Sage EugenieEUGENIE SAGE (Green): In the Committee stage I outlined the general provisions in the Hurunui/Kaikōura Earthquakes Recovery Bill and some of the Green Party's thoughts on those so in this contribution we would just like to focus on a couple of specific things.I was disappointed that the truncated Committee stage meant that we did not get to consider Supplementary Order Paper 256 in the name of Jacinda Ardern which I think was aimed at putting some initial safeguards in the bill around heritage. I think the major task of the Local Government and Environment Committee in considering the bill was actually looking at the adequacy of the checks and balances on these extraordinary powers that the bill is giving to the executive to Ministers to override primary legislation. The Supplementary Order Paper in Jacinda Ardern's name was drawing I think on the experience in Christchurch where the Orders in Council there that overrode the Resource Management Act—and the provisions in that Act which normally would provide that where a listed heritage building was going to be demolished there would be an opportunity for the public to comment on that—led to the loss of huge numbers of our buildings with heritage values in Christchurch even where there was the ability for those buildings to be restored and where they were not affecting public safety.I think that heritage provision would have ensured that the Minister could not have amended the Resource Management Act where it affected heritage buildings that had the highest listing of category 1. But I think in the Committee stage we did get another safeguard in the bill around the Resource Management Act which did require that where an order was going to affect the Resource Management Act the effects on the environment had to be considered.The Acting Minister of Civil Defence said that some of the concerns of members of Parliament particularly I guess in the Green Party about the environmental effects of some of the work that is going to be done in recovery may not be as significant—were being overstated perhaps I think he was suggesting. We are very concerned about the work that is done in the name of recovery—for economic recovery—given that Kaikōura has got nature tourism as the centre of its tourism attractiveness and given that areas like the Lewis Pass highway go through the Nelson Lakes National Park and the Lewis Pass National Reserve where there is a significant landscape character in those highways that adds to people's experience on the highway. We are concerned that those values are recognised. Congratulations Mr Acting Speaker Foster-Bell on your elevation.We were reassured slightly by the evidence that the New Zealand Transport Agency officials presented to the select committee. They provided a number of documents about the process that they go through when they are doing major works and they said that they have quite strong social and environmental objectives. There are environmental and social management plans prepared around major works. There is a landscape master plan. They have a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Conservation. They also provided us with a copy of their public engagement policy which I think is still in draft but is being developed.So the goal of a lot of these documents appeared to be to minimise conflicts between the State highway network and in the case of conservation lands the protection of conservation land and to actually minimise adverse effects. We would certainly encourage the transport agency to use all of the procedures that it has because we want to see the recovery works proceed while protecting the livelihoods of pāua fishers crayfishers and others who depend on the marine environment and protecting the landscape values of our national parks and conservation lands in order to protect the qualities of the State highway that make driving along parts of the State highway an experience because of those dramatic landscapes. We hope that some of safeguards that the select committee has put in the bill will not only act as a check on the Minister's powers but encourage agencies to make every effort to act in accordance with the statutes even though they do not have to if there is an Order in Council.