Joyce Steven: General Debate 
Joyce Steven: General Debate 
[Volume:671;Page:17541] 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister of Transport) 
: 
 I had the absolute privilege to attend not one but in fact two memorial services in Christchurch last week. Along with many other people in this House I was humbled to be able to attend on Friday on a beautiful Christchurch day the national memorial service for the people who lost their lives in the Christchurch earthquake. It was an absolutely wonderful service and a service that I think was very fitting for the people of Christchurch and for the families and friends of those who died. 
The other service I attended last week was also sad and poignant yet wonderful. The service was held on the Monday night at the beginning of the week and it was particularly for the victims who were either staff or students of King’s Education who were in the CTV building. Many in the House will know that approximately 80 people have either lost their lives or are missing as a result of being staff or students of King’s Education. It was a much smaller service but still quite large; several hundred people were there. We were able to get a glimpse of the lives and aspirations of the staff and students at that institution. I take the opportunity to pay tribute to the surviving staff members and the surviving directors of King’s Education for the way they have coped with the tragedy that has befallen their institution. 
Two videos were shown at the Friday service. The first one at the start was of the damage to Christchurch particularly to the central business district but also around the city. The second video was shown at the end of the service and I thought it encapsulated what I have come to know as the indomitable spirit of Christchurch people. It was a marvellous video which showed people not just surviving in adversity but also having the opportunity to show their spirit their courage and sometimes their humour as they began the very big task of rebuilding their city. Although we are not stopping the grieving process it is time for us all to turn to look at the rebuild of Christchurch. It will be a very big job—a very big job not just in the term of this Government but after the upcoming election in the next 3 years of the Government of the day as well. 
I turn to the portfolio areas that I am particularly familiar with. In the area of tertiary education not only has the private sector which was stationed in the middle of town been very seriously affected but also affected is the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology the big polytechnic in the city which is inside the area of the original cordon. I pay tribute to the way the management and staff have that institution up and running again. Canterbury University of course is a very very big institution and it has been very significantly affected. The university has its students learning under canvas at the moment and for the next several weeks in Christchurch to show that it can get the show back on the road. There are also other institutions a little less affected like Lincoln University and Otago University which have not only looked after their own people but offered help to other institutions. 
I have looked at the transport sector as well. On Thursday I again had the opportunity to go around and see for myself the state of the roading system in Christchurch and I can tell the House that there is a huge amount of work to be done there for all of us. The telecommunications sector has been a bit of a sleeping giant in the earthquake but I pay tribute to the companies that were involved in terms of how quickly they were able to get the telecommunications system up and kept it going—particularly the cellphone systems in the city—not just at the time of the earthquake but 3 or 4 days later when we were all running around trying to get the right number of generators to cellphone sites to ensure that they kept going. 
The rebuild of Christchurch is a very big job and as the Minister of Finance has said the Government will be committing very very significant sums of money up front. Then we will have to work out how to bring the books back into balance. That is what this Government is focused on right now. We have rejected the idea of an earthquake levy because it would just add to people’s cost of living as the economy comes out of recession. But instead we have said that we will watch very carefully our Government expenditure in the years ahead. That programme was already being worked on. It was signalled in the January state of the nation speech made by the Prime Minister and it will be accelerated to ensure not just that the Government gets its books back into balance but that international lenders who lend money to us as a country can also have confidence in the future of New Zealand and in our ability to recover from this earthquake.