Speeches

Canterbury Earthquake Sequence: The Resilience Journey

9/5/2019

Kia ora koutoa katoa, I’d like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today. I would also like to pay my respects to elders past and present.
It is also important to acknowledge the impact that the Canterbury Earthquake Sequence had on Christchurch, the two neighbouring Districts, and families across New Zealand and the world, whose loved ones were among the 185 people who died on 22 February 2011.
Thank you for inviting me to speak about the resilience journey in the context of the earthquakes we experienced.
Most people, who know me, will not be surprised that I am speaking about resilience. I have been a champion of resilience since I discovered what it truly meant when it comes to building the capacity of communities to prepare for an uncertain future. I remember the day when I realised that community development, climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction and sustainable development were all part of the same resilience equation.
However when I use the word in some quarters I get a huge sigh and raised eyebrows – ‘here she goes again’. It’s not hard to understand why this happens. We in Christchurch have been described as resilient so many times since the earthquakes began, that we are frankly sick of it. And that’s because the appearance of withstanding the shock of disaster is not resilience; it’s the stoicism we are famous for in our region.
The ability to see through the word and capture the essence of its meaning is an essential part of the Resilience Journey that I want to speak to today. And I use the word journey deliberately – resilience is a journey, not a destination.
I also want to remind you how the active participation of connected communities is so vital. And that includes a few other messages:
•   Start with what you have;
•   Know your community;
•   Prepare for emergent leadership, and
•   Ensure the recovery process builds the capacity and capabilities of affected communities and local institutions.
And finally, learn from others and also learn the lessons of your experience and share them with others – what you got right and … yes….the mistakes as well.
If we and others learn from each other’s mistakes, we can save a lot of heartache in the future.
But please remember my latest saying: lessons are not learned until they are embedded into practice.
So onto resilience.

I put up this word cloud to remind us that resilience doesn’t mean strong – look at the words – flexibility, adaptation, creativity, diversity, community, respect, change, cooperation. It’s all there.
I always refer to the standard definition – the capacity to absorb and maintain system function in the face of catastrophic events – followed by the standard phrase to bounce back or to recover.
However I have come to understand resilience from a community perspective to mean much more than that. The opportunity to bounce forward was the first expression I heard used after the earthquake sequence began that introduced the concepts of adapting and growing. And then the word thrive – opening up the possibility of transformation and co-creation.
That requires trust – both ways – meaning decision-makers have to engage communities in decision-making in a meaningful way - and it requires communities to actively seek to take back responsibility for their futures. And that’s what’s hard.
But as luck has it, you’re always better prepared than you think.

I love this slide because it’s such a great photo of me. The image is the Christchurch story though. Neighbourhoods came together supported by communities throughout the city and beyond.
The range of reviews, inquiries and reports that seek to identify lessons learned in terms of the Christchurch story have yet to be synthesised, but they must reflect these community-led elements as well as the pre-existing story – what was going on in Christchurch before the disaster that helped with the response and the recovery.
I heard someone talk about the importance of this at a recovery seminar in the context of identifying pre-existing vulnerabilities. You wouldn’t want to build them back. I now know it to be equally true of pre-existing strengths – they are the building blocks of recovery and resilience.
One of my messages today is how important it is to recognise these building blocks as preparedness initiatives when considering a Disaster Risk Management framework, because they can shape both the nature and the speed of recovery and build resilience at the same time. This is why I always say that the leadership for this has to be at the city and the town level.

So why do I say start with what you have?
Because if you don’t there is a risk that something new will be created and that does not build local resilience. There are enormous benefits to be found in existing collaborative relationships.
Don’t side-line them– repurpose them and build on them. The Greater Christchurch Urban Development Strategy already existed before the earthquakes. It was the perfect platform for a Recovery Strategy for the affected area and for the specific recovery plan for land use. We had already done the planning – we just needed to do a quick update and press the fast forward button. And there was the added advantage of a pre-existing Implementation Committee that brought all the relevant people to the table on a monthly basis.
Unfortunately that was not to be – new plans were written, a Recovery Strategy Advisory Committee was developed, and some of the pre-existing networks fell over as they had no purpose.
I had already learned about the risk that local leadership becomes secondary to a centrally imposed recovery framework. And I learned that here in Brisbane.

