Dunne PeterHon PETER DUNNE (Leader—United Future): It is very hard at times like this to try to draw anything positive out of these adverse events. We went through the trauma of the Christchurch earthquakes and then the Seddon earthquake and now we have the Kaikōura earthquake. But I think there is one positive message we can draw apart from the displays of extraordinary community resilience. I think there is a much deeper sense of awareness amongst all New Zealanders that earthquakes are a norm in this country. Perhaps over the last 50 or 60 years we have had a slightly abnormal period in that there have not been that many large ones but normality is now returning. As a consequence of that a lot of the frivolity bravado and casualness with which we have approached the earthquake risk in New Zealand historically have gone away.A few years ago before the Christchurch earthquake in the boredom of Opposition I surveyed every local authority in New Zealand about its earthquake at-risk buildings. I received some extraordinary answers. The Auckland City Council of the time said it had not updated the list since 1956. The then Wellington City Council said: We don't want to make the list available because it will scare people." The best one of all was the Ōāmaru council—I am not sure whether it was a borough a county or whatever at that point—which said: "We don't have a problem in Ōāmaru because we build our buildings with Ōāmaru stone the safest substance known to man."How things have changed. And it is really good to see that councils are now being much more proactive both in ensuring that unsafe buildings are remediated or removed and in being open about the information that is available to their citizens. But I do have some concerns in the wake of the recent earthquakes about whether that sense of openness is being continued. Last night in Wellington very prompt action was taken to close a building in Molesworth Street which I see is now to be demolished. Earlier today a building in Tennyson Street in the central city was evacuated and so it goes on. That is good but we cannot put a cloak of silence over some other events. There are many buildings in and around central Wellington on reclaimed land that are likely to be at risk. And I say: the sooner the public is made aware of that risk and that information the better.There is also the issue of the Wellington waterfront. I was down there at lunchtime today; there are large superficial cracks in many parts of it. There are questions of safety I think not just in terms of the public safety but also in terms of our economic safety. Is this port going to be able to continue to trade as it has done of late? What are the impacts for the regional economy and beyond of that? I do not want to sound as though I am sounding a churlish note—that is not my intention. I am simply saying that a public that is now engaged right around this country with the need for resilience and response and good activity needs to be kept informed about what the risks are and about what steps need to be taken as soon as possible because there are many people's lives that literally depend on those decisions. I do not mean their physical lives but their economic and social lives and they need to be kept in the loop.I realise that at a time like this there is often a sense of "Let's not panic people by giving them too much information." The reality now is that most New Zealanders be they people who have been through the earlier earthquakes or the most recent spate have had direct experience and can take full information being provided to them. They need to know partly for their own reassurance and partly also as they seek to recover from those earthquakes.I have the highest regard for everyone who has been involved in relief work: our official organisations the voluntary organisations the many individuals who have set up websites or who have gone in and physically committed to recovery and that is great. That is the good thing about being a New Zealander. But it is also important at this time that we work together honestly and openly at a political level at an organisational level and at a community level to firstly make a response and secondly ensure that our communities remain resilient and active for the future.The next few days are going to be difficult for all of us whatever our station whatever our situation. We need the confidence that we are all working in the same direction for us to get through this. I have confidence that we can do it as a nation. We have done it before and I am certain we will do it again."