O'Rourke DenisDENIS O'ROURKE (NZ First): I want to begin by acknowledging and thanking firstly the Minister Gerry Brownlee for his briefings and the ample information that he provided us with and actually all parties for a very high level of cross-party collaboration which made it rather a pleasure to deal with this bill. Secondly I would like to thank the Local Government and Environment Committee members themselves for their long hours of hard work and especially the committee chair Scott Simpson who did an excellent job. For reasons that only those committee members will know we may have to rename that committee the Fish and Chips Committee" but we will wait and see.Thirdly the officials should be thanked—and I do thank them too—for their late nights their great service and their excellent advice. Fourthly I would like to thank and acknowledge the many submitters who in a very short time period made some really excellent submissions to the committee which proved to be very helpful to us. There are times when people in communities need to put aside personal and political differences and this certainly is one of those times. People on the ground in the affected areas are getting together and getting things done and we in this House must ensure that we create adequate powers to ensure that usually applicable laws and processes do not become barriers to quick and effective actions which as we know are always needed to ensure speedy and effective recovery from all forms of damage resulting from events of this magnitude.The result of this good process has been a good bill. Indeed only clause 13 has caused any differences between us. The Government parties felt that clause 13 should remain; the Opposition parties felt it would be better that it be removed. What it does is to restrict the enforcement provisions in the Act to local authorities whereas normally anyone can enforce. We in the Opposition parties felt it was better to leave that provision out so that anyone could enforce those provisions. I do not agree with the Minister that this would in any way have been likely to delay anything because I think there would have been very very few people who would have felt the need to carry out enforcement proceedings themselves. However there may have been some occasions when it would have been necessary. I felt that if landowners felt that other landowners had not done what they were required to do they themselves could have enforced whatever provision was necessary. After all you have to consider that the local authorities may not be able to respond in all cases they normally would respond to simply because they are under such pressure at the present time and are likely to be so for quite some time in the future. The bill does very important things to assist recovery in Kaikōura. Firstly it modifies the Resource Management Act emergency powers under section 330 particularly by extending time frames for giving notice and applying for consents. I am sure that will be much appreciated by many people so that they will know they have got ample time to take the actions they need to take. Secondly it allows rural landowners to take actions that they would not normally be allowed to take for the purpose of preventing risk to life and to infrastructure. These are things that they would do intuitively without thinking about rules and processes and we need to make sure that they do not get punished for that or that they are not impeded in carrying out those necessary things. Thirdly it provides for rehabilitation of the Kaikōura Harbour. Apart from the roads to and from the town it is probably the most important single piece of infrastructure that needs urgent rehabilitation. It is essential for all of the people of Kaikōura and for all of the businesses that operate there. At the same time there is a need to make sure that the environment is protected as far as is practically possible because that is also important for the viability of many of the businesses that operate in Kaikōura and there is no reason why we should not be vigilant to take care of the environment even while we carry out those emergency rehabilitation works. Fourthly and lastly I am glad to see that the bill allows for inclusive processes not just for the appropriate agencies that will be taking part but also for all people so that they will be able to have a say. Many of them feel that they have—and they do have—local knowledge and expertise which will be of value.I do not need to say any more. We have delved into the detail of the bill earlier today and in fact during the select committee process and we now have what I think is a very good piece of legislation. Given that good process resulting in a good bill New Zealand First will be very pleased indeed to vote in favour of the bill and we wish the people of Kaikōura all the very best in getting on with all of the hard work that they are going to have to do now and in the future."