Weenink VanessaDr VANESSA WEENINK (National—Banks Peninsula): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's a delight for me to be here today to be able to talk about the fire response in the Port Hills. Just a little over two weeks ago as I was about to come into the House I had a text telling me about the fires and I advised the House about the fact that it was going on and I reflected on the fire in 2017 and I was quite worried about the Port Hills and the people down there. As Minister Mitchell and I flew into Christchurch that night there was a glow over the hills and we could see the flashing of the lights of the fire engines on the hills. It was quite dramatic. But I'm happy to report that as of today there are only five little hot spots left the Fire and Emergency response has been absolutely outstanding.There are some facts that I'd like to share with the House. At the height of the fire it got to nearly 700 hectares. We had about 110 properties that had been evacuated. Helping to fight the fire at any one time we had up to about 130 firefighters from all around the country. They were supported by 27 trucks up to 15 helicopters and two fixed-wing planes. So that was an absolutely incredible response and our firefighters should be absolutely thanked from the bottom of our hearts.I'd also like to make sure that we thank police and other emergency responders. The response from the community was really helped by the police reassurance especially those who were asked to evacuate their properties. They were previously asked to evacuate in 2017 and having done so they had the experience of not being able to get back into their properties for two weeks. So it was a really difficult time for them.But the amazing thing was that this time we had great leadership from two mayors from Phil Mauger and Sam Broughton who made the decisive decision about declaring the state of emergency early so that it brought all of the resources straight in and I think that was a really useful lesson that was learnt.I also want to thank the Hon Mark Mitchell for coming on down as well because having his reassurance and experience and ability to be there to make decisions should they be needed was very reassuring.We had countless community members who I also want to name who helped out in the response. Kellie Horne from Craythorne's Hotel very generously offered hotel rooms for evacuees at very short notice. I also thank the Halswell Bakery the Halswell MetroMart and Domino's Pizza. They all provided food to the community and to the emergency responders. Thanks also to the Halswell Scout Group for their support as well.This was a huge combined response which I think shows a textbook way that things should be done. When we walked into the emergency evacuation centre they literally had the document of lessons learnt from 2017 that they were going through. They were checking off all of the different aspects that hadn't been done so well last time and they made sure that it was improved on this time particularly the community engagement. That was very important and I know that the community responded very well to having regular community updates and meetings most of which I was able to go to along with the Minister. So that was a huge change.Having the combined emergency management response in the justice precinct where they all worked together on a daily basis was helpful. They already had those pre-existing relationships so everybody worked together well. So this was an example where under an emergency response having one organisation in the centralised command and control actually makes a huge difference and everybody understands who has the rights and roles and everything worked very well.So I really commend particularly our firefighters. Some of those teams were fighting the fires continuously through that week. But then just last weekend we also saw the Amberley fire brigade as well as the Governors Bay fire brigade holding a fundraising event for I Am Hope. What amazing people we have in our country. On behalf of all of us in Banks Peninsula I just want to thank the firefighters in particular for the outstanding work.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.