Tremain Chris: Address in Reply 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Tremain Chris: Address in Reply 
[Sitting date: 08 February 2012. Volume:677;Page:198. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CHRIS TREMAIN (Minister of Civil Defence) 
: 
 I rise to take a call in this debate and start by just reflecting on the economic illiteracy of the Opposition particularly in that last speech by the Hon Maryan Street. I do not say “economic illiteracy” lightly because what we see again and again and again from the Opposition is a tactic of trying to confuse people around the sale of State-owned assets and particularly the return of dividends from energy companies.  
So let us reflect on that for a minute because what the Opposition wants us to do is to treat as the same—to put into the same barrel—income earned with revenue from the sale of power less expenses being that income and the sale of a large asset which was Southern Hydro; a capital sale. The Opposition wants the public to believe that the sale of an asset Southern Hydro when added to the genuine profit of those companies year on year is what now reflects the dividend and that that is providing a 15 percent return.  
Well that shows exactly the economic illiteracy that we are talking about. They are two totally different returns and if that side of the House wants to include capital sales into the dividend stream well you know that shows exactly the economic illiteracy that we are talking about. It shows exactly why the New Zealand public voted National into Government and made it very clear that they did not trust the Labour Party to be the governors of this country to be in the legislative seat of this country for the next 3 years.  
So I suggest that if you are going to have a debate about State-owned assets fair enough. There are no problems with that. We certainly had that in Hawke’s Bay loud and clear. However make sure you tell the public the facts and make sure you are clear about that because I believe that the scaremongering and the way you have approached your politics over the last 3 6 9 12 years is one of the key reasons you find yourself in that position now.  
Mr Deputy Speaker congratulations on your elevation to the role of Deputy Speaker; well done. It is a real privilege to be elected as a member of Parliament in this Government and to have been elected on the platform that John Key laid out clearly throughout the election process well in advance of the election. To say that we do not have a mandate for State-owned assets is frankly absolute rubbish. That platform was laid out a year before we went to the polls—a year before we went to the polls.  
There were four key platforms that we stood on: responsibly managing the Government’s finances building a more competitive and productive economy delivering better public services and of course one of the key priorities is rebuilding that beautiful city of Christchurch. These are messages that resonated strongly in my electorate.  
I spent my campaign doing 30 jobs in 30 days. Throughout the period of the last 30 days of the campaign I spent that time working out there in businesses for at least a morning every day. I got to meet all manner of people many of whom were working in low-paid and low-skilled jobs. It was a fascinating experience to spend time with those 30 businesses. I want to thank the people whom I had the opportunity to work with and I reflect on companies like East Coast Lumber in Wairoa. I worked on the chain at AFFCO— 
Hon Craig Foss 
: The pie shop. 
Hon CHRIS TREMAIN 
: —and in the pie shop in Maraenui. I worked with the wonderful owners of that shop and talked to their customers about the future of New Zealand and of Napier and the Hawke’s Bay. It was an absolutely wonderful opportunity.  
I am proud to be returned to Parliament—it is an absolute privilege—and to see National lift its party vote majority in Napier to nearly 7000. In saying that I do want to acknowledge my opposition in Napier Mr Stuart Nash. He fought a hard campaign and I want to acknowledge that. It is a shame and unbelievably politically illiterate that Mr Nash now does not find himself on the Opposition benches of that party over there. It is a privilege to be back in Parliament and I am honoured to have the opportunity to become a Minister in this Parliament.  
I want to acknowledge the whips though. It is a role that I was involved with for about 4 or 5 years. I say to Michael Woodhouse and Louise Upston that it is a big job taking on that role of half sergeant major half pastor of the local church; get into it go hard. I also want to acknowledge Rick Barker for his efforts and also—not many have acknowledged him—Darren Hughes who left this Parliament in the last term. I thought he was an outstanding parliamentarian and he certainly did an excellent job in that whip’s role.  
Hon Craig Foss 
: Easy chief. 
Hon CHRIS TREMAIN 
: Yes he is going “Easy chief” but I did want to acknowledge that.  
With my new ministries they present a wonderful challenge and I am looking forward to that. In fact when I received the warrant as a new Minister I almost had a baptism of water. Coming in on the Wednesday it rained down in Nelson on the Wednesday night and Thursday and I found myself in my civil defence role down in Nelson. I want to acknowledge the fantastic job that civil defence did in that flood. Certainly the mayors down there Aldo Miccio and Richard Kempthorne led the community exceptionally well and Jim Frater who was the controller in Nelson during that flood event did a superb job. I think that the community of Nelson should be proud of the efforts of civil defence in response to the flood and the recovery efforts thereafter.  
Shortly after that obviously we had the 23 December earthquakes in Christchurch. Again I went straight down to Christchurch to be involved with the recovery there and to spend a day with people in the community.  
To demonstrate that it was a baptism of water one of my new roles is also within transport and we had the event in Tauranga with the  
Rena 
 coming apart so I found myself up in Tauranga having a look at the recovery response of Maritime New Zealand.  
Michael Woodhouse 
: More than looking. The Minister had his sleeves rolled up. 
Hon CHRIS TREMAIN 
: Yes. Once again I just want to acknowledge the efforts that are going on in Tauranga to make sure that the recovery process works exceptionally well. Over half the number of containers have now been removed from the ship. It is an extremely trying situation that the salvors are working in and I think they are doing an absolutely fantastic job to get us to where we have got to today.  
In terms of the two key portfolios civil defence and consumer affairs they are going to play a small but key part in taking the Government’s agenda forward. I want to reflect on those in the last few minutes that I have in my speech this afternoon. In terms of civil defence the key opportunities there are to learn from Christchurch and there are a range of reviews which are being undertaken as I speak to consider how civil defence responded to the events in Christchurch—the two key earthquake events—and how we worked there. In doing that we will reflect on a review of the Civil Defence and Emergency Management Plan and look at whether we could have had a better recovery framework which could replace the likes of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority in future events.  
The other thing we will be focusing on over the next few years is that we have 16 civil defence regions around the country. A capability assessment was done of those in the last couple of years and there was significant variability amongst those regions. I want to make sure that the capability in all of the regions is at a level where the civil defence authorities in each of the regions can adequately come up to the task in a significant event.  
In consumer affairs we have a range of activities going on which I am looking forward to playing a key part in. The Consumer Law Reform Bill has been on the Order Paper since last year—I acknowledge John Boscawen and Heather Roy who played parts in bringing this bill to the Table—and we will be focusing on bringing that law through. That is the 20 years’ law which it will be important to change and bring forward for the country.  
I also want to focus on some legislation that Sam Lotu-Iiga has been working hard on and actually Carol Beaumont on the other side of the House too and that is the focus on third-tier lending and the credit law reform. We are in the process of drafting legislation around that as I speak. I am hopeful that that will be available for consideration at the end of February or early March and then I am going to make sure that it is well considered before we get it into the House for review. If there is any borrowing community out there that needs more protection it is the Pacific Island Maori and Pakeha community who depend sometimes on those third-tier lenders. We want to make sure that there are checks and balances in place to ensure that borrowers are well protected.  
This Government has a big plan a huge economic agenda and 120 points that we aim to get into place over the next 3 years. I am excited about the future of this Government and where we are taking this country. My 30 jobs in 30 days period working through the election got me close to people who supported this Government. I am proud of what we are doing and I am looking forward to the next 3 years. Thank you.