Simpson ScottHon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. Thank you to yourself and the House for the opportunity to pisser—to participate in this local debate——and it's not even after the dinner break yet! So I want to talk about a local issue in my beautiful electorate of the Coromandel. Members and people watching this debate at home will know that we are coming to the end of what's been a pretty good summer around the country but it's been a particularly good summer in the beautiful Coromandel. It's the first summer in four seasons where we have had an uninterrupted opportunity to explore enjoy and make the most of everything that the beautiful Coromandel has to offer and particularly so for our visitors.We had two summers that were ruined by COVID and then of course the summer of Cyclone Hale and Cyclone Gabrielle which impacted not only the Coromandel but many other parts of the country. We thought that when State Highway 25A was closed for almost a year and reopened quickly thanks to the great work of the New Zealand Transport Agency's (NZTA) contractors ahead of the time frame that NZTA had set and under budget it would be the end of our major issues Cyclone Hale and Cyclone Gabrielle. But sadly it's not. Here we are almost 15 months after those devastating cyclones and one of New Zealand's most iconic tourist destinations—Cathedral Cove in the beautiful Coromandel at Hāhei—remains closed. Now yes there was some cyclone damage to the pathway that takes people down to the beach from the lookout down quite a long and windy walk and some damage has occurred but by engineering standards and by any other measure it's not that big a job to get it fixed.I want to talk today about why it is that the Department of Conservation in my view has been so slack so slow to get that track open. It's a—Hon Dr Duncan Webb: Talk to your Minister: Tama Potaka.Hon SCOTT SIMPSON: —well the member for Christchurch Central talks about Tama Potaka. I want to talk about Tama Potaka because he is the new Minister of Conservation who is good as his word. When I was in his ear before Christmas saying Minister you're the new conservation Minister; you need to come and have a look at Cathedral Cove and see for yourself." he said "Yes Scott I'll be there early in the new year." Well I got a call from him on 1 January saying "I'm in your rohe. Would you like to have me visit tomorrow on 2 January?" So as good as his word he was there early in the new year on 2 January and he came and had a look for himself. We went and had a look and then about a week or so later also as good as his word we had the Minister for tourism the Hon Matt Doocey come to visit and have a look for himself. Those Ministers understand how important that track is not only to locals in the Coromandel in Hāhei but how important it is to our international tourist reputation and our total international tourist package. There are literally tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people who want to come and walk that track and experience the beautiful Cathedral Cove experience who currently cannot do it.Well the Department of Conservation had a very slow timetable. It wasn't going to be until September of this year that they were even going to make a decision about what might eventually happen at the cove. Well thanks to the good work of Tama Potaka the new Minister of Conservation I was delighted on behalf of local businesses tourist operators and also the hundreds of thousands of visitors who want to come and see Cathedral Cove that he has now committed to ensuring that his Department of Conservation officials have on his desk in June their plan for getting the track reopened for the coming summer season. Why is that important? Well it's important because many of those local businesses have to do sometimes up to about 80 percent of their annual turnover over a summer period. When we don't have a good summer period there isn't an opportunity for those businesses to make that revenue up any other way. So having the track closed is a real problem.I want to in this debate also make the point that this is land that was gifted to New Zealand to all New Zealanders by the Harsant family at Hāhei generously for the benefit of all New Zealanders. I think it's beholden upon the Department of Conservation to actually get their act together to pull finger and to actually get ahead of the Minister's timetable and see if we can get the track open sooner."