Woods Megan: Greater Christchurch Regeneration Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWoods Megan: Greater Christchurch Regeneration Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 31 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:10101. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram): It is my pleasure to take a call on the third reading of this bill and to continue Labour’s support for this piece of legislation just in case I say to the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery there are any questions in your mind. Our position has been very clear right from the beginning on this piece of legislation when it came to the House for its first reading. This had to be a piece of legislation that fulfilled the desire that was clearly evident in Christchurch for a locallyled recovery. We listened very carefully at the Local Government and Environment Committee hearing and in addition to the people that the Minister has acknowledged I would like to acknowledge the people who took the opportunity to submit on this piece of legislation and to come to the select committee and present very ably their views..I think there was some very good thinking that lay in these submissions and it gave us the basis for many of the changes that we were subsequently able to make to this bill. As has been traversed on many occasions when the bill was first reported back from the select committee Labour was not able to support it. We drew a very simple line in the sand and that line in the sand was whether this delivered the kind of locally led recovery that the people of Christchurch desired deserved and needed for their city to be all it could be. The answer for us was no. But I would like to acknowledge the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery and his willingness to work afterwards across parties to reach a point where we could all agree on the final shape of this bill that we are debating here in the House. So we are thankful to the Government for doing that.While we are acknowledging people I would like to acknowledge some of the work that has gone on at the grassroots in Christchurch over the last 5½ years. I think we have seen a remarkable 5½ years—I hope we never see the likes of it again—and the kind of creativity and innovation that has sprung up in the adversity that has been Christchurch and Canterbury over the last 5½ years is something that I and many people across this House will always celebrate. This was always our vision: that what we would have for the next phase of our regeneration is a structure that could capture and allow for this innovation this creativity and this energy that lay within the people of Christchurch and Canterbury. We wanted that to be what took us forward in the next 5½ years not a heavy top-down Wellington approach. So I am thankful that we do have a bill that can do that. I would also like to acknowledge the work of the advisory board that the Minister mentioned ably chaired by the Rt Hon Jenny Shipley which came forward with a good structure in which we could put in place this legislation.The Minister has given a good description of what this legislation does. It seems somewhat counterintuitive to be saying that this complex web of institutions we are setting up to replace one Government organisation—the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority—is what we believe is going to take Christchurch forward in a faster and better way towards the kind of city we could be but I believe it will. What we are going to see is a joint venture a power sharing between the city and the Government in the case of Christchurch City. I would like to acknowledge the mayor of Christchurch City who is in the gallery today to oversee the third reading of this bill for the work that she has put into this legislation. It is going to be through relationships not only with Christchurch City Council but with Selwyn District Council and Waimakariri District Council that we are going to see productive moving forward in our region. It is with the other strategic partners with Ngāi Tahu and with Environment Canterbury that we can make the most of what the next 5 years will bring. I hope they do bring some more movement some faster movement on those anchor projects Minister. That is something that we do share and I wait with bated breath for the forthcoming announcements around those.Hon Gerry Brownlee: Oh breathe a little.Dr MEGAN WOODS: I am breathing. I am breathing through my nose Minister and waiting—waiting. But one of the things that we are setting up is not only this joint venture between the city and the Crown butalso as the Minister outlined another Crown entity that is going to take control of the residential red zone and the anchor projects in the form of Ōtākaro Ltd. This as the Minister has alluded to also will be subject to normal public finance reporting requirements and scrutiny from this House. At the Committee stage of this bill we did raise some questions around the constitution of that company and the limits that need to be monitored in terms of that company and the way in which it operates.What we have got now is a very useful structure for how we can take our city and our region forward but what it requires now is an operationalisation. As I have been saying to many of the grassroots organisations in Christchurch: “Your job is not done. Your job is not complete here.” We have a good piece of legislation but we still need community involvement more than ever. We still need that level of engagement we still need that level of creativity and we still need the level of vigilance that we have seen from the community in Christchurch over its future for the next 5 years as we enter this new phase of our regeneration. That is something that the Labour Party will commit to doing for the next year and a bit that it is in Opposition. It will continue to be vigilant in holding the Government to account but these are structures that can work if we all work together and work for the betterment of our city.We heard from many submitters in the course of the select committee’s consideration of this bill but there was one recurring theme that just kept coming through time and time again and that was around the time for local leadership. We heard from the Option3 group which managed to get more than 100 submissions in to the process. It was a very tight time frame but that group managed to get more than 100 submissions in. We heard from Keep Our Assets and Avon-Ōtākaro Network all wanting greater cooperation between central and local government. I hope that they can find that this legislation fulfils their expressions in their submissions to an extent.I am also very pleased that the Government has chosen to support the amendment in my name so we can put in place those protections for Hagley Park—we can put a symbolic kind of protection around it and say that generations of people before us have established this and protected it and it is our turn to do the same now. I know that it is something that many people in Christchurch are very appreciative of because it is such an important part of our city. We now face a very challenging 5 years ahead of us. We have gone through a challenging 5½ years but the next 5 years are also going to be very challenging.We still have many things to do if we are going to call our recovery a success. Many of these things are to do with organisations that are charged under this legislation. One of the changes that we got as a result of the Local Government and Environment Committee’s consideration which I am very pleased to see is that this legislation unlike the Local Government Act has the four well-beings in its purpose. So this is about the environmental the economic the social and the cultural well-being of our city and our region. It is only by bringing those four elements together that we can have our city reach its potential. So I am very happy to see those in there.We have a number of things to do. We still have a lot of very vacant land in our central city. I think that anyone who has taken a ride through what used to be central Christchurch in recent times will see some exciting new developments that are springing up. They are something that we all treasure and we all look forward to seeing the next new thing springing up. But I think that we will also see room for improvement. There are many areas that we simply have to get going. We cannot have wastelands sitting in the middle of our city and our suburbs which just sit there and have not been touched in 5½ years. I was heartened to read in Minister Brownlee’s favourite newspaper the Press earlier today that some movement on the Sydenham Heritage Church is going to happen and the pile of rubble sitting on Brougham Street is going to move 5½ years on. I think we will all heave a collective sigh of relief over that one. It is an eyesore and is just down the road from my house so I am personally very grateful for that.We cannot call the regeneration and the recovery of Christchurch a success until we have certainty and closure on the residential recovery of Christchurch. People still not knowing what is happening with their homes what is happening with the Earthquake Commission and what is happening with their insurance is a situation that cannot be allowed to go on. People cannot feel that their city is on the right path while they are still sitting waiting and having sleepless nights not knowing what is happening with their very certainty and foundation in life. Labour is happy to support this bill. We have a framework; it is now up to us to make this work. Thank you.