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Speech: Peters - Earthquakes - not an excuse

Speech to public meeting
Katikati,
Katikati War Memorial Hall
2.30pm, November 20, 2016

“Earthquakes - not an excuse for doing nothing”

The week’s earthquakes have shaken all New Zealand.
Feelings have been numb and raw and as the week unfolded we realised the magnitude of this latest quake.
The districts of Kaikoura, Hurunui, Marlborough and elsewhere have been impacted substantially.
It will be a long time before normality returns for many people in these areas.
Wellington has not escaped.
Buildings have had to be evacuated as more and more damage is revealed.

A Resilient New Zealand
Human muscles and bones get stronger from being put under stress and tension. A society can gain strength from the experience of volatility, disorder and upheaval – if it is prepared to learn.
The American writer Nassim Taleb has coined the term “antifragile” to describe the capacity of systems to benefit from shock and disruption.
Being “antifragile” is a property that not only contributes to system’s survival but also its ability to grow and flourish. To the extent that we realistically can we should aim for an “antifragile” New Zealand.
Earthquakes cannot be predicted. Science may one day enable prediction but that breakthrough has not occurred yet.
As an earthquake prone country New Zealand must therefore take all sensible and practical steps to mitigate the damage and loss of life from earthquakes.

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The severe earthquake early on Monday, 14 November points to the need to take a deeper look at New Zealand’s resilience to earthquakes and other natural disasters.
While the emergency services and other government agencies will review their performance in response to the earthquake a wider ranging and systematic inquiry is required.
A public inquiry into the overall state of New Zealand’s resilience to major natural disaster, with broad cross-party support, would be appropriate.
Such an inquiry should be conducted in a timely manner taking a maximum of one year. The cost would not be excessive if led by a suitably qualified person heading a small expert team.
The inquiry would cover the following issues:

• How resilient is New Zealand in terms of earthquakes and other natural disasters?

• What practical steps, with feasible investment, can be taken that would strengthen New Zealand’s resilience?

• Are the relevant regulatory regimes robust enough? Or are “corners being cut” in any areas of construction and infrastructure building that are creating future significant risks. It is deeply concerning that some of our most modern and “compliant” buildings appear more prone to damage than older structures. This can only undermine public confidence in the regulatory regime.

• Are NZ’s emergency response services adequate in terms of reliability and capacity? As NZ First has pointed out, the recent earthquake revealed weaknesses in the 111 phone line system as well as the Civil Defence site that should have been resolved after the Christchurch earthquakes

• The recent earthquake showed there is a need for a stronger New Zealand transport strategy. NZ First is calling for a viable long-term transport strategy, including coastal shipping to be developed that would ensure a resilient transport infrastructure.
There are no grounds for complacency. The most recent serious earthquake directly impacted small towns and a relatively sparsely populated area of the country.
The next major earthquake could hit a major population centre as happened with the Christchurch earthquakes.
NZ First calls on all other parties to support its call for a wide- ranging public inquiry into the state of New Zealand’s resilience to major earthquakes and other natural disasters and where improvements can be made at reasonable cost.
• The recent earthquake showed there is a need for a much stronger New Zealand road-rail-shipping transport strategy.
This earthquake has reminded us yet again of the short-sightedness of past decisions by neo-liberal National and Labour governments.
A strong coastal shipping service would have been a Godsend in a disaster such as the one we have gone through.
We don’t have one.
National’s road transport obsession has been exposed.
Because we don’t have a strong coastal shipping service our flow of freight came to a virtual standstill and is now struggling.
We are now scratching round to redeploy interisland ferries to fill a massive transport void.
NZ First says we have had enough.
We have for years called for a viable long-term transport strategy including road, rail and coastal shipping.
Our national economy cannot be left to the Mickey Mouse system that exists at the present moment.

