Patterson MarkMARK PATTERSON (NZ First): It's a great pleasure that I rise to support this second reading of the Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Bill. Of course the purpose of this bill is to expedite the reinstatement of the Christ Church Anglican Cathedral—a project that has been dogged by delay by legal disputes as we have been hearing. This of course is not totally unexpected given the historic nature of this building and the emotion that it evokes. Of course as we've just heard from Mr Doocey it's not an inconsiderable level of funding that has been required to get us to this point too and I note the Christchurch City Council's vote this morning and also the Government's proposed contribution of $10 million.This is the most important of buildings—a building that above all others symbolises Christchurch and Canterbury a building that sits proudly at the very centre of that great city surrounded by its very own Cathedral Square where generations of Cantabrians have come to worship or to celebrate our great occasions. It's a heritage 1 building and it's a magnificent—or it was indeed—example of gothic architecture. It has stood as a symbol of strength stoicism and pride of those early settlers who settled Christchurch and Canterbury.While the recovery particularly in the inner city has been slow particularly around those anchor projects I think it's important and I am pleased that we are not playing too much politics around this. In fact I believe it is important to the people of Christchurch that no less than a bipartisan approach is required and it is this solidarity of this House that we need to signal this evening. The people of Christchurch have suffered enough already.In the first reading I spoke of the powerful impact it had on me personally—just watching the coverage on television and seeing that magnificent building fall. While Christchurch has exploded to the west and to the north there is something not quite complete about that recovery while this most special and may I say sacred of buildings sits in ruins. It symbolises a job not yet done a job not complete and Christchurch can never fully move on while the cathedral sits in this damaged state.I'm proud to say that New Zealand First are not johnny-come-latelys in this debate. We have been there all the way through. I note the words of Winston Peters as he stood in front of the cathedral on 28 May this year. I quote: It's time to play ball and you have my personal undertaking that if this Government doesn't start now we will start this project after the next election." Today we deliver on that pledge putting our shoulder to the wheel of this coalition Government.I commend Dr Woods on her sense of urgency in bringing this bill before the House on behalf of this coalition Government. I commend the Environment Committee chaired by Dr Russell and I also note other members of that committee in this House who have worked very collegially. I particularly note my colleague here Jenny Marcroft who did most of the heavy lifting here on behalf of New Zealand First.As has been noted this was a truncated select committee process but it is important to note as has been done before that there has been a lot of work going on here by the comprehensive report brought by the Cathedral Working Group and this bill pretty much enshrines those recommendations.But it is a bill that deserves some scrutiny when you are granting Ministers special powers over planning laws. Of course there is a precedent to this. Unfortunately we are getting quite a lot of precedents with the natural disasters that we've had lately. But I will note the sunset clause there of 15 years and that the select committee process actually worked as it should. It moderated aspects of that bill and put some checks and balances in place as Dr Russell pointed out earlier on.I did sit on the select committee as a guest on occasion and I particularly noted the submission from Heritage New Zealand and the pragmatism that they showed within their submission: "We cannot exactly replicate this old structure. There needs to be leeway to design and build a faithful reproduction but without dogmatically insisting on replicating 170-year-old materials and techniques. Technology has moved on and it promises to be able to build a spectacular reinstatement safer and better than what went before."As I speak to this bill—and when it passes we can finally put in place another important step in returning that cathedral to the heart of Christchurch where one belongs. New Zealand First has much pleasure in commending this bill to the House."