Simpson Scott: Greater Christchurch Regeneration Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSimpson Scott: Greater Christchurch Regeneration Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 22 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7535. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): As chairman of the Local Government and Environment Committee it is a pleasure for me to be taking the last call in this first reading debate on the Greater Christchurch Regeneration Bill in the name of the Hon Gerry Brownlee. I want to commence my contribution to this debate by acknowledging the very measured and carefully considered contributions of members from across the House this afternoon in what someone earlier on mentioned may well be considered perhaps the most important piece of Christchurch legislation to be brought into this House in many a long year. It is a piece of legislation that when the history of New Zealand and Canterbury is written 100 years hence—the contribution that this House has made to the recovery and to the regeneration of Christchurch will be marked out by this piece of legislation. I am not a Cantabrian I do not come from Christchurch but over the years I have had a lot of business relationships in Christchurch and I have visited Canterbury on many many occasions. I think I speak on behalf of all New Zealanders when I say that we who are not Cantabrians have been sharing albeit from a distance the pain suffering and anguish that has occurred in Canterbury over these last 5 years. It has been a difficult testing time. It has been a time when we have moved from crisis and pain and disaster into now a regeneration period.I want to just quote from the Minister’s speech when he led off this debate. He said: “We are moving on from emergency and recovery to a time of regeneration. This is an exciting time. Much of the ground work has been laid and many significant building projects both public and private are under way or have been completed but there is still much to be done. Regeneration of a city and its people’s well-being is a mission that cannot be completed in a short number of years.” I want to as I say pay tribute to the Minister for his contribution not only in terms of political leadership of all that has occurred in Christchurch over the last 5 years but also in terms of his personal contribution.This bill has been well-received by most stakeholders. In fact I cannot think of any who have expressed concern about it at all. I wanted to pay particular attention to some comments that were made by the Mayor of Christchurch City the Hon Lianne Dalziel a former member of this House. She said in the Press on 29 September only a short period of time ago when this bill was first being spoken about publicly: “The new collaborative working environment the city council and the Government have created through the Regenerate Christchurch is a game-changer.” And it is a game-changer. She said: “I haven’t felt so optimistic for the future of Christchurch than I do today”. It goes on to say in this article: “Both Brownlee and Dalziel said that the new agency represented a unique partnership and offered a new way of thinking about how central and local government could cooperate in the future.” Mayor Dalziel said: “To me this creates an extraordinary opportunity for the city where the council and the Government can work hand-in-hand”.Earlier on in this debate Denis O’Rourke gave a dictionary definition of “regenerate”. I too had done a little bit of checking to see what “regenerate” meant. His dictionary definition was slightly different but the same theme. As a verb “regenerate” has a dictionary definition that says: “to grow after loss or damage to bring new and more vigorous life.” Indeed this bill attempts and will actually do that. I am very confident that as a Parliament it is not going to be beyond our wit to ensure that the dictionary definition of “regenerate” is actually manifested in terms of the legislative definition and the legislative outcome that will occur as the process of this bill coming through the Parliament occurs.I want to make a very strong commendation for this bill to the House because it is becoming very obvious as we move through the process of the change and regeneration in Christchurch that it is difficult to distinguish between the actions that have a recovery purpose from those that have a wider purpose. We now need to move and transition from that emergency response that recovery response that took place in the initial stages and the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority legislation that was set up to cope with that phase into this transitional phase. This bill enables that regeneration and development and it will not be constrained by reference to the disasters that were the earthquakes or by building back to what we had before.It is a future-looking piece of legislation. It is a piece of legislation that will encompass growth regeneration new growth and an exciting future for Canterbury and Cantabrians. I do not want to continue on about the process for the select committee other than to say that I find it quite fascinating that members on the Opposition benches castigate the Government for not moving quickly enough and yet want to slow down this piece of legislation. I find that a very difficult juxtaposition. There will be absolutely every opportunity for Cantabrians and other New Zealanders to participate in the submission process.As the chair I am going to make sure—as we always do in the Local Government and Environment Committee—that all submitters get a good and fair hearing. I encourage people to take part in the select committee process. It is a very important part of our democratic process and it is a part that I think New Zealanders can have a real input into if they choose to do so. My invitation as the chair of the select committee is for them to participate and to be involved in it.I commend this bill to the House. It is a good bill. As the chair of the select committee I am very much looking forward to guiding it through the select committee phase. Once again I commend the work and effort that the Hon Gerry Brownlee has put into bringing this bill to the House with other stakeholders involved in Canterbury. I commend the bill to the House.