SpeechHon EUGENIE SAGE (Green): We certainly agree with the last statement by Mr McKelvie that the Green Party hopes that the communities recover as quickly as possible. But also he made the point that big decisions take a while. It's important that big decisions such as the investment in stop banks where new infrastructure goes and what sort of infrastructure it is do take a while and that they engage the community strongly in making them because it is the community that uses them and the community generally contributes funding. So the Local Government Act is one of the Acts in the Schedule that can be changed by Order in Council. We really encourage the Government to ensure that there isn't too much truncation of the consultative procedures under that Act so that the community is really engaged. In Christchurch there was a district plan that went through a very expedited process under the Resource Management Act (RMA) to enable consents to be granted quickly and the quarrying provisions in that plan because they are so permissive because of the need for quarry materials in the reconstruction have been an ongoing source of conflict with residents because of the effects of quarries not having adequate setbacks from residential areas the health effects the amenity effects from dust from those quarries. That is just one example of where a quick decision was made—a poor planning decision because it didn't take account of the community's needs and it put the needs of rebuilding to the fore. So people are suffering because of that. That's why processes exist: to ensure that different aspects of the decision are examined and that as much information as possible can contribute to good decisions.We also encourage the Government—others have talked about the big infrastructure projects which are going to be required as part of the recovery. The Reserves Act is one of the pieces of legislation that could be subject to Order in Council to modify the permission processes relating to infrastructure reconstruction on reserves managed by Te Papa Atawhai Department of Conservation. We have a biodiversity crisis. There are significant impacts often on indigenous vegetation and habitat and we'd really encourage Ministers when they're looking at the scale of projects that will go through and be allowed by an Order in Council to think about the potential impacts on nature and whether it's appropriate that some big projects with a scope for big impacts go through the normal RMA and Conservation Act and Reserves Act processes to ensure that those effects are properly managed.Similarly there's an ability to have an Order in Council for the Resource Management Act. Officials say that it may be around waiving the requirements to exclude stock for waterways given the destruction of fences. That is all very sensible in those immediate areas where fences have been destroyed. But given that the Orders in Council can apply across the whole of the geographic area affected by severe weather we don't want to see those really hard-won requirements to get stock out of streams to protect waterway health wound back over any greater area where the properties' fences have actually been destroyed. So the Green Party will be watching the Orders in Council closely. We do hope that a cross-party—more of a political group—forum is set up not just the select committee review process given the length of time that the bill will be in place once it becomes an Act.We are pleased that there have been some more safeguards inserted in through the select committee process which once again establishes that public submissions and select committee scrutiny always improves legislation. This Parliament is one of the fastest lawmakers in the West and we still think that things could have been brought back to the whole of the Parliament rather than just done through executive power because of that public scrutiny that you get through the select committee.As well as thanking officials we'd particularly like to thank the Office of the Clerk the very helpful assistance the office provided in options for increasing parliamentary scrutiny one of which made it into the bill and the work that legislative counsel does in advising the Regulations Review Committee which will have another increase in its workload—as it did with the COVID legislation—in scrutinising these Orders in Council. The advice that legislative counsel provides to that committee is a critical part of its work.The Green Party as I've said in earlier speeches is not supporting this because of the extent of executive powers the broad-purpose ability to add new Acts through an Order in Council but there have been some improvements through this process.