Sage Eugenie; Borrows ChesterEUGENIE SAGE (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Deputy Speaker. The Green Party is pleased to be supporting the Hurunui/Kaikōura Earthquakes Recovery Bill to the select committee. I agree with Minister Brownlee that this bill is no small thing because of the major increase in ministerial and executive powers that it allows. The Green Party has long been vigilant about increases in executive power because of our desire to protect local democracy and ensure that people who are affected by the decisions actually have a say in those decisions. It is a key part of recovery that people are involved in decisions about the recovery. This bill in allowing Ministers through Orders in Council to override more than 45 pieces of primary legislation without the benefit of select committee scrutiny and without the benefit of submissions to select committee and consideration of those submissions by the committee is a major law change.We have been quite critical of the Canterbury legislation not so much the Orders in Council that were exercised under that legislation but because of the substantial powers that were given to the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority and the way in which decisions were generally made behind closed doors with people not knowing who was making the decision or whether any of the comments that they had made in written submissions were taken heed of and with no ability for people to actually front up and have their say in front of the person making the decision. This week we have seen with the other bill in terms of the emergency powers and the extended time frames around the Resource Management Act and the Kaikōura harbour the value of having even a short select committee process and having people front up.So we are proceeding with considerable caution and will be engaging very carefully with the select committee process in terms of the wide range of Acts that are in schedule 2. There are Acts like the Resource Management Act the Conservation Act the Marine Mammals Protection Act and the Reserves Act. We want to understand a little better why officials consider that Acts like the Marine Mammals Protection Act need to be part of that schedule and potentially be able to be overridden by Orders in Council because this bill covers a very large area. My reading of it is if there are other aftershocks that affect the Wellington region as part of the Kaikōura sequence then Wellington could also be covered by Orders in Council that are made under the bill.We are pleased that the concerns that constitutional lawyers and others raised about the post - Canterbury earthquake legislation have been recognised and that there are additional safeguards in this bill around the powers of the Ministers through Order in Council through the ability of the Regulations Review Committee to disallow Orders in Council. But that committee of course needs to be expanded to ensure that there is wider representation from across the Parliament. The bill provides for the Minister to publish reasons for his or her decision and for a review panel. We agree with other speakers who have suggested that the review panel needs to be chaired by a judge or former judge rather than just a lawyer.I listened closely to the Minister's speech when he said that the Orders in Council and the way in which activities happen under those will have to be done responsibly without any opportunistic behaviour if there are increased powers given to local authorities for example or infrastructure and network utility operators. We are really concerned that often the tendency with major natural disasters is that the shock and awe after the event means that people are prepared to let things go a little more. Given that Kaikōura has led the country in making its natural environment and its spectacular coast a core part of its brand and its tourism industry we want to make sure that that legacy is not in any way placed at risk by short-term thinking that may occur in emergency situations.So we are supporting the bill. We will be looking to see what further safeguards can be added to it but we recognise that Governments post-emergency do need to make decisions quickly but those decisions should always be made thoughtfully and with a view to the longer term. Thank you.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: A 5-minute call on behalf of the Labour Party—Meka Whaitiri.