Wagner NickyHon NICKY WAGNER (National): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. As you hear National supports this bill and it is the next and final step in the legislative response to the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. As we've heard from the Hon Gerry Brownlee who was the Minister at the time the first Act was about recovery. That morphed into the Greater Christchurch Regeneration Act and this bill now amends that Act.However we would be remiss if we didn't question the urgency of passing these amendments right now when there is a sunset clause in the original Act and parts of this new Act will be in force even longer than the original one. The Greater Christchurch Regeneration Act expires in June 2021. So there has been a lot of time and a lot of resource spent on these amendments merely to speed up parts of those provisions. I do find it ironic that the Governance and Administration Committee has added transitional provisions to the bill provisions that will ensure that any planning proposals under section 71 of the Resource Management Act presently under way can continue under the existing planning mechanisms even beyond the 2021 deadline. I think it's hardly efficient and in fact it's a bit like two steps forward and one step back.Just to recap this bill has three main purposes. The first is that it repeals the fast-track resource management planning process that was provided under section 71 of the Resource Management Act. And that section 71 provision was important. It was a mechanism that was designed to support essential urban renewal and development after the Christchurch earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. It was designed to speed up regeneration. It was designed to ensure that that work could be done as quickly as efficiently and as cost-effectively as possible. It was all about the community having the tools to recover and to regenerate. Unfortunately as we've heard discussed in this House those tools were not fully appreciated and the development opportunities that could have come from those tools were not fully realised.Secondly the bill disestablishes Regenerate Christchurch. Now Regenerate Christchurch is the agency that was created to manage regeneration plans for the city. In fact although local stakeholders—and when I say local stakeholders I mean the Christchurch City Council the Waimakariri District Council the Selwyn District Council Environment Canterbury and Ngāi Tahu—all had the power to develop and propose regeneration plans very few were proposed.So for the last four years Regenerate Christchurch has worked with the community on a number of plans for various parts of the city but the majority of their work has been in the redevelopment of the Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor. Now that space will eventually be a fabulous people-friendly community asset in the centre of the city. But we are disappointed that some of the opportunities that that space provided have not been realised. And I say that it eventually will be a people-friendly space—I say eventually" because it's taken an enormous length of time an enormous amount of resource and energy and we still haven't seen the progress that we want. There's been lots of ideas lots of promises and we're all keen to start using that space and enjoying that area. And I'm really hopeful that the disestablishment of Regenerate Christchurch doesn't slow that progress down.Finally the bill provides for land powers for title reconfiguration and amalgamation of land parcels within that Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor. That's about combining Crown lands that were made available under previous Acts and adjacent city council land. And that power continues on to 2023 again long after the original Act expires. The select committee looked at the bill and recommended that a geographical description of that reconfigured land should be clarified. They added a map and further detail to assist interpretation. Although the passing of this amendment bill still provides some special legislative powers it returns most of the decision-making processes in greater Christchurch back to local government and back to pre-earthquake business-as-usual governance.Just before I finish I'd like to echo the disappointment of the Hon Gerry Brownlee in terms of the lack of progress in the city over the last three years. Projects that were under way such as the Metro Sports Facility have stalled and it is horrifying to see the increased costs of those projects because of the stalled timing and also that new projects such as the multi-use arena or the stadium depending what you want to call it haven't made any progress at all. So I'd like to say I support this bill National supports this bill and after nearly 10 years of disasters and recovery management in our city and the ongoing redevelopment and regeneration in our community this is a very welcome thing. We just need to do it faster. Thank you Mr Speaker."