O'Rourke Denis: Address in Reply 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
O'Rourke Denis: Address in Reply 
[Sitting date: 08 February 2012. Volume:677;Page:213. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DENIS O’ROURKE (NZ First) 
: 
 Mr Speaker honourable members I feel privileged to be elected to this Parliament and to have this first opportunity to address you today. I want to begin by extending greetings to New Zealand First supporters throughout the country and especially to my friends and supporters in Christchurch to whom I also extend my sincere thanks.  
My home town is on its knees—Christchurch is bent buckled and broken in everything except spirit. My first objective as a list MP for New Zealand first and as a proud Cantabrian is to do all I can to assist with the recovery from earthquakes and also to seek better governance for the city so I will speak about those issues first. Secondly I will speak about egalitarianism as my driving force in politics and thirdly I want to talk about environmental sustainability as a strongly held personal mission.  
First Christchurch. Magnitude 6.3 on the Richter scale for the February 2011 earthquake does not adequately describe it. In my home on the Port Hills directly above the fault I felt the indescribable force of vertical ground acceleration 2.2 times the force of gravity the largest ever recorded anywhere in a populated area. But it was the great rolling waves following the initial shock which threatened to turn my home on to its side. Luckily it came back to vertical again. On top of all that was the severity of the shaking for nearly a minute.  
I helped neighbours out of shattered homes and looked across at the white cloud of dust rising over the central city 1000 feet high and 4 kilometres wide. Then came the exodus from the central city. People abandoned their cars on unpassable roads covered in liquefaction and were exhausted even before reaching the hill often with cuts and bruises and tears streaming down terrified faces searching for children at the local school or rushing home to loved ones.  
Those terrible experiences are now all in the past but the effects are not. We who live in Christchurch will rebuild our homes and our city. It is still New Zealand’s second-largest city essential to the nation’s economy and especially to the viability and progress of the South Island.  
The Government’s initial response was welcome even though many have reservations about home valuations and a raft of other issues. It is what happens next that really matters. We must turn adversity into advantage. There are 6600 homes in the red zone 1000 in the orange zone and thousands more elsewhere requiring demolition and replacement or reinstatement. Too little is being done and much too late. While nobody wants bad hasty decisions made neither can the current uncertainties and delays be allowed to continue. For many people these are worse than the earthquakes themselves.  
The Earthquake Commission has been too slow as have the insurance companies with the reinstatement or rebuilding of homes and businesses. The commission has paid too much attention to administration and too little to getting the work done on the ground. It is clearly under-resourced and is unable to reach its statutory targets. It needs to put more resources where they are most needed especially in the rebuilding and reinstatement of homes and businesses and towards the funding approvals needed for those purposes.  
And we all want to know what will happen to the red-zoned land. As the thousands of houses are demolished we must not be left with vast areas of dusty demolition deserts to add to the problems we already face. I call upon the Government to urgently establish and fund a plan to turn these areas into properly maintained grassed parklands that will enhance the environment of the city while final decisions are made on how to deal with this land in the longer term.  
Central city building owners also need certainty. Much good work has been done to develop a plan for a bright new central city for Christchurch but when will it be done and who will pay for it? A few have taken the punt that the central city will recover soon and have started rebuilding. Many others are not so sure and some capital is taking flight.  
Leadership is called for and more resources are required because insurers developers and the council will be unable to fully fund the rebuild and the implementation of the plan in a timely way without assistance. So I call upon the Government to quickly establish a major urban renewal fund for central Christchurch provided over a period of years designed to assist the rebuild of both public and private structures by building owners and businesses and by the city council for public space and transport enhancements. This would go a long way to encourage an early rebuild at a standard all New Zealand can be proud of.  
Another urgent issue for the Government is insurance. Many thousands of homeowners in Christchurch cannot get insurance for new homes or cannot get insurance for their existing properties. Some companies have departed the market altogether leaving significant insurance gaps. Without insurance people cannot get mortgages blocking rebuilding. I call upon the Government again to establish a Government-backed insurer in New Zealand with a mission to provide cover for everybody who needs it. Kiwibank has been a great success—so could “Kiwi Insurance” too.  
But more is needed for Christchurch. I was a councillor there for 15 years but the Christchurch City Council now is dysfunctional and deeply unpopular. Part of the problem is its failure to establish adequate governance systems delegations accountability and transparency. An underlying cause though was the unwise decision of the Local Government Commission in 2004 to reduce the number of councillors from 24 to 13 while at the same time greatly increasing the size of the city.  
Small councils for large populations are not viable or democratic. On top of this was the sacking of the regional council in Canterbury. Its poor performance especially over water issues did I think justify its replacement by commissioners but it is obvious now that Christchurch needs a new broom to clean up the whole local government mess and local democracy must of course be restored.  
