O'Connor DamienHon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Labour—West Coast - Tasman): Labour supports this bill. It seems on the face of it to be a very sensible piece of legislation at a time when there is urgent action needed by both the Government and councils. Labour has had some input into it—and I acknowledge the Acting Minister of Civil Defence—one piece of that being quite an important adjustment that says that all things should be reasonable". We are not asking for absolute powers here. Everything should be judged against a reasonable proposition put forward. I hold up this paper here one of the farming papers Farmers Weekly. The headline is "Shocker". I guess that summarises what the rural sector thinks of what has happened here. I go back to the 1980s to just remind people what Kaikōura was back then. Many people had written it off really. There were a few farms. But through amazing efforts—and I have to acknowledge Wally Stone and his determination and his appreciation of what Kaikōura had. It had amazing wildlife and in particular it had a few whales that were spouting off the coastline. With the help of Ngāi Tahu and their commitment that was turned into an amazing venture that brought that town to life. Unfortunately nature has once again brought it to its knees and I think we have an obligation in Parliament to do everything to help it get back on its feet and up and running. It will not be an easy job.The provisions in this piece of legislation are sensible. They just mean that if work has to be done—reasonable work—to help farmers in particular to get water back to their stock or to open up their laneways to allow stock to move from one paddock to another or just to get them up and able to milk their cows again then that should take place. If it would have required a resource consent then they can apply for that retrospectively and I am sure the councils will deal with that very very sensibly. There is not much to argue about but I will say that I went and I visited on the Friday before last. I have to acknowledge Hamish Dobbie who was there as the chief executive of the Hurunui District Council. He fronted a meeting—the first public meeting of that community. I have to say—this is a message for the Government—that they were very wary. Many of those people were refugees from Christchurch. They had gone up to Waiau to seek refuge to get a safer place. They did not have a lot of money and they were being told by officials that "All will be good. We'll look after all your insurance claims." Well I have to say those local people were very very cynical. It will be up to the Earthquake Commission and the other Government agencies to treat those people with more respect than they perhaps have had in Christchurch and to deliver on the ground in a more timely way than has happened. I am sure that everyone will be learning from that.I have to say that there are some things we should learn from this. The legislation cannot legislate for it but we are helping things to get back on the way forward. Resilience is a very trendy word at the moment but it is actually a very true one too. What the Government has done is of course squeeze funding for roading through the whole of the South Island. I drove through Lewis Pass 4 days after the earthquake. There were huge potholes appearing. The road was being hammered. There will be requirements I am sure—and I acknowledge this legislation does allow for resource consents outside the two core areas—for urgent work. I think there will be urgent work required on the Lewis Pass road and the other roads around Murchison to ensure that they remain safe. If we end up with huge potholes without work being done to fix them they will become unsafe very very quickly. The bill does allow for that as I understand it. It is not just the Hurunui and the Kaikōura district councils. They are not the only two that have relief through this legislation and I know the Government will have to do that.I am not going to say any more because we do want to pass this bill. I have just a couple of other reminders though. I think Fonterra might be regretting the decision to close the factory at Kaikōura. I think that the message for Fonterra is again resilience. Having huge big super-sites may not always be the best solution in a country that is very kind of young and very seismic. We need to keep at the back of our minds that these events will happen and that we always need a plan B. This legislation allows Kaikōura and North Canterbury to get up on their feet again and Labour supports it."