Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): The storm and flood events which smashed the North Island of New Zealand in the past few weeks revealed the best aspects of New Zealanders' character: people in Hawke's Bay opening their homes to strangers who have lost everything and escaped terrified from surging floodwaters. I heard a farmer in Tokomaru Bay describe how he was helping nurses get to work at the local hospital on his farm bike after cutting a track across his farm with a bulldozer. In West Auckland the hearty folk of Pīhā and Karekare are cleaning up and helping each other recover treasured possessions from family homes. In the Muriwai community coming together to support each other and the families who'd lost loved ones—those volunteer firefighters who gave their lives searching searching for those they thought were lost in the floods. That is who we are at our best.The talk has now turned to what we should do in response to natural hazards like floods and man-made hazards like forestry slash. People assumed the places they lived were safe but flood defences and warning systems were not adequate to protect life and property. Vital infrastructure failed when we needed it most: the flood defences electricity communications networks water and waste-water treatment plants.Now this Government is in a crisis response mode. They're again talking about passing laws to fix long-term problems but it's more than likely that their solutions will actually make it harder to build and harder to recover—like pushing on with three waters reform at a time when those planners and engineers who should be rebuilding their communities their drinking-water and waste-water systems will instead be told to prepare those assets to hand over to a new water entity.Or Labour's resource management reforms—they're like the Resource Management Act on steroids. They introduce undefined terms like Te Oranga o te Taiao. David Parker guarantees lawyers a decade of litigation fees while they try to work out what David Parker thinks he means. One submitter joked about the resource management reforms: If they want to control everything from Wellington why don't they just set up a Ministry for the Environment office in every town?" Well that sounds like a bad joke to most Kiwis; the problem is it probably sounds like a good idea to this Labour Government.So what would ACT do differently? Well we won't lecture New Zealand about cutting our climate emissions like James Shaw. As climate Minister for five years he hasn't even produced a draft of a climate adaptation plan that he is responsible for. Yet he insists on lecturing Kiwis about a climate emergency in this House today.ACT won't lecture Kiwis about giving up petrol and diesel vehicles or driving 20 percent less like transport Minister Michael Wood. And we won't try to put New Zealand farmers out of business and stop Kiwis from mining for those very minerals that are absolutely vital to transition to a low-carbon future. Instead ACT would reform resource management laws with our much better alternative. ACT's solutions for building New Zealand and conserving nature will make it easier to adapt easier to clean out river channels before the flood comes and destroys lives and property.ACT's urban development policy would incentivise councils to spend money on infrastructure by sharing 50 percent of the GST on all new builds with local councils who are meant to service land. This revenue stream could fund more projects like the 50000-cubic-metre flood storage pond built on Auckland's North Shore at the Sunnynook sports fields. That project saved hundreds of homes from flooding. And a revenue stream—50 percent of the GST on new builds—would fund more projects like that.ACT's alternative resource management reform would reinforce the "polluter pays" principle so that forestry companies which polluted the environment with slash would be either fined or have to pay to clean up. ACT's solutions for building New Zealand and conserving nature will preserve private property rights make it easier to adapt and allow us to build our way out of the hazards left by this Labour Government."