This slide says learn from others. Priority 2 of the Sendai Framework tells us how important it is to strengthen disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk. And yet these images show that Christchurch didn’t quite get this right. The image was prepared by the Office of the Auditor General as they tried to make sense of the framework that had been established for Christchurch’s recovery. On the right is your own Queensland Reconstruction Authority model – both from 2011.
I visited the Queensland Reconstruction Authority back then – their message was to emphasise the importance of communication, communication, communication – something that is equally vital to genuine community engagement, understanding risk and building confidence at the same time as building trust.
However, as I said, the most important lesson for me (and well-supported by international evidence) was the need to strengthen and not hollow out existing institutions, networks and relationships, and build the recovery arrangements around those. This means that when the time comes to reduce the amount of central government involvement, you have a strong foundation for the future and significant local relationships have been left intact, and don’t need to be rebuilt from scratch.

The message of collaboration and supporting local leadership can be found in our local health system, which serves as an example to us all. Work had already started on an integrated health care model before the earthquakes struck, (again emphasising the message of start with what you have). You can see from the slide it is fully integrated both vertically and horizontally.
With the home at the heart, primary, secondary and tertiary health services can be seen as part of the myriad aspects of life in the city – mutually reinforcing each other and able to be embraced by the local government sector and non-government organisations.
I often remind people that there was a small outbreak of H1N1 in a suburb in Christchurch prior to the earthquakes; it was fully contained and did not become the pandemic it could have been. Why?
We were already working collaboratively. Public health messages were everywhere – ‘wash your hands before eating’ signs were everywhere – schools and office buildings. Whose logo was on them? The Christchurch City Council. Joint action was required – not individual silos.
After the earthquakes we all noticed how the silos came down – some were already down and health promotion was one area where that was already the case. Just as an aside, we did all notice how easy it is for the silos to come back. It doesn’t take long.

Knowing what you have also starts with people. It is important to know that there will always be existing and emergent community leaders. The trick is to connect with them in a meaningful way in order to establish trusted channels of communication both ways – as I’ve learnt, communication is vital.
Pamela Jeffries is from a group called Project Lyttelton. She was recognised last year in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for the incredible work she has done in the port town of Lyttelton.
Project Lyttelton is a non-profit grassroots organisation committed to building sustainable, connected community. Their website says they aim to "be the change we wish to see in the world”.
Some of their projects include; supporting local food production, minimising waste and creating ways to re-use, reduce and recycle, creating opportunities for people to come together to play, share information and skill.
They run a Time Bank. I can tell you that you don’t need a civil defence team in a community with a time bank where community members respect each other’s contribution hour for hour not dollar for dollar.
Through a range of innovative projects, they have harnessed the power of community and fostered hope and inspiration to create a collective future. Their values-based approach is both inclusive and participative – and they recognise all people have intrinsic value. This is the heart of community resilience.
Sam Johnson was one of the founders of the Student Volunteer Army, which was established after the first earthquake in September 2010.
Sam, having had his offers to volunteer to help declined by both Civil Defence and Red Cross, due to his lack of volunteer training, posted on Facebook and the rest is history. The students came out in their droves and became our heroes, alongside the Farmy Army, that dug hundreds of thousands of tonnes of silt from our backyards and streets.
The spirit the SVA engendered has become an integral part of the University of Canterbury’s curriculum, and Sam has since set up a number of social enterprises, the latest being Community Guardians, which in collaboration with the city-owned company responsible for maintenance, has created meaningful volunteering opportunities for people to give back to their communities.
These are just two examples – there are many more. You may not know the Sam Johnsons, the emergent leaders, but you should know how to recognise them when they make their offer to help, and people like Pamela Jeffries, you should know them really well already.

One of my first acts as Mayor in 2013 was to sign up to the 100 Resilient Cities network, pioneered by the Rockefeller foundation. I felt this was an enormous opportunity for our city to join a network of cities with a commitment to understanding the risks we were exposed to, and developing pathways for our own communities to engage in understanding those risks and preparing for an uncertain future.
Our resilience plan has four major goals:
•   We are connected communities living in adaptable places
•   We are a community that participates in shaping our future
•   We are prosperous by sustaining the vitality of the natural environment, fostering innovation and attracting people
•   We understand our risks to be better prepared for future challenges
There are many elements to achieving these goals but all of them are about mutual actions. And they all require engaging with the community in a meaningful way. Have we got that right yet? It’s still a work in progress and it is hard without the kind of local leadership that I have spoken of. But I’m not giving up because this truly is the opportunity that springs from disaster, and it meets all our strategic objectives as a Council.
Resilience is not a top down exercise, but nor is it from the grassroots alone. It has to be both.

