Cosgrove Clayton: Greater Christchurch Regeneration Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCosgrove Clayton: Greater Christchurch Regeneration Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 17 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9895. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour): I join as a member of Parliament in Canterbury with other colleagues in welcoming the passage of the Greater Christchurch Regeneration Bill. I think it is interesting though to recast a little history. I commend Minister Brownlee. I know that Minister Brownlee and my good self have often had a colourful and wide-ranging relationship and occasionally we have crossed swords—in the best of humour I know.Hon Members: Tell us more.Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE: Tell you more—I could. I could go on for hours but I am sure the Assistant Speaker would fall asleep with some of my anecdotes. However I will say that that Minister Brownlee to use the Thatcherite expression is not one for turning and over many years he has not been a person who has been willing to change his mind on various things. But I do commend him—Denis O’Rourke: He had an epiphany.Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE: An epiphany yes. Maybe—being a good Catholic like me—he had a road to Damascus moment. But I do commend him on this occasion.I do note that there were members in the Local Government and Environment Committee—some of whom have spoken—who actually opposed the changes that were put forward by Megan Woods and others and I have to commend Minister Brownlee as the person who stepped in and said: “No no we’re going to listen and we’re going to make those changes.” It is difficult in politics to say: “Well there may be somebody with a better idea or a better way to do things.” None of us have a monopoly on knowledge in these instances and Minister Brownlee has indeed recognised—after 5 years but he has none the less recognised—that we have really smart people in Canterbury. We have always had incredibly entrepreneurial people people who have demonstrated—not just talked about it but demonstrated—the wealth of knowledge and commitment that they have to our province and have always been willing from day one if they were allowed to do it over the last 5 years to step up and say: “We’re prepared to have to have a go and work our guts out to get our province and our city back off its knees.” I would point out just for the record that they have not really had that opportunity in a great way over the last 5 years.However let us be positive about this new world order. This bill I think—if implemented correctly—will allow the unleashing of that energy and allow those smart folks in Canterbury to lead that recovery from grassroots to have a locally led recovery and to have local and substantial input that is not just dealt with via lip service but actually makes a massive and real and high-quality contribution to the recovery of our province. That is something that has been a huge chasm a huge gap over the last 5 years.People have talked about the Margaret Mahy Family Playground. People in this House have talked about the Metro Sports Facility an anchor project that we do not have. People have not talked about for instance the great need—and we have got a couple of tourism experts over there—for a convention centre in Christchurch. We desperately need that as an anchor project because we know there is hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of capital sitting there—it will not sit there for ever—waiting to be unleashed in respect of infrastructure and hotels. We know of course that one of our biggest supermarket chains wants to put a massive supermarket I am told right in the centre of Christchurch but it needs to know where the centres of population will be where the business activity will be whether there will be a stadium whether there will be a convention centre and whether these promises will come to pass so that the private sector—which is far better at these projects than I would wager any bureaucrat or politician is—can unleash that capital and build its businesses and bring life back into the centre of our city.So I welcome the bill and I say to my St Bede’s College counterpart Mr Brownlee in all seriousness that I am gratified and grateful that he has been prepared to listen to alternative points of view; that he has been prepared to say “OK we’re going to gut this bill and we’re going to insert these changes.” which ourselves and the Christchurch City Council and others proposed; and that he listened to submission after submission from people who said: “Look we want to lead our recovery as a city as a province. We want to lead it as local people. We want to take responsibility—greater and greater and responsibility.”Those local people are actually the experts because they live there and they have lived through tragedy they have lived through adversity and many continue to do that. They have battled every day many of them to survive and to look after their families in pretty strenuous social and economic circumstances. They have lived it. I said when I had the spokesperson role when the earthquake actually struck that I hoped we did not get an army—no disrespect—of Wellington bureaucrats parachuting in with their clipboards and their penholders saying: “Tut tut tut!” and “We have all the answers.” Sadly I would argue that we have done exactly that over the last 5 years. And it does surprise me that many of the folks on the other side who purport to be great free-marketers—those who just want to let the juices flow as it were whether that be in a business sense or economically or socially—allowed that to happen.Kiwis are smart. Kiwis in Canterbury are smart. People who have empathy are those who lived it breathed it ate it dealt with it and survived through it every day for 5 years; who live with it today; and who lived with it on Valentine’s Day when we had the big shove. We have them every couple of days and people get scared—and there are people in our province who are genuinely scared. There are massive mental health issues and I hope that—because we in politics especially on this side get accused of being political every time we raise issues. It is a nice little cheap shot by some which actually labels and negates any of the positive input. We know in mental health that kids and adults are struggling every day. We know our district health board is under massive strain. For those who thought that in any conventional sort of disaster you throw a few dollars at mental health for a couple of years Christmas comes along in summer the sun is shining and everybody is happy again they have not picked off the case studies around the world of natural disasters and they have not listened to clinicians and experts who tell you quite clearly that it will be 10 15 or possibly 20 years before some of these folks work these problems through in medical terms to get it out of their systems or if they cannot they learn to cope in their own way. To do that they need assistance and they need mental health resources and I implore the Government—using this bill as an opportunity to do so—to address those issues.If anybody thinks they have gone away go and talk to your local high school primary school or intermediate school principal and ask what is happening to many kids in our community. If anybody thinks those mental health issues have gone away make sure you are in town the next time we have a good shove like we did on Valentine’s Day and wander around and talk to people many of whom—I could use some vernacular but I will not—are scared very scared. It just brings that nightmare back again and again. This is not the fault of politicians; this is the fault of mother Nature. But none the less it exists and none the less it is real. So I hope out of this bill that local folks have a greater say and have greater standing with the Government and with the Minister—whomever he or she may be—and Ministers involved within the intertwined portfolios that will deal with the earthquake situation going forward. I hope that those people—those respected community leaders—are listened to.I had a meeting with the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce along with other colleagues and even Peter Townsend the chief executive of the chamber of commerce said to us very clearly some weeks ago that he was deeply concerned—deeply concerned—about the mental health issues and the lack of resources. I hope—he may not feel he can say those things publicly—Dr Megan Woods: You can say it for him.Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE: Yes well I have helped him out with that. I hope given that he has standing—and he is a respected senior business person a highly respected person in our community and I know he has standing with the National Party and with the Government as a senior business leader—that those members listen to Pete Townsend as he I am sure will make representations if he has not already as a responsible community leader in Canterbury on those issues.I commend the bill. I think it is one of those rare moments in a Parliament where Opposition members were allowed to put up counter ideas and were not napalmed by a Government through political labels—where a Government and a Minister respected those ideas and listened—and I think we have a better piece of legislation. I think the people of Canterbury will say: “Hey those politicians in Wellington actually now and again do listen to us.” I look forward to those wonderful smart community leaders within my province getting to take some of the reins back getting to take some of the power back and getting to put their fantastic skill base to work as we move through serving our community in this recovery.