Mitchell ClaytonCLAYTON MITCHELL (NZ First): To members of the House here tonight and to ladies and gentlemen back home watching exciting entertaining late-night TV it is not a matter of if" we have another earthquake; it is a matter of "when" we are going to have another earthquake or a sizable civil defence emergency in this country. We do not know how big it is going to be but it is inevitable. We are going to have some more of what we have had and potentially larger than what we have got.This bill is about readiness and recovery but it is more about the recovery side. It is not really about readiness because I do not think this bill covers off the large extent of the earthquake or civil defence matters that we are talking about here whether they be tsunamis or landslides or dare I say it seismic shifts that are going to bring buildings down. This bill here as it stands in the House is just a quick fix. It is a band-aid. There is a template here that we need to grow on and New Zealand First certainly would endorse a speedy bill being brought to this House that looks after the "part 2" of the Kaikōura earthquake. As we sit here now today we are only patching up a few areas that we have seen we have got some flaws in. The bigger picture is actually to be really in a state of readiness so that we can quickly recover and get our communities and our lives back intact and back on track once we have an event such as we have just witnessed down in Kaikōura.Dare I say it—it is a bit clichéd I know—there is a certain steady resolve of the people down in Kaikōura. Somebody made a comment about something that I had posted on social media saying: "That's just a cliché. Nobody's ever ready for that." But going down there and actually speaking to the people of Kaikōura—and I would have loved to have spent more time going into more remote areas—there is a bit of a "Keep calm and carry on" feel down there. Panicking or getting themselves into a state of flux is not going to help. They know that they have got a job to get on with and they expect us to be here as Government officials to ensure that we can actually help them with that recovery state which again this bill helps to do. It does deal with recovery; it does not prepare us for the readiness that we are talking about for those large events.Going down to Kaikōura and speaking to police and spending some time down there with some of the issues that they have had—with visitors and moving those groups of people out of the area and with the huge amounts of food and water and fuel that were required to keep that community operating—the goodwill of the people particularly at the marae where they were housing and feeding up to a thousand people a day and were just so happy to do so was great to see. There is a resolve a "Keep calm and carry on" attitude of Kiwis that I love to see. I certainly do applaud the manner in which people have conducted themselves despite the deplorable actions of a very very small group of people who decided to take the opportunity to do some looting in the area—something that is frowned upon by all corners of our communities and something that we hope to see stamped down on with very strong severe punishment and with the legislation to do so.We certainly will be continuing our support to get this bill through the House as we go through the night so that it can actually be implemented tomorrow. We have heard the mayor here in Wellington himself Justin Lester say that he will be implementing aspects of this new legislation for Wellington. If you look at the trajectory from 2011 when the earthquake was in Christchurch to Kaikōura—if you are plotting a graph you can see that there is almost an "inevilability"—that is not a word; I made that up but it sounded sort of right did it not? There is an inevitability that there is going to end up being an earthquake here. It is something that has been predicted for a very long time.Making sure that the large buildings and structures in this city are ready and actually fit for purpose is hugely important as we move forward. It is about making sure that people have the resolve—"peace of mind" is the phrase I am thinking of. Public safety is one concern but peace of mind—although the bill does not directly specify that the seismic reports on these buildings are given directly to the tenants themselves they certainly will be accessible because of course through territorial authorities and councils you can access that sort of information on building plans etc. But it certainly would be nice. I am sure that in many cases—in most cases even—you will have landlords acting responsibly making sure that that information is available for their tenants. It is of course in their best interests that they have got tenants who feel comfortable working in that environment and that building—and living and sleeping while being in that environment also. We hope to see the good nature of that.That does bring me to a conclusion. In so far as we have had 11 Government buildings be all but condemned after this recent magnitude 7.5 shake I have to say that of the number of earthquakes that I have been in this was probably one of the most gentle. I felt it in Tauranga at 6 minutes past midnight but it was quite gentle and I understand from people who were here in Wellington that it was not the sort of violent shake that Christchurch felt. If it had been a different shake we might have had a different result. I cannot believe that out of the number of properties that have been red-stickered in Wellington 11 of them—the vast majority of them—are Government businesses. I just think that a lot of the work has not been done yet. Are we adequately resourced with those building inspectors to ensure that? Are they resourced with the right numbers of staff to get around to make sure that that work happens? I certainly hope that councils and this Government ensure that that can be done swiftly effectively and efficiently so that those people can feel safe and be safe in our streets.We will be continuing our support for this legislation. We would like to see it brought to fruition tomorrow. We would certainly again ask urgency of this Government to bring part 2 of this legislation which encompasses recovery and readiness for large-scale events. This is just a band-aid fixing that up but we need to think of the bigger picture as we move forward. Thank you."