I found this image on the last page of a recovery best-practice seminar that was held within just three weeks of the first earthquake – it was adopted by the Canterbury Community Earthquake Recovery Network - CanCERN – as their motto. CanCERN was set up to represent a group of residents associations and other groups affected by the earthquakes.
The motto which reads: “The wisdom of the community always exceeds the knowledge of the experts” reflected their utter frustration at being excluded throughout the response and the recovery journey.
Having been on the resilience journey, (CLICK) I would now say that the wisdom of the community when combined with the knowledge of the experts always exceeds what one can offer without the other.
And that’s why it’s so important to focus on community resilience. And my final slide says – we needn’t wait.

I have read a lot about all aspects of disaster risk reduction since the first earthquake struck Christchurch on 4 September 2010. One was a book by Judith Rodin called The Resilience Dividend. She ended the book with this powerful statement:
“There is no ultimate or end state of resilience.”
Again this is my point of resilience being a journey and not a destination. Judith goes on to say:
“But, by working together to build resilience to the greatest degree possible, we can reduce our reliance on crisis as a driver of change and, instead, deliberately take the future into our own hands – for the well-being of our families, our communities, our cities, and indeed, the planet we all share.”
Isn’t that a hopeful and challenging way to end this presentation?
No-one needs to wait for a crisis to do that if we truly learn the lessons of the Christchurch experience and that’s why I will continue to talk about the resilience journey whenever I can, and the importance of always placing the community at the heart of all that we do.

Special Plenary Session of the World Association of Disaster and Emergency Medicine Congress 2019

8/5/2019

Kia ora koutoa katoa, I’d like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today. I would also like to pay my respects to elders past and present.

Can I also acknowledge Dr Clifford Perera and the severity of the loss and trauma that was inflicted on Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. When I sent our city’s condolences to the Mayors of the three cities where the attacks took place, I said that none of these attacks was inspired by the faith that took Christchurch Muslim communities to their places of worship on 15 March this year, nor the Christian communities to their places of worship on Easter Sunday. It had nothing to do with religion or faith.

The attacks were inspired by extremism and were fuelled by a hatred that was designed to divide and to cause others to use this as an excuse to cause further violence and inflict more pain.

I admitted in those letters as I do now, that I don’t have all the answers. But I do thank the Congress organisers for the opportunity to talk to you this evening, not about what happened, but how we responded. Because it is in the response, that I believe we may have found some of the answers the world is looking for.

There is nothing that could have prepared me for the atrocity that was perpetrated in our city of Christchurch on March 15 this year.

We have had our share of challenges – earthquakes, floods and fire. Never in my wildest imagination could I have conjured up the images of any terrorist shooting, let alone a cruel and cowardly attack on our Muslim communities in their places of worship at their time of prayer.

Nothing had prepared me either for the sheer hatred that inspired this attack, nor then to learn of the dark places on the worldwide web where extreme misogyny, racism, religious intolerance, bigotry and prejudice add fuel to an already corrupt and perverted view of the world that could allow such a monstrosity to occur.

Nothing had prepared me to respond to claims about the impact of white supremacism, overt expressions of racism and religious intolerance within my own city. We now know where this ends.

Nothing had prepared me for the malicious and fictitious claims and counterclaims of retaliation.

Nothing prepared me for the realisation that there is an intention that sits behind these extreme acts.

No matter who the victims are – the intention is to create division – and to inspire further acts of violence.

As a city and as a nation, we have instinctively rejected hatred and said no to division – we embraced our Muslim brothers and sisters as one.

And we said to the world: peace, unity and love, compassion and kindness, these are our values – these are who we are.

That message reverberated across the world, and with it the image of our Prime Minister wearing a scarf – her pain and her compassion visible to all – embracing a Muslim woman. “They are us and we are them” were her words. Peace be upon all of us was the message to the world.

The aftermath of the event could have been different, if there had been an angry, hostile and divisive response. But there was nothing of the sort.

And in this regard I must speak to the role of those who spoke for the Muslim communities with such resolve and grace. We heard an infinite capacity for forgiveness, which was so eloquently expressed at the National Remembrance Service by Farid Ahmed, whose wife was killed at Al Noor Mosque.

