Mark RonRON MARK (Deputy Leader—NZ First): I want to rise to thank the Minister for that and now that the Minister is able to hear I just want to congratulate him on behalf of New Zealand First on the manner in which he has shepherded through this legislation and the cross-party discussions because it was very constructive. New Zealand First is very pleased and very happy with the changes that we have sought and the manner in which the Minister has accepted those changes. There has already been some discussion—and my colleague Clayton Mitchell MP has discussed new section 26A Section 91 amended (Power to give directions)". I just want to clarify because there has been some discussion from colleagues from this side of the Chamber—from Grant Robertson who said we would not expect councils to behave in an overly zealous manner. Well I do have to say to the Committee that in parts of rural New Zealand we are already seeing it. I can say that in parts of rural New Zealand there are already people who own old wooden buildings and I guess for some of our whanaunga who own marae that might be very old and might have had a bit of a jolt in the 7.8 quake there were some worries. It was pleasing to be able to have this conversation with the Minister and the staff at the cross-party discussions about the consequences for these people—whether it was relating to the Belvedere Hall on upper Belvedere Road in Carterton which is 140-odd years old I think and suddenly is now being required to have an assessment done on it despite the fact that it is on piles it is wooden and it has withstood every quake since I think 1855 or whenever it was. It certainly withstood the 1942 quake with no damage and it certainly came through the 7.8 quake—which shook our house pretty severely—without one piece of damage. But what we are seeing in some parts of New Zealand are people who have purchased wooden buildings—two-storey or single-storey—in rural provincial New Zealand being told they have to get an earthquake assessment done on them despite the fact there is absolutely no evidence that these buildings actually present a risk. We talked about places like Pongaroa which has a wooden façade and has withstood. A zealous controller or constable might have determined that that building posed a risk although you could walk down a street in Pongaroa at 2 o'clock in the morning and the front could fall off the building and no one would even know other than the people who are living in the building at the time. Buildings built of wood would pose very little risk to them. But the question of just covering that off was one that we felt very strongly about and we thank the Minister for making some concession in the legislation and recognising it and covering it off. We also endorse the Minister's focus on ensuring compliance in metropolitan New Zealand. We are seeing it here in Wellington and I do not think anybody in this Chamber would have actually imagined that a quake—and we have had quite a few post-Christchurch in and around Seddon over the last 6 years—in Culverden or in Seddon would damage Wellington so severely but now here we have it. The consequential risk to life of innocent people who might be living in those buildings or living in adjoining or neighbouring buildings or who happen to be walking down the footpath at the wrong time—the risk to those people is just thoroughly unacceptable. The fact that councils did not have the power to order an assessment was a gap that is now being closed—rightly so—and we just hope that in exercising that power they will do so with due cognisance and attention to new section 26A(3).The question was put that the following amendments in the name of the Hon David Parker be agreed to: insert in new section 91(7) in section 26A in clause 7 " and section 77(4) does not apply" after "modifications"; and insert in new section 94N(7) in section 27 in clause 8(1) " and section 77(4) does not apply" after "modifications".Amendments agreed to.Clauses 1 to 11 as amended agreed to.House resumed.Bill reported with amendment.Report adopted."