The true state of the economy
In the immediate hours after the November 14 earthquake the Prime Minister was assuring New Zealanders that the “country is in great shape”.
He was no doubt pointing to a $1.8 billion claimed surplus.
The problem with the Prime Minister’s claimed surplus is that it is fiction, not fact. Every major item of expenditure – police, health, education, housing, social welfare, department of conservation – has seen under National, in real terms, years of cuts.
All of the above items suffer from huge deficit the result of which has seen controversy after controversy. Press story after press story.
That is why when you listen to Ministers they never talk of increased expenditure in real terms, or increased expenditure per person, but rather throw out hundreds of millions, or billions usually over the next four or five years, or in the case of Defence, the next fourteen years. The Navy is having a 75-year celebration. The government is talking about its $20 billion capital expenditure by 2030: fourteen years from now.
Now what is fascinating about this, we all heard about this $20 billion figure before. It’s so old it’s got flies on it. But ask them to itemise purchases by date, and not one Minister or the Prime Minister has a remote clue. The Minister of Health is famous for tossing out how he is going to spend $500 million in the next four years on increased health expenditure.
Ladies and gentlemen, that is, in real terms and per capita, a serious decrease in expenditure. But unless the media asks what it means in real terms or per capita, neither they nor we are any the wiser.
So, given that the latest earthquake will cost about a billion to fix up, alongside the billions of under expenditure in the areas already set out, this country is certainly not in great shape.
Given that our nominal growth rate of 2.8 per cent owes about 2 per cent to massive immigration, which has brought with it huge demand problems particularly in Auckland, the Prime Minister’s assurances are based on political propaganda and not reality.
The sad thing is how many in the commentariat have preferred his line to the glaring reality staring them in the face.
Watch out for the excuse machine.
All over the country regions are already suffering from infrastructural neglect and it’s clear that this week’s earthquake is going to be used to fob off longstanding worthy cause after longstanding worthy cause.
There are no grounds for complacency.

Katikati bypass
So, where does this place the Katikati bypass?
State Highway 1 between Picton and Kaikoura and further south, and other roads, will cost with railway about billions of dollars to repair.
This will become an “urgent priority” of the government.
But remember when something similar, less catastrophic, happened to close the Napier –Gisborne line, KiwiRail and this government just walked off.
The Kaikoura State Highway 1 repairs are expected to take months.
Then there are the massive roading, housing, health, education and other infrastructural problems for Auckland.
During a Stuff.co.nz live chat, Auckland mayor Phil Goff said his city shouldn’t take a back seat on Government spending despite this week’s earthquakes.
Katikati has been calling for a bypass for donkey’s years.
The question is, how much longer will you have to wait to get one and how many more excuses will you put up with for these delays.
Katikati is a great town but the quality of life has been seriously affected by the increasing numbers of trucks and vehicles passing through.
Trying to access the centre of town with all the congestion can be almost impossible. We know the volumes of heavy trucks is set to increase.
This is due to the government favouring road ahead of other forms of transportation.
That has been one of the lessons of the Kaikoura earthquake.
The rupturing of SH1 has caused huge disruption to transportation of freight and goods.
The disruption would have been less had the government secured and put in place a better transportation strategy which included coastal shipping.
As far as your Katikati bypass is concerned, the National government has been aware of your concerns for years and have done nothing.
They fobbed you off and the job has been on hold.
Transport Minister Simon Bridges has asked the NZTA to take another look at the Katikati section because the NZTA does not support a bypass.
Why didn’t he tell the NZTA to get on with the job instead?
Three months ago Brendan Gibbs said at a public meeting you held with Mr Bridges that there had been 15 deaths on the Apata bends and he had seen no improvements in 15 years.
Why not?
The tragic deaths of five Tongan workers in a crash when their car was hit by a logging truck as it crossed SH2 in August will be remembered for a long time.
This tragedy highlighted the problems you face.
If the government had seized the initiative years ago – this bypass would have been put in place.
It hasn’t been.
You deserve better.
So still the question is how long are you prepared to wait for the bypass?

Conclusion:
NZ First Policy is to ensure that provincial New Zealand gets its fair, proportionate share of infrastructural investment money. That’s why I can guarantee you today that we would ensure that a bypass around Katikati is built.
For those of you who doubt my word, I suggest you take a trip to Tauranga. There you will see that the Kaimai Ranges road is tar sealed, as is the Athenree Gorge to the North, that there are more tar sealed motorways to fill half the alphabet.
And two double-laned harbour bridges without tolls.
Not to mention 63 million dollar debt having been taken off Route K.
None of those things had happened before I came to Tauranga in ’84. They all happened as a result of my being in Tauranga and being an MP here.
The National Party has had Tauranga for the last 11 years. Can anybody show me what Simon Bridges and National have done?
My advice to the good people of Katikati: don’t make the same mistake.








ENDS

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