It is time I think for a new unitary authority for Christchurch to be established for election in 2013. Unitary authorities for all of the Canterbury local authorities are needed with no need to change boundaries but with an adequate number of councillors for good governance and effective representation of residents. The time for the Government to act on this is now. Delay will serve neither the need for certainty nor the need to restore effective democratic governance.  
Moving on to other matters I am as I said before an egalitarianist and being born in 1946 I am one of the first of the baby boomers. I want to restore the best of the New Zealand I grew up in: a country that celebrates personal achievement but not by the strong benefiting at the expense of those less able; a country that does not have the great gap between rich and poor we see today; and a country that not only keeps its important strategic publicly owned assets—especially power generation companies—but develops them for the benefit of all not for the benefit of only those who can afford to buy shares. 
 I want to do all I can to remove prejudice division and greed and I want to close the income gap. Already in this country incomes are too low for most and too high for some. The trend under successive National and Labour Governments has been in the wrong direction. We must progressively raise the minimum wage to a level capable of adequately supporting a homeowning family but instead our system encourages greed. The huge salaries received by some are not really earned; they simply exploit the system.  
The tax system must be used to help close the income gap. It needs comprehensive review by an independent commission—yes once again—with terms of reference aimed at a fairer system and the Government must actually act and implement those findings. GST has been increased too much as a proportion of the total tax take. It should be reduced. It impacts unfairly on the poor. But the tax system must also be broadened including appropriate capital taxation measures and it must be more progressive. Most of all it must eliminate the tax-minimisation methods by which high earners currently pay much less than they should.  
With regard to superannuation the main parties seem to see the elderly as a problem. To me and to New Zealand First they have earned superannuation at a level to provide a reasonable living income along with a range of SuperGold card services to make retirement easier. Baby boomers were told during their working lives by successive Governments to rely on the taxation system as a source for their retirement incomes but now much too late they are being told to rely on savings. And they were told to rely on 65 as the qualifying age but now the message seems to be 67 or even 70 years. This would be a gross betrayal and effectively a breach of the social contract that resulted from the acts and policies of past National and Labour Governments. The qualifying age must remain at 65 years indefinitely but with an option for individuals to delay it in return for a higher pension.  
Now something about sustainability. New Zealanders have failed to live within the natural constraints of the physical environment. Only our low population has saved us from its worst effects. We are not just degrading our own world; we are robbing future generations. New Zealand needs a practical achievable honest approach to sustainability issues not ineffective “greenwash”. Much more attention needs to be paid to employing green technologies for future development.  
The top priority is water—the gold or oil of the 21st century. I currently chair the Central Plains Water Trust in Canterbury. Its plan and consents for irrigation with water from the Rakaia and the Waimakariri rivers are based on protecting the natural character of the rivers through compliance with a robust regime of minimum flows and protecting aquifers and on avoidance of pollution using a mandatory sustainable farming protocol built into the consents and into water-use contracts. That approach must be entrenched through tougher regulation everywhere in the country.  
But without the large-scale water storage taken at times of plentiful flow the reliability and sustainability of such schemes is compromised. The $400 million or so that has so far been announced to assist sustainable schemes with storage is a drop in the bucket. A much greater commitment by the Government is needed if we are going to achieve sustainable agricultural development and greater diversification.  
Energy of course is another top priority. The fossil fuel age has peaked and is already in decline. New Zealand is rich in renewable energy opportunities. Hydroelectric power geothermal power wind power—these and other methods require Government leadership and investment. There is no need to take the risks associated with deep-sea drilling or fracking.  
Waste issues still need urgent attention in New Zealand. I was proud to lead the Kate Valley regional landfill project in Canterbury achieving a much better environmental protection. But landfills will never be sustainable. It is essential to recover much more of our wasted resources. With others I set up the Recovered Materials Foundation and two commercial companies for these purposes only to be frustrated by the inept policies and practices of local government and inaction on the part of Labour and National Governments alike. Comprehensive regulation is needed to ensure the diversion of recoverable materials away from landfills.  
Lastly I want to talk a little bit about the emissions trading scheme as a valid concern for many in this country. I do not believe it is the way to a sustainable future but it is the way to economic disaster especially when our production forests are harvested a few years from now. It is a deeply flawed system expensive limited and uncertain in its effectiveness and it will make some people rich without achieving its goals. We can achieve much more I believe with well-developed strategies excellent planning well-targeted incentives and comprehensive regulation for the sustainable environmental outcomes we need.  
In closing my work list is long but I pledge to work with members of any party who genuinely wish to work together for egalitarian policies for environmental sustainability for our country and for the special support Christchurch needs so desperately at this troubled time. Thank you very much.