“I don’t want to have a heart that is boiling like a volcano. A volcano has anger, fury, rage, it doesn’t have peace. It has hatred, it burns itself within, and it burns the surrounding. I don’t want to have a heart like this and I believe no one does. I want a heart that is full of love and care and full of mercy, and will forgive lavishly, because this heart doesn’t want any more life to be lost. This heart doesn’t like that the pain I have gone through, that any human being should go through. That’s why I have chosen peace, love and I have forgiven.”

When Imam, Gamal Fouda, said at the Call to Prayer a week after the attack: "We are broken-hearted, but we are not broken. We are determined to not let anyone divide us," we were humbled and inspired.

And with these expressions of humanity, the message has gone out around the world that this is how to respond to terrorism - not with retribution, but with generosity of mind and spirit, as we build bridges between communities and across cities and the world.

In terms of the local response, the Council and local Maori, Te Runanga O Ngai Tahu, worked together in partnership with the Muslim community leadership team.

The warmth and strength of the relationship that developed between Muslim and Maori was immediately evident as they found much in each other’s culture and beliefs to both offer and receive comfort and support.

Local agencies were able to rely on pre-existing working relationships and friendships to collaborate in a positive way.

As this is a WADEM conference I will mention the Emergency Medicine response in particular. The message is this: the response by clinical and associated staff in the 800 bed Christchurch Hospital was nothing short of extraordinary.

There were fifty people killed that day. Close to that number again were injured in the shootings and were treated at Christchurch Hospital. One patient died in the emergency department that day, and another sadly died last week, bringing the death toll to 51 martyrs. The extraordinary fact though remains, that once admitted, no other patient died, despite the horrific injuries that had been caused by hollow point ammunition.

The Christchurch mass casualty plan was well practiced, both in terms of exercises and also from other events the city has faced, such as the earthquakes. In this case, however, the range of trauma was greater than the earthquake, and involved a much wider range of surgical and other specialties.

Over 75 operations were performed, with 8800 minutes of theatre time, (over six days of continuous operating), in total. Patients spent 2271 hours in intensive care which coped by using beds in satellite wards staffed by extra ICU technicians. The high number of child casualties was particularly emotionally draining for clinical staff.

A key part of the response was the radiology department, which not only had hundreds of investigations to perform on the injured, but also carried out CT scans on the deceased. This later difficult piece of work was critical in enabling post-mortems to be carried out quickly and efficiently, enabling victims to buried as quickly as possible.

The third key component of the health response was assisting the relatives, their families and the wider community in the immediate aftermath of the event.
Social workers and specialist mental health staff provided a wrap-around package for each of the patients and families, and schools-based mental health team worked with local schools most affected by the attack.

There is a lot more I could include about the public health component, including gun control. New Zealand’s previous poor performance in tackling this issue was one of the very reasons this attack could occur with such devastating effect.

However, this was quickly and resolutely dealt with by Parliament, which recognised that any delay would play into the hands of the gun lobby as it did 27 years ago. These military style semi-automatics are now banned.
I want to conclude with a consideration of the challenges that remain, beyond the ongoing support for the victims’ families, the injured survivors and the witnesses.

As I have said, I have become much more aware of the profound impact of anti-Muslim sentiment, religious intolerance and other forms of hate motivated speech both online and on our streets. If we are to remain united, we need to stand up for and celebrate diversity, and we need to be the place where all are treated with decency and respect no matter who we are, where we were born or what our beliefs are.

We need to initiate courageous conversations about those things that stand in our way – I have reminded people that Islamaphobia doesn’t mean hatred of Islam – phobia means fear. And fear comes from ignorance. Knowledge and understanding are the only real antidotes for ignorance and fear. We need to find ways to ensure that we get to know each other better. We learnt that after the earthquakes – love thy neighbour is good, but getting to know him and her is a great start.

I remain very proud of the way our city and nation have responded to this terrorist attack. The bravery and professionalism shown by the Police, emergency services, hospital staff and many others; and the compassion and sense of shared humanity demonstrated by the people of our city, our nation and communities across the world, have shone light through our darkest of days.

