Simpson ScottHon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): Thank you Madam Speaker. I want to join with others from across the House who are acknowledging in this debate the weather events that have occurred around our region our country and what the impacts have been. The Coromandel took one heck of a beating and it wasn't the first beating that our landscape our beaches our roads—all other infrastructure—had taken in such a short while. It was the fourth or fifth heavy weather event of this year and here we are only halfway through February. All around the beautiful Coromandel people as they did in other parts of the country gathered together to support each other to ensure that they were well that they were safe and that their property damage was as minimal as possible. So I too want to acknowledge the first responders—who in and around the Coromandel are usually volunteer first responders—for their work in going out in very foul conditions trying to do their best on behalf of citizens and our community but also I acknowledge the contractors the roading contractors the stop-go people who are trying to keep the roads open and the traffic under control when the roads are open as well as the council staff; the regional council staff civil defence and personnel from the National Emergency Management Agency and even those people who travelled from outside our region to come and assist. I spoke to people that had travelled from as far away as Christchurch and even Auckland. They had been facing their own devastation in Auckland they had come to Thames and to the Coromandel to help and assist and we were enormously grateful for their support and their help and their encouragement. To the telco companies and the electricity company providers: their help and assistance was greatly appreciated as well. But mostly it's our citizens that I want to acknowledge and give grateful thanks to; the community groups that they represent and of course iwi who were so gracious and helpful in opening marae around the region.But actually our region as my colleague and friend Todd Muller has said is like so many other parts of New Zealand: its infrastructure is broken—broken and damaged in a way that is going to take a very long time to repair. So the main arterial route across the peninsula State Highway 25A Kōpū to Hikuai a massive fall out there—not a slip; the road is actually lost it's gone. I've been up there with the Minister Kieran McAnulty and I appreciate him coming to take time to be in the region to have a look for himself but that is the main arterial route. Now there are other roads around the peninsula but that route: we know even though we are not roading experts any of us—or engineers—just one look at it is enough to be clear in everyone's mind that that repair job is going to be an enormously big one. So when the Prime Minister says today that The worthy must give way to the necessary" I want to put it on record right now that State Highway 25A across the Coromandel is absolutely in the necessary category and must be repaired as soon as possible because the alternatives add time and cost to everybody on the peninsula. And when our roads our fragile roading network and our fragile one-way bridges are out and when our electricity is out and when our telecommunications are out and the cell phone towers aren't working people are very vulnerable and they need to know that that infrastructure will be there for them at times of great need. So on the Coromandel the sun came out over the weekend and that lifts people's spirits in a way that only a bright sunny day can do and that's a good thing. So we're encouraged by that; we're drying out—but I want to take a little bit away from the current Government's talking notes that they seem to all be talking about about "building back better". Well we know on this side of the House what going backwards under Labour looks like and I want them to stop saying they're going to build back better. We in the Coromandel and the other parts of New Zealand are interested in you building forward better—not back; build forward. That's what we want in our area: a Government that has the future of all citizens at heart and will look to the future—forward-looking forward-facing forward-progressing with an eye to the future not a Government that wants to just build back better. We want better than that. We want to go forward. Thank you Madam Speaker."