Coffey TamatiEARTHQUAKE COMMISSION AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingDebate resumed from 7 November.TAMATI COFFEY (Labour—Waiariki): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. First of all I'm very pleased to be taking a very short call on this one the Earthquake Commission Amendment Bill. It's come through our Finance and Expenditure Committee and we've had the pleasure of poring over it. When it first came to us it was brought with good intentions—let's just say that. The Earthquake Commission have a big job to do whenever nature strikes and the earth shakes or the rivers rise or they create flooding—such as in that beautiful little place that we have in common called Edgecumbe Madam Deputy Speaker and also as well earlier this year in Rotorua there were significant floods. We had a very significant amount of rain all in 24 hours. It was unprecedented and the community really had to rally around. The Earthquake Commission play a very important role in the lives of New Zealanders. At the end of the day we're an island at the bottom of the world and we're very prone to extreme weather events and more so in recent times. So when this came before us there were a few very simple tasks and I want to take this moment to thank not just the members on the select committee but also all of the submitters that travelled in from around the country to submit on this particular bill. They came with four things to talk about which are the changes that we're putting through in this bill subsequently. First of all we are increasing the cap of earthquake building cover insurance from $100000 to $150000. That $100000 figure was first put in place in 1994 and it hasn't been revised since. It was decided that we did need to adjust the cover and that has been taken up to $150000 which is also recognising the price of rising building costs actually. So the cap hadn't been adjusted. We're adjusting it right now. It's going up to $150000—full stop. Secondly there were the conversations that were had around the removal of earthquake cover for personal property—home contents. It was revealed that actually when these extreme weather events strike and we're subject to rescue and then recovery one of the things that holds everybody up is the officials working through personal property—people's home contents and items like that. So we had a good old robust discussion about whether or not this should be included or whether or not it shouldn't be. After conversations with some private insurers it was decided that actually they were happy to look after that part while the Earthquake Commission could focus on their main business which is looking after people managing their resources properly in that very crucial time and increasing their ability to be able to cope with the said disasters. So through this bill we are going to remove the cover for personal property and obviously work with insurance companies to make sure that they're catching the fall. Through this bill we're also looking to lengthen Earthquake Commission claim notification time limits. From now there will be two time limits. One will be three months—so people will be expected to lodge their claims within three months of the disaster happening—but that window is going to stay open for two years after the incident occurs. That is just a recognition of some of the things that happen—for example in Christchurch when the earthquakes happened it wasn't just one disaster but in fact it was compounded by subsequent aftershocks and sometimes that took a wee while to settle down. So it was decided that although the majority of people do manage to lodge their claims within that three-month time frame we should actually leave the window open just a little bit longer to make sure that people that don't manage to get their claims in for whatever reason are able to do that. So through this amendment to the bill we are also going to be lengthening that time limit to be able to lodge a claim. The final amendment is around the Earthquake Commission's authority to be able to share and publish information. Now this was a very interesting part of the discussions that we had in the select committee. People submitted on it as well—just worried and very concerned about whether or not that was in the interests of the public. That was something that was talked about. We reached the conclusion that actually it was. The Earthquake Commission's ability to share information is actually very specific. If it's going to be able to help with the recovery post one of our natural disasters and help the Earthquake Commission to be able to do their job then actually we're going to allow for that and we shared some pretty robust discussion on that but still reached that outcome. It's gone through the select committee process. The submitters from around the country have put in their five cents' worth on it and we've come up with a bill that I support and the Government supports. For that reason I commend this bill to the House. Amendments recommended by the Finance and Expenditure Committee by majority agreed to. Bill read a second time.