What happened in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Friday, March 15, 2019 will never define us. It is the response - the love, compassion and kindness - that says who we are. We do not stand alone; we stand together – as one.
Imagine, for a moment if you will, if that had been the response after 9/11.

christchurch-terror-attack-a-highlight-of-surgeons-career

ANZAC Day 2019 Christchurch Dawn Service

25/4/2019

The Hon. Ron Mark, Minister of Defence and Minister for Veterans
Hon Dr Megan Woods,
MPs Dr Duncan Webb, Poto Williams, Jo Hayes, Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi
Chief of Army – Major General John Boswell, and members of the defence forces
Police Commissioner Mike Bush and the NZ police
Deputy High Commissioner of Australia, Mr Andrew Cumpston
Crs Yani Johanson, Anne Galloway and Glenn Livingstone
The President and Members of the Christchurch Memorial RSA
Veterans and former servicemen/women
Citizens of Christchurch gathered here this morning

Welcome everyone to this year’s ANZAC day dawn service.

ANZAC Day is a day that we come together and reflect on the enormity of the sacrifice that was made over a century ago.

When we think of that war to end all wars as it was hoped to be, and think of the numbers killed, we are reminded again of the senselessness of war.

With the recent atrocity perpetrated on our city, we have all been given reason to pause and reflect on our history, and the need to find peaceful resolution to conflict - whether in our homes, our cities or nations.

It is extraordinary that modern day Turkey has found a way to allow us - Australians and New Zealanders - to acknowledge the emergence of our own sense of nationhood in ANZAC ceremonies every year on a former battleground now dedicated as a place of peace.

And today the flag of Turkey connects us to Gallipoli in a very special way.

The Gallipoli campaign may have represented defeat, and the toll that was exacted on both sides too high a price to pay, but it was on that peninsula that the ANZAC tradition of courage, sacrifice and comradeship was forged and it is this that we recall and honour today with our commitment to the peaceful resolution of conflict wherever it occurs.

No reira tena koutou, tena toutou, tena ra tatou katoa

ANZAC Day 2019 Citizens' Service at Latimer Square

25/4/2019

The Hon Ron Mark, Minister of Defence and Minister for Veterans
Major General John Boswell, Chief of Army
Mr Allen Cumpston, Deputy High Commissioner of Australia
Members of Parliament
My council colleagues
Veterans, servicemen and women, past and present
The Christchurch Cadet Corps, and St John Cadets
Representatives of the Girls and Boys Brigades
Citizens of Christchurch gathered here today

On behalf of the city of Christchurch, it is a privilege to welcome you to this ANZAC day citizens service.

Thank you to the Very Reverend Lawrence Kimberly, Dean of ChristChurch Cathedral, for welcoming us to this special place.

Forged on a distant battlefield, the relationship between Australia and New Zealand, what we call the ANZAC spirit, lives on today. Courage, loyalty, selflessness, honour, sacrifice and comradeship are our shares values.

More than a century on, our peacekeepers overseas embody the same ANZAC spirit, as do our young cadets, including our St John volunteers present today.

Every town and city in New Zealand has a memorial that honours those who never came home.

As I have said before on these occasions, we do not glorify war with these memorials, we commemorate the lives that were lost, and we honour the values they fought for.

Today, this morning, we are gathered here to remember all those who have served their country, and all those serving today.

And as I said this morning, with the recent atrocity perpetrated on our city, we have all been given reason to pause and reflect on our history, and the need to find peaceful resolution to conflict - whether in our homes, our cities or nations.

It is extraordinary that modern day Turkey has found a way to allow us - Australians and New Zealanders - to acknowledge the emergence of our own sense of nationhood in ANZAC ceremonies every year on a former battleground now dedicated as a place of peace.

And today the flag of Turkey connected us to Gallipoli in a very special way.

The Gallipoli campaign may have represented defeat, and the toll that was exacted on both sides too high a price to pay, but it was on that peninsula that the ANZAC tradition was forged and it is this that we recall and honour today with our commitment to the peaceful resolution of conflict wherever it occurs.

Official re-opening of the An Nur Child Care Centre

17/4/2019

Dr Mohammed Alayyan, Dr Maysoon Salama - we acknowledge your loss
Al Noor Charitable Trust Board members, staff of the An Nur Child Care Centre, families and friends

Kia ora koutou katoa
As-salum Alaykum
Peace be upon you

Thank you for the opportunity to visit here today and play a small role as you once again create a safe environment for the children to explore their world in preparation for their lives ahead. Thank you for your passion and your commitment to the children and their families.

I acknowledge with sadness the loss that has been felt here. We feel your pain as our pain and we stand with you.

When I read your invitation I was moved. You told me that you were holding this official reopening of the centre after the worst mosque terror attacks to show the community that ‘we are resilient in the face of such horrific events, to show the world we are not defeated by this worst terror attack and we will carry on’.

