Watts SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. It's an absolute pleasure as the member of Parliament for North Shore to be able to participate in this local issues debate this afternoon. I want to talk this afternoon about the mighty North Shore and in particular those communities on the North Shore that were impacted by the significant flooding that occurred at the end of January nearly three months ago—in particular the business community based on Wairau Road in the neighbouring electorate of Northcote that were impacted as a result of the significant waters that flowed through there.It also is important to acknowledge that there was the loss of life of two people in the Wairau Valley of the North Shore and that was again reinforcing the significance of that implication. But the business owners that I have spoken to in that part of the North Shore remain frustrated and challenged about the significance of the impact of the flooding and the damage that that caused in terms of the urgency required from a number of actors in our society including local government and central government in order to try and provide certainty for their resolution and remediation from where they are. A number of members of my community in the North Shore who own businesses in the Wairau Road vicinity have lost significant cash flow. They have the inability to continue to operate their businesses because those buildings are out of order. Many of them are operating out of Portacabins using Portaloos while they're waiting for builders and assessors still 90 days on to be able to come in and provide some certainty.I met with a number of those business owners at one of those businesses a matter of weeks ago and one of the business owners there was brought to tears as she outlined and described the challenges and frustrations of not having certainty in terms of being able to move forward. This is a significant business owner a business owner that employs a large number of people and the frustration and stress and challenge that she described along with other members of her family and other business owners along that stretch of road was very very clear. In response to that meeting I wrote a letter to both Watercare and also Healthy Waters—the two entities which have responsibility within the Auckland region for dealing with waste-water and stormwater.Right behind the businesses that I am describing sits the Wairau Pump Station. This is the single waste-water treatment plant that provides provision of those services across that area but also across the North Shore; right up until Devonport does that plant provide services. This is a 1960s waste-water treatment plant. It is a plant in which the pumps failed and as a result of the pumps failing a wall of sewage came down the Wairau Creek which flowed down the Wairau Road but also into Nile and Alma roads off Shakespeare Road in Milford and as a result flowed into the ocean at Milford Beach. That is the reality of what happened as a result of that sewerage outflow.The challenge is that in March 2022 we had a similar flood. That flood indicated that there was a number of issues around the resilience of that infrastructure and the plant in question actually was designated to be replaced in 2019. But for reasons that remain unclear that upgrade did not occur. What that reinforces is that actually the failure to take action could have mitigated some of the damage which our communities sustained and continue to sustain right on from now. I want to acknowledge the work by our local board on the North Shore across both electorates for the work they have done—also acknowledging a number of the community members: Bronwyn Bound is the centre manager of the Sunnynook Community Centre. She does an excellent job in terms of responding to that community. I want to reinforce that as a community everyone just wants to be able to move forward have a solution in regards to certainty around how that infrastructure can be upgraded so that these people can get on with their lives get on with their businesses and help support our beautiful neighbourhood.