Gilmore Aaron: Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Bill — Procedure First Reading Second Reading 
Gilmore Aaron: Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Bill — Procedure First Reading Second Reading 
[Volume:666;Page:13919] 
AARON GILMORE (National) 
: 
 About 350 hours ago Christchurch was a calm beautiful place. It is the place of my birth and the province of Canterbury has been home to my family for at least seven generations. That changed about 350 hours ago. I will read a little bit about how the world sees Christchurch in the latest Rugby World Cup advertising. “Christchurch the Garden City is surrounded by natural wonders a sparkling Pacific Ocean majestic Southern Alps and an ancient volcanic peninsula. The South Island’s largest city has an Alps to Ocean horizon a heritage heart and a sense of adventure. Visitors discover 19th century stone buildings a network of hillside walking tracks contemporary galleries and open-air markets.” That is how the world sees Christchurch and that is how I saw Christchurch up until 10 days ago. 
Since that time over 350 aftershocks have hit our city and our region. For me that was a pretty remarkable time. My five-year-old daughter went from being a wonderful happy-go-lucky little girl to spending 24 hours in sheer terror that the world was going to open up and swallow her. It was only yesterday that she resorted to drawing pictures of houses falling down and the men digging up holes and she has got back to normality. 
I live in the north-east of Christchurch where there has been significant damage. About 1000 homes have been seriously damaged or destroyed. Houses in Brooklands Dallington Burwood and Bexley including my brother’s house in Bexley have been heavily damaged if not destroyed. 
The people’s response has been remarkable. On Saturday I went through the whole process of denial of what happened to my home city and what will happen. But the people of Canterbury like they always do on the rugby field or anywhere else stuck together. The civil defence and the fire service came out. Students came out of the woodwork and stuck together for no reason other than wanting to help. We saw in Mayor Bob Parker an unbelievable reserve of courage and constitution to get the city back to normal. The Prime Minister came down on the Saturday hours after the quake hit and showed New Zealand that he cares and that the Government intends to rebuild my home city. 
I want to mention quickly people who helped such as the students. Sam Johnson organised over 1000 university students to help dig out the city. Sam Gina Jade Tommy and over 1000 others took their time and effort over hundreds of hours to clean up people’s back gardens and the streets of my city. 
The Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Bill has far-reaching potential consequences. It has the potential to make Christchurch not just as good as it was but great. Earlier speakers on the other side of the House pointed out that Napier rebuilt itself after the 1930s earthquake to become the art deco capital of New Zealand and potentially the world. I think Christchurch has the potential to do that as well. 
This earthquake has impacted my city in terms of not only buildings roads and bridges which we will rebuild but also scars on people’s minds that will take much longer to heal. I organised a meeting that drew 600 people in Brooklands on Saturday and I saw grown men cry about what will happen to their homes. It will take a long time to heal. This bill will not heal the hurt but it will go a long way to helping rebuild our city faster and better than it was before. 
There have been some concerns about the powers that the bill legislates for. There are avenues in this bill to take into account via the Regulations Review Committee in terms of the Orders in Council. Being a member of that committee I will take a strong active interest in making sure that is right. Minister Turia pointed out some issues about making sure mana whenua are taken into account and I think that it is good to make sure there are wide-ranging views and opinions as we rebuild our city. There are 2500 homes that need to be rebuilt and that will take the efforts of everybody together. This bill will allow our city to be rebuilt bigger better and stronger. I am proud to be part of a Government that is putting it in place. Thank you. 
Bill read a first time.