that? I touched on the free water. And then there is also who was getting around to knock on doors particularly of the elderly but also of our vulnerable families within Havelock North to make sure that people were OK. That is happening now—and I commend those who are doing it—but why did it not happen on Friday when we first found out that the water was contaminated? Why was there not a plan of action on Saturday and Sunday? Why did a water tanker turn up only yesterday and not on the weekend? These are really important questions and I hold the Government to account because we knew on Friday that the water was contaminated. Late on Friday at 5.30 p.m. the message went out to boil your water and then everybody was left to their own devices on Saturday and Sunday. We were seeing a bit of action on Monday and now here we are in the House debating it.It is a serious matter. I am pleased that it was brought to this House to debate. I have yet to hear from that side what practical steps those members are going to do to assist with the outbreak now but more importantly I am interested in hearing from the Government how it is going to take the lessons from this to prevent it ever happening again and to ensure that our civil emergency system is fit for purpose. Kia ora tātou."