Locke Keith: Canterbury Earthquake Commemoration Day Bill — Procedure First Reading Second Reading Procedure Third Reading 
Locke Keith: Canterbury Earthquake Commemoration Day Bill — Procedure First Reading Second Reading Procedure Third Reading 
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KEITH LOCKE (Green) 
: 
 I think this debate—it is hard to call it a debate because everyone is going in the same direction—has shown that we all have a connection with Christchurch. The earthquake was not just a Christchurch event; it was one that has affected just about everyone in New Zealand and I think that has come out in today’s speeches. Maryan Street’s speech just before was about being in Christchurch Charles Chauvel’s speech was about relations in Christchurch and Allan Peachey’s speech was about the time he spent in Christchurch. I think everyone is connected in some way with friends or relations in that city. That is why it is such a difficult and emotional issue for us. 
I spent the first 22 years of my life in Christchurch and have relations there who have suffered in the earthquake—a sister and a sister-in-law in particular as well as a brother-in-law and family. There is also physical damage which is why the debate around heritage and what will be reconstructed is so important. To a significant extent the identity of the city is related to the buildings and to the built nature of the city. 
There is also the environment to consider. I was brought up next to the Avon River in what is now known as the Avon Loop. I went back there a week ago and the riverbank I used to play on is now much wider as a result of the lateral spread. The river has come up the river has narrowed and there are big metre-wide cracks etc. and that makes one feel very sad. No doubt we will get over that; it is more the effect on the people that we are most worried about. 
Just to give members a feeling of the effect on people I thought I would read a piece from a friend of mine Pam Vickers who lives on Clifton Hill next to Sumner. Her experience is very well put: “The gossip round the water cooler at the office has been exchanged for gossip at the water tanker as we queue up with our plastic bottles for what we are most short of—water. Who has left town with who? Who is sleeping in a tent? Who is sleeping in the garage? Few people here—along with Lyttelton the worst affected part of the city—want to sleep in the house if they can avoid it. 
Water is heavy and I haven’t quite got the knack of balancing it on my head but I am certainly adept at carrying three very large water bottles—one in each hand and the third in between supported by both sets of fingertips. Everything looks grey the colour of the liquefied earth squeezed out of the ground like toothpaste by the earthquake. It has been shovelled into piles by our fantastic student army but it has dried in the heat and the dust is picked up and blown around by the strong north-westerly winds covering everything. The fruit on the trees no longer has an autumnal ripeness but is also the colour of grey. This greyness is punctuated by the odd moment of colourful humour—usually about the way we are getting rid of human waste. Drains and sewers are broken so gardens are invaluable now. 
And the aftershocks keep coming. Someone in England asked me ‘Do they feel like little electric shocks?’ No they damn well do not. They are small earthquakes that follow the big one. They throw our stomachs into our throats and in a split second I am taken back to where I was when the big one hit—the cathedral cafe ground zero for all of the destruction. I felt it coming and screamed to everyone there to get down. The events from there are still too cruel and too raw to talk about. The aftershocks still shake rubble from our homes and have a noise and movement under our feet that confirm there is no such thing as terra firma. 
Our nerves are frayed our sleep disrupted our tempers frazzled and we live on a diet of all-day earthquake news and another tin of cold food … Thank goodness we had the rehearsal with the 4 September quake otherwise I don’t think we would be doing as well as we are. Did I really say that! 
This one was big and it was as though we had been hit by an atomic bomb. With our landmarks no longer there it was hard to recognise Sumner or Christchurch in the first days after the earthquake. Is this really our home? Going up our road coming home from the water tanker we cross crevices in a domestic car that might challenge an all-terrain vehicle. Road cones danger tape and yellow paint mark the cracks humps and road edges where the cliff has fallen away. You need nerves of steel to navigate it all—waiting for another aftershock to drop you into a hole or dislodge a boulder to land on your head. It’s like a war zone. 
We find ourselves doing strange things. I stand in the middle of a room piled high with debris and pick up a screw. I look at it for a long period wondering ‘What is this off?’. It is as though in this heap of damaged possessions I will ever find where it belongs. It is all headed for the dustbin. I talk to my neighbour who says she has spent 10 minutes just looking at a butterfly when she should be tidying up. Life seems unreal and time seems to unravel. We keep telling ourselves time will put this right. With time the aftershocks will lessen. With time power and water and sewage will be restored. With time our roads will be repaired. With time our houses will be rebuilt. With time. But at the moment time goes slowly. Time brings us pain and anguish—and fear that we might not have the strength to get through this. Time brings despair because all that we have built up has gone and our future is in jeopardy.” 
That description was from Pam Vickers. Last night her power did come on but she is still without water and sewerage as are many people in the city of Christchurch. There is still a lot more to do to help people in the east of Christchurch. Teams are still going door-to-door helping people. The Green Party has a team going around most days or every day. Kennedy Graham is in Christchurch leading that work. 
We have to remember as we prepare for the memorial service that the recovery will require a combination of effort: voluntary effort such as the students and farmers are engaged in along with all kinds of other organisations including church organisations and community organisations; the official response through civil defence in all its various parts; and all of the citizens of Christchurch in their own particular way helping and working together. It will take a while to recover but we cannot slacken our efforts right now. Thank you.