Smith StuartSTUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura): It is great to be back in the House. I know many of my colleagues enjoyed a very good break over the summer period but I spent most of my time back in the electorate. Given the difficulties of getting around it takes a lot more time to cover the area but we are in pretty good shape. In fact we are in excellent shape in terms of the economy and I think about why that is important. It gives us choices—the fact that we have that ability to make some economic choices. We have got forecast economic growth of 3 percent per annum over the next 5 years and over that period we expect net debt to fall to 18.8 percent of GDP. That is a phenomenal performance. When we set that target some time ago it seemed like a pretty difficult target to reach. However it seems it is in sight. But as I said that gives us choices. Despite spending something like $18 billion on the rebuild of Christchurch the Government is able to have its books in the shape to get its net debt down below 20 percent of GDP and I think that when you consider where other countries around the world are sitting with their positions on their books ours looks pretty good.But I want to actually focus on another rebuild which is the rebuild in my electorate following the Kaikōura earthquake and also to pay tribute to the people who have worked very very hard over this period. In the Hurunui area the roads are pretty much back to the shape they were in pre-earthquake due to the phenomenal amount of work that has gone in particularly by their contractors and particularly Downer EDI which did a fantastic job getting the roads back up and running—the inland road notwithstanding which the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) took over. But as for the other local roads some of them were really badly damaged and it makes a tremendous difference for people to be able to get around when these roads get back up and running again. I think what has to be borne in mind for most people is that Hurunui although it is a reasonable size geographically has quite a small number of ratepayers. In fact it has the most road per head of population in New Zealand of any council. So it is quite an impost on that council to get those roads up and running again. I also want to talk about the inland road that was obviously taken over by NZTA. The work that was done on those roads by the crews right up through Christmas and New Year to ensure not only that they were open but that they remained open as much as possible was phenomenal. I have talked to some engineers on the road one of whom has interrupted her PhD to work on this rebuild and she told me she had had 4 or 5 days off—and this was early in January—since 16 November. So when you count the days that are the statutory days she worked pretty hard as most of those people did. Downer EDI actually had a crew working on Christmas Day to keep those roads open. So I really want to pay them due credit.The marina reinstatement is going on really well at the moment and it is phenomenal if anyone gets a chance to see those diggers working deepening the harbour. It is quite a challenging job and they will be putting a coffer-dam in soon so they can get in and actually deepen the marine area rather than the channel. It is quite amazing progress that they are making. State Highway 1 north—I think most of the TV photos and the photos that you see in the newspapers just do not do it justice. The huge slip at Ōhau Point is over 1000 feet high and when you see the helicopters working putting sluicing on those slips and you see how small the quite large helicopters look dropping 800 to 1000 litres of water on the slip and it looks really a bit more than a teaspoon going on there it really puts it into scale. They are doing a good job. They are actually targeting it and they are directed by engineers who are pointing out the areas where they need to put that water. So it is all targeted and it is doing a fantastic job. They cannot get on to the road until they make it safe and I think we would all agree that that is the right thing to doWe also have some damage in Ward and Seddon but those areas are recovering quite well and there has been quite a lot of damage done in the wine industry in Marlborough to wine tanks but fortunately that is all in hand.I really have great pleasure in standing here to support the Prime Minister's motion today and the confidence in the Government which is doing a fantastic job in the rebuild after the Kaikōura earthquake. Thank you.