SpeechHon RON MARK (Minister of Defence): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise to make a short call in support of this legislation legislation that's been worked on between the Hon Shane Jones and the Hon David Parker quite studiously. I want to join the chorus of thanks for the select committee for its diligence in the work and the speed and the pace the hours that they put in and for the constructive amendments that have been made with the support of the National members of that committee. I think I did try to say in my last speech on the Resource Management Act (RMA)—and the Hon Nathan Guy's quite right: we find ourselves discussing the RMA once again. Of course there's always going to be the political debate around it but I think the comments that have been made once again confirm that the RMA has some serious flaws. There have been many attempts to change it modify it and improve it. I do remember Denis O'Rourke who put up numerous Supplementary Order Papers when the National Government made its attempt to better the RMA—all of his Supplementary Order Papers were voted down. I think there were 13 hours of debate in this House. And you know when you're caught in a situation where none of your suggestions your recommendations are accepted by the Government of the day it stands to reason you're probably going to vote against their legislation at the end of it. That could have been a different outcome; it wasn't. I'm hoping that in the future the type of collaboration that we've seen with the select committee process for this piece of legislation will continue given the importance and significance of the infrastructure problems that we face going forward as a country and the need for us to build resilience into our communications systems and structures and support local government who carry most of the burden. That's just the sad fact of it. So I sincerely thank the members of the committee for their work and for the constructive changes that they have supported. It's already been stated—so I'm not going to rotary hoe this same garden again—that this bill is aimed at the COVID recovery. It's aimed at trying to get some shovel-ready projects under way. It's aimed at getting people employed where we've got people who are going to be unemployed and we know the numbers that are coming through and it's about fast tracking. I know that a lot of attention has been focused on those specific projects which are covered off in the schedule. I guess where I'm really hopeful looking forward is in the track 2 track 3 space. When we start talking about culverts and we start talking about bridges I recall as the Mayor of Carterton asking for a review of our asset management programme and I particularly wanted some attention around culverts and bridges. Now being a rural council a district council it was quite astonishing for me to learn we had over 2500 and Carterton's one of the smallest councils—I think third to smallest council in the country. We had 2500 bridges and culverts. And I know Jacqui Dean who's been in local government herself is nodding her head there. The cost of replacing or upgrading those by a little council with a very small rating base was astronomical. What made the challenge even greater and the problem even more concerning was when we looked at the time when these bridges had been built and these roads had been laid down and the culverts installed and most of them were over 100 years old. Most of them had been done during the Depression. So we were looking at not just failure not just increased usage not just increased loadings—and the last Government increased the axle loadings on heavy vehicles; large numbers of logging trucks large numbers of transporters moving through our area—but we were dealing with the problem of block obsolescence. Because they were all built at the same time their end of life was going to hit us all at the same time—very much like the problems that the Defence Force faces with old platforms.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yep—yep.Hon RON MARK: So this part here when we get into track 2 we get into track 3 I'm hoping that under the Orders in Council a lot of these projects will get the opportunity to see the light and to be considered and to be fast tracked. I'd also like to think that under Provincial Growth Fund funding when we get back here after the election we'll be able to continue to fund some of these things as well. The other point that's been raised and discussed is the question around the sunset clause the fact that the bill will self-repeal in two years. It's going to be interesting to see what happens with these changes. If this piece of legislation proves to be effective if this piece of legislation proves to be something of worth it's going to be interesting to see what a future Government who's come to power at that point in time does with that clause. I'd like to think that the Parliament will keep an open mind. I'd like to think that at that time a post-implementation review might give the Parliament a steer. I'd like to think that at that time the changes that we're making in this legislation might be considered more widely as to whether or not it's appropriate in a wider review of the Resource Management Act which is clearly going to happen no matter who is in power at the time. With that I'd simply say New Zealand First supports the bill.