SpeechANDREW FALLOON (National—Rangitata): Thank you Madam Speaker. I don't wish to bring you into the debate but I just feel it's very appropriate that you're sitting in the Chair for this bill and I just want to pass on my thanks to you and to all Christchurch MPs for the enormous amount of case work that you would have done in the days weeks and years since the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes.I'm not a Christchurch-based MP. I grew up just down the road in Ashburton about an hour down the road but I spent many years of my life in Christchurch. I went to boarding school at Christchurch Boys' High School and then went on to university at the University of Canterbury. Like our colleague Ron Mark across the House I lived in a number of suburbs; in St Albans in Riccarton and in Papanui. In fact I think it was just around the corner from Clayton Cosgrove's electorate office at the time. Paul Eagle: Oh you poor thing—poor man. ANDREW FALLOON: But it's a real privilege for me to stand here and speak on a bill that relates to Christchurch which is our gateway to the South Island and of course the undisputed second-largest city in New Zealand Mr Eagle. The earthquakes had a profound effect on Christchurch and on the people that live there. Many buildings were destroyed. Many of the landmarks on the skyline that we treated as normal were unfortunately lost—buildings like the Grand Chancellor Hotel which in a very flat city was often used as a bit of a bearing when you were lost in the city. To this day I still find myself getting lost in Christchurch not helped of course by its famed one-way streets within the four avenues. But the greatest loss was not the buildings not its landmarks but its people. There are very few families in Canterbury who didn't know someone who was lost in those Canterbury earthquakes and my family is no different. We lost a friend of ours Philip McDonald an accountant from Ashburton. That initial loss was tragic but so has been the ongoing trauma and very few of my family and friends who lived in Christchurch or in the city at the time of the earthquake unfortunately still live there having moved to places like Rolleston Banks Peninsula or further afield. Many hung in there for many years in fact helping to rebuild some of those shattered communities. I'd particularly like to acknowledge my friend Sam Johnson a good Mayfield lad and Erin Jackson who created and ran the Student Volunteer Army. That organisation has continued to provide support to Christchurch and to Canterbury as recently as the COVID-19 response delivering groceries to places like Timaru and Ashburton and it's now led by new leadership by people like Ashburton's Alyce Lysaght. National does support this bill. It helps build on the work led by Gerry Brownlee when he was Minister in the initial response and then later by Nicky Wagner. I also want to acknowledge the work of Megan Woods in recent years. It's not an easy job and with a population of around 400000 people there's certainly always someone to give their opinion. This bill removes some of the alternative and extraordinary legislation that was introduced in the days weeks and months after the earthquakes. Those provisions were needed at the time just as we've seen with the response to the Kaikōura earthquakes and enabling legislation there and again more recently with COVID-19. I do understand the argument that some put forward sometimes that our legislation should be sufficiently robust and flexible to accommodate disaster circumstances. However the Canterbury earthquakes were absolutely unparalleled in this country in the modern era. Powers that enabled things like zoning consenting construction and rebuilding were necessary at a time when things didn't deserve to wait and some of those powers worked very well as we can see today with new towns and suburbs in places like Rolleston and the wider Selwyn and Waimakariri districts. But it's appropriate that over time those powers are removed making the way for life as normal in places like Christchurch and other areas hard hit like Kaiapoi. The Christchurch of today is a very different place to just a handful of years ago. From shattered infrastructure we now have wonderful assets in the city. The innovation and determination of Cantabrians was never quelled but is now on full display. Despite the trauma and disruption Christchurch is a vibrant world-class city and this bill is an important part in that process.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): Greg O'Connor—this is a split call.