Smith NickHon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson): I'm delighted to be able to join with colleagues from both sides of the House this evening to support the second reading of this Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Bill. Firstly I'm delighted because in my view in the recovery of Christchurch this is the last big outstanding issue for the recovery of the city after the devastating earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. The second reason I'm delighted is I think if this Parliament reflects on our heritage buildings across the country the Christ Church Cathedral would be one of our most iconic buildings. Yes you could take Skycity in Auckland and probably this Parliament and the Beehive here in Wellington and then the cathedral in Christchurch. And because I'm a bit old-fashioned actually I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a building that is of more heritage value anywhere in New Zealand than the cathedral. Thus it's a delight to see it now being reinstated. The third reason I am delighted is that tonight Parliament is at its best—and I do want to pay tribute to both Nicky Wagner and Megan Woods. In a Parliament where it's so easy to fight for differences it actually came together and did the right thing.I remember when my colleague Nicky Wagner was appointed to the role. I had a conversation with her. I said to her Look the biggie that Gerry Brownlee has not yet been able to nail is a conclusion for the cathedral and Nicky if you achieve nothing else in your role as Minister in nailing a deal on the cathedral you will have done your city a great service." I suspect because I know how hard Nicky worked that if she'd put a bit more time into the campaign and a little bit less into the cathedral she might still be the member of Parliament for Christchurch Central. But I still say to Nicky "Actually this achievement in nailing that deal is actually a bigger thing for the long term."I do want to share that compliment with Megan Woods for the way that I know the two of you—in the way that you worked in Opposition and didn't play politics to try and get us there. So to Megan Woods the Minister I say "Equal compliments to you for this bill." My connection to the cathedral—I can still remember as a six-year-old boy getting on the red bus from where I grew up in Rangiora and going to this huge building of the cathedral that at that time I thought was the tallest building in the world. I remember climbing up those steps of the spire and looking over the plains of Canterbury and being inspired to be an engineer and one day maybe getting the opportunity to build magnificent structures of that sort.Hon Dr Megan Woods: Got a new job for you.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Yeah yeah although I have to say I'm actually very very proud of my brothers who are in the crane business in Christchurch who actually did some of the work in the weeks following when there were those constant aftershocks. I have to say as an engineer it is incredibly challenging when you've got a broken building trying to have workers work around it and protect enough of that building installing that big steel frame so we might even have the choice of being able to restore that building given the severity of the aftershocks. I pay tribute to both of my brothers that were involved in the work with Smith Crane & Construction that did some of the initial work that ensured we had the choice of being able to restore the cathedral.I remember meeting with Bishop Matthews only two weeks after the major quake in February of 2011 and pleading with her to recognise that this building was absolutely restorable. I do accept it's been a big call for the Anglican Church in Christchurch. The really tough part is that while there is the functional aspect of the cathedral as a place of worship for the church actually the Christ Church Cathedral in 140 years has grown to be something considerably bigger than that. It is a tourism icon. It is a place where the people of Christchurch and Canterbury connect—those who are Anglican or not.So for the church community if they wanted a purely functional building for them to be able to worship in and do their church stuff it was not necessarily the perfect building—that originally designed in the 1860s and completed in the 1890s. So I accept the difficulties that are there but have always believed that the only right thing to do was to restore that cathedral for Christchurch.I hold that view for a number of reasons. First we're a young country. We don't actually have that many heritage buildings. I have to say I was with Gerry Brownlee when some of the passionate heritage advocates came out of the woodwork and wanted to protect a number of the buildings in Christchurch. Some of them were as Mr Brownlee said old dungers. Actually the right choice was for those buildings to be demolished.But the cathedral stands way above that. You look at the effort that countries in Europe put into restoring their great cathedrals that were demolished to a far greater degree than the Christ Church Cathedral after World War II. None of them regret the investment that they made in restoring those buildings and so too the right choice has been made in respect of Christchurch.I do want to reflect on the difficulty of pulling together the financial package to be able to afford the $100 million. I think our Parliament needs to be honest. There is no magic formula. What share should rest with the ratepayer or the taxpayer or the owners of the building? I too have heard those people that say "Look the Anglican Church is a wealthy organisation. It's their damn building. It should all be their cost." But equally so we need to acknowledge the church has an ambition to have investment funds that enable it to continue its community its pastoral and its social work in the city of Christchurch and they cannot afford to meet all of this cost for themselves. Given that there is that strong tourism and there is that strong cultural connection that goes beyond the church in my view it is absolutely proper that public money from both taxpayers and ratepayers is used.I accept that there is a pragmatic deal that my colleague Nicky Wagner has had to lock together between that from the ratepayer that from the taxpayer that from both the church and the trust that has had to be struck. I simply praise those that have the good wisdom to stop the ongoing argument and to come to a conclusion.There are a couple of last points I'd like to make. Yes the reason this bill is effectively going to be passed unanimously actually mainly rests with the Opposition. The reality is that the most contentious bills are where the Opposition takes effect. I do say to the new members of the Government "Please reflect on what you said about the bills that we passed in the years and months after the earthquake. If you reflect on the contributions that were made by Clayton Cosgrove as the Opposition spokesperson on the earthquake he was absolutely torrid in his criticism of Gerry Brownlee in wanting exactly the sorts of powers that we are granting with our permission in this bill today."Hon Chris Hipkins: That's not true. That's not actually true.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: That is absolutely true and the way in which members opposite—absolutely true and I say I was in Parliament and I saw the criticism by Clayton Cosgrove and others. I do say to this Parliament—I do say to this Parliament—that when we have issues of emergency we need to come together and I am proud to be a member of the National Party that was not only prepared to grant those emergency powers in Government but has been prepared to support them from Opposition which is putting a large amount of trust in the Minister because we know common sense will rule.My very last point is this: I look at the schedule of laws that we're having to arbitrarily override to be able to repair the cathedral and I do pose a challenge to the Government and that is that every time we come to issues of restoring cathedrals—and I've got a beautiful Nelson cathedral that is substandard and needs earthquakes strengthening—why is it that we have to undo all the bureaucratic processes that are associated with the Resource Management Act the Building Act the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act and others? I do challenge this Parliament that we actually do need to look into some of those processes that are excessively bureaucratic so we need less of these laws to be able to do the right thing. I commend the bill to the House. It's a credit to a great many people.Bill read a second time."