CERA is our chance to work together

The CERA legislation is the next chance we have to light the flame of hope for people in our patch. The CERA Bill does a lot of things; it gives extraordinary powers to the Minister and a new multiagency government department.

Labour will work alongside people of any and all political persuasions to get our region up and running. We want to work with our elected representatives, our councillors and our community boards. They must have a role and they are not mentioned in legislation. These organisations have taken up the challenge of supporting members of our community; and we need to honour that.

We need to do this together in order to get it right. The future of our city is too important to leave talented people out of the loop. The Minister must listen carefully to submitters today. He has said he will only be making minor changes to the legislation---it is very frustrating to hear that kind of comment before the select committee has even taken place—it is an arrogant way to treat people willing to participate and offer their expertise in our recovery. If quake response was an Olympic sport we would have won gold. I urge the Minister to give openness and democracy a decent chance.

There are three points which in my view are vital to the recovery, which are not adequately acknowledged in the legislation. Firstly, the people of Canterbury must drive recovery. Secondly, the process has to be open and transparent. Thirdly, the recovery must be at a good pace. It has already been a long seven months and I am concerned that this multiagency department may not be the most nimble structure we could put in place.

[My full speech is available at: http://inthehouse.co.nz/node/8228 ]