Mark RonHon RON MARK (Minister of Defence): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. I rise to signal that New Zealand First will of course be supporting this legislation through its third reading and welcomes the final enactment.I want firstly to start in the same manner that some other members have spoken and acknowledge the Hon Nick Smith who commenced this work. I want to acknowledge the Transport and Infrastructure Committee because clearly they have given the bill good scrutiny good diligence and the amendments that they have recommended have all been incorporated. I particularly thank Alastair Scott the member for Wairarapa for acknowledging Darroch Ball who from all accounts is doing a sterling job of chairing that select committee and has managed to establish quite a high level of collegiality from what I'm told. That is always constructive. It reminds me of when I was on the Local Government and Environment Committee which was chaired then by the Hon Scott Simpson. We always found that committees such as that which had a high level of collegiality and were focused on what was right for the country overall produced very good results as his committee did back in the last term when I was privileged to be on it.I think I could go through each and every part of the bill again but all the previous speakers before me have nailed off all of the relevant comments. I would like to note though that some of the submitters—Local Government New Zealand Christchurch City Council in particular and Historic Places Aotearoa—made submissions on the bill and all recognised that the proposals in this bill intend to fill evident legislative gaps that some councils had to manage recently post Canterbury and Kaikōura and I'm thinking particularly of Kaikōura District Council and others. In general the bill has received their endorsement and their support. I can say—and clearly it is based on the recommendations put to the Government through the royal commission on the Canterbury earthquakes and the Regulations Review Committee and its inquiry into Parliament's legislative response to future national emergencies—that all of those were considered.It's interesting for me; I always look with a degree of satisfaction on legislation such as this because it does signal that when we have had disasters such as we faced in Christchurch and Kaikōura we have not been shy at looking at what happened and asking ourselves the questions: could we have done things better can we learn from the lessons can we improve? And I know from talking to my family members who were first responders in the Christchurch earthquake and also Kaikōura—my son-in-law Scott Shadbolt received the fire service valour award the first recipient in 106 years and one of only three ever to receive that award in history. When Scotty and I would sit and talk about some of the challenges they faced these same questions came up. For urban search and rescue there were some very clear challenges as to rights to enter. For my son Paul who was a police officer on the beat at the time that the quake hit in Christchurch these very same questions came up. They just got on and did what they had to do along with all the other police officers and first responders there as well but it was right and proper that Parliament through the royal commission had a look back at what happened at what the issues were at what the impediments were and at how we might learn from that and what legislative changes were necessary.I compliment the Hon Nick Smith for bringing the bill to the House. I compliment the Hon Jenny Salesa for seeing it through the committee. The legislative changes are smart. I'm not going to go through them all and repeat the very same words that have already been spoken in this House before me. I'm simply going to conclude by thanking the select committee for its work its diligence and acknowledging that once again this is a piece of legislation going through the House with the unanimous support of all parties. I know we might have said it a few times but sometimes people out on the hustings and the shock jocks on the radio like to focus on Parliament and bring all the attention to what happens in question time and the general debate. It is somewhat I guess disappointing that they don't see Parliament at its best when select committees are doing the work such as this before us now and see the results being passed at a couple of minutes to nine in the evening when all MPs are here working. I congratulate the House and just conclude by saying New Zealand First supports the bill.