Ministerial Statements — Kaikōura—National Transition Period Extension

I wish to make a ministerial statement under Standing Order 356 in relation to the extension of a national transition period under the Civil Defence Emergency Management Amendment Act 2016. The amendment Act passed last year by this House enables a state of emergency to end but a state of transition, before you get full recovery, to begin. It requires a declaration and it requires that declaration to be notified to the House. So pursuant to Part 5A of the Civil Defence Emergency Management Amendment Act 2016, I formally give the House notice that I have today approved an extension to the national transition period in the Kaikōura and Hurunui districts, and the Wairau-Awatere ward of Marlborough district.

The extension came into force at 1 p.m. today and will last for a further 90 days. The extended national transition period for these areas will now end at 1 p.m. on 7 June 2017 unless extended or terminated earlier. An extension of the national transition period will help recovery managers to deal with the ongoing recovery issues, such as restricted access to some places in the district and to buildings while further geotechnical and engineering investigations are carried out.

The national transition period allows the national recovery manager to coordinate the work of central government agencies while also allowing local authorities to continue effective recovery work on the ground. There is a very constructive engagement between local authorities and the recovery manager progressing at the present time. This simply enables it to go on for a longer period in order to make things better for people in that district.

The Labour Party supports the extension to the national transition period. We support any measures that will hasten and improve the recovery process for the people of Kaikōura and the recovery of their economy, and our thoughts remain with the people who live and work in those areas and those who are working on the ground to assist in their recovery.

I note that in this very House just around about a week before the Kaikōura earthquake, Parliament passed a piece of legislation that provided a framework for recovery management, providing a mandate for recovery managers, strengthening the requirements for plans for recovery, and supporting a seamless transition from response into that recovery phase, and establishing a transitional notice mechanism that makes emergency powers available for a specified period of time.

So I think we can see that the legislation is being effective. However, around the time of the Kaikōura earthquake there were some significant concerns in the public arena about how the public was informed, particularly around the threat of a national tsunami and the lack of an effective alerting service. After that process there was a review promised of that, and that still has not occurred. I do want to put on record that it is very important that that review occur.

Then, 3 weeks ago, we had the Christchurch fires, which we are talking about now, and that also had questions raised about the communications, the chains of command, and the communication channels. So these things are important. They require a bipartisan approach. We are expressing our support for the Minister of Civil Defence’s statement today. We note that there are issues that do need to be addressed, in terms of how we approach the immediate aftermath of these major events and how the communication channels work. We are keen to work with the Government on that.

The Greens will support this extension as well for the genuine purposes of recovery that are purported here. We are concerned, however, that we got this at such short, short notice, and we have had no real time to look at the implications or to even talk with our constituencies about what this might mean for them. So our support is a slightly nervous one. The region that I live in is covered by this, and I have businesses coming to me consistently, and individuals, homeowners, and communities, whether it be Waiau or Seddon in particular, that feel that they are being cast aside by this Government in the recovery. The processes that we hear from the Minister of Civil Defence, saying that there is good dialogue with the teams that are working there—but is there good dialogue with communities? There is not. And there is not with their local member of Parliament either. He might be seeing some that it suits him to, but he is not doing the rest.

The business support package that was extended out—why not roll that out another 90 days as well? When it was announced that it would be extended, effectively, from my reading, all that was being extended was the using-up of the change from the money announced in the previous extension. There was no serious new money, apart from that $1 million for a mayoral fund. That is not going to help those communities and businesses through this coming winter—this very dark winter that is coming there until that road is opened. I put it to the Minister, and other Ministers, that they should be setting up a suspensory loan facility for those businesses so they can stay there. There are businesses going under today, while we are here now. There are communities wondering whether they have got any future—now. This may help for some of it, but there was a slow stuff around on the road, and the Minister knows full well about the mucking around with the land transport authority and other things that have been going on.

This is another example of a very untidy, messy, and badly managed approach to the recovery. We will support it, but we would like to see some much more positive stuff for the businesses in that area. Let us hope you will facilitate something very, very soon that gives the communities real confidence that there is a far more recoverable future—more than just the road recovery. That is where we come from. We will support it. We have some nervousness about some of the implications. We are upset about the lack of time to consult around it. We are hoping for much, much more from the Government, but there is support from the Greens. Thank you.

New Zealand First thanks Minister Gerry Brownlee for this notice, albeit it is a little bit late—coming some 5 hours after the notice actually came into force. We do share some of Mr Browning’s concerns, but I would say in response to that that they are probably not germane to the issuance of this particular order. I think that they are something that is separate, and perhaps the way in which the earthquake recovery is dealt with on the ground is a matter for another discussion.

The extension of this order itself—I think we are fortunate in New Zealand that the imposition of emergency powers and the imposition of executive authority over and above normal legal procedures is something that happens on a rare basis. We trust that it happens for very good reason when it does and we tend to support it for those reasons, and this certainly appears to be a case in point. We do know that when natural disasters occur, cleaning up after them and getting things back on track is not something that can occur always to a formula. There are delays that crop up, there are additional elements of damage that are found, and jobs are found to be taking longer than was previously thought, and so in situations like that, it only makes sense that the emergency systems that are put in place in order to facilitate recovery can be extended as necessary.

So, not to hold up the House any further, I say that New Zealand First does thank the Minister for this notice. We do support it. We share some of Mr Browning’s concerns, but they are, as I say, probably better dealt with in another forum. Thank you.

The Hon Gerry Brownlee in reply.

Can I thank other parties in the House for their support for this particular extension. Can I just apologise for the way in which the information has been disseminated this afternoon. I must say that I have myself been caught somewhat short, but that simply reinforces in my mind the need for some reconsideration of how emergency services are managed in New Zealand, and I will be in touch with other parties to reconvene the cross-party group, as we were going to be meeting at the time that the Christchurch fires occurred.

I take on board the comments from Steffan Browning. I know that he has done a lot of work up in the parts of the country that he spoke about—the Awatere and around the Clarence, etc., right down into Kaikōura. I know that that is very much appreciated, and I have appreciated the feedback he has been able to give us at various times. The comments from Clare Curran, I think, were salient, and it will be up to, I guess, the entire Parliament to try to sort out some of this. But I, once again, thank people for their support and apologise for the very short notice of the extension coming to the House.