These words are powerful indeed - they do not deny the atrocity that has occurred - however they reclaim the power that he tried to steal from us with the lives that were so cruelly taken. An act that was designed to divide us, has in fact united us.

And it the extraordinary outpouring of love, compassion and kindness, Along with the infinite capacity for forgiveness and humanity expressed by our Muslim Communities has been the message that has been heard across the world.

These are who we are as a city and a nation, and no one can taken them from us.

An Nur Child Care Centre has been a special place for nearly 20 years. It provides a place for young mums to come together and share the joys and challenges of raising their children, offering and receiving advice from each other. The Maori word for teaching and learning is the same. Ako is to teach and Ako is to learn. We teach as we learn and vice versa. It takes a village to raise a child and that’s what is happening here.

Congratulations on this reopening and thank you for all that you do.

Dress For Success return to the CBD

16/4/2019

Established in ChCh in 2003, Dress for Success has been one of my favourite charities right from the start.

The mission statement says that Dress for Success is to empower women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and the development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.

The name says it all. Dress for Success. I loved the idea that we could pass on clothes to help women enter or re-enter the workforce.

It’s one of those invisible barriers - not having the wherewithal to buy the kinds of clothes that can help you walk into an interview with confidence.

But the clothes are just the beginning - the outward sign of the empowerment model at play.

Dress for Success is focused on unlocking the potential to succeed in the work place.

They champion each individual woman. They take time. They listen. They style. They mentor. And together – they succeed. And we can all be a part of this.

Today we are celebrating the return to the CBD after the earthquakes forced the service out to Riccarton. This will make the service truly accessible once again.

So to Dress for Success - Welcome Home!

Buddha’s Birthday Multicultural Festival for World Peace at Christchurch's Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple

13/4/2019

Venerable Abbess Manshin, President Bernie Siew, MPs Hon Nicky Wagner, Poto Williams and Dr Duncan Webb, Community Board Members, Helen Broughton & Aaron Campbell, and Consul General Wang, members of the interfaith community, especially Imam Ibrahim - As-salāmu ʿalaykum - we understand why it was hard to come - thank you for coming and opening your heart to us today - we feel your pain and we will walk with you and our Muslim brothers and sisters for as long as it takes.

Thank you to the Buddhist Light International Association SI and Fo Guang Shan for the invitation to join you again today for a ceremony that is deeply meaningful in light of the events of the 15th March and the weeks that have followed.

I have said that we will not be defined by what happened on that day; we are defined as a city and a nation by the outpouring of grief, love, compassion and kindness that followed.

And together we have stood in awe of the capacity for forgiveness and love expressed by those who have lost the most. We have been humbled and inspired.

And look how that has echoed across the world. Peace has triumphed over violence, unity has triumphed over division and love has triumphed over hate.

And as you do every year, you have invited us to celebrate compassion, the joy of giving, peace and love in the context of the anniversary of the birth of Buddha, represented as it is by the shared values that underpin all faiths as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Your prayer today asked us to be respectful of each other regardless of race, creed or colour. We can commit to that in our hearts and minds and we can live that every day

Thank you for opening your doors to us all, and for making those values real in your deeds.

Red Zone Stories app launch

3/4/2019

When I saw the invite to this evening’s launch, I accepted immediately.

I have a unique story of my own to tell as the Mayor of the City, who at the time was the MP for the vast swathe of what became the residential red zone and is now the Otakaro Avon River Corridor, and who had the lived experience of being red zoned, while offering support to hundreds if not thousands of constituents, who like me struggled to come to terms with the enormity of what was described as a voluntary offer yet proved to be the government’s imposition of what can only be described in today’s terms as ‘unmanaged retreat’.

If I were to record my Red Zone Stories, the ones I would tell today, would be different to the ones I would have told back then.
Before the red zoning I would have recorded my love of Bexley - the hidden gem as we called it - we were the people who truly knew the value of the wetlands and all that it meant to us to live so close to nature in all its glory; to those of us who attended regular plantings there; to those of us who were the amateur photographers who enjoyed the bird life - the treasured memories of the pukekos, the herons, the kingfishers captured back then, so precious now; to those of us who saw the benefits the wetlands offered the school children who while learning to care for their environment were learning their skills outside the classroom - to those of us who knew many of our neighbours before the early hours of Sept 4 2010 - the wake-up call that changed our lives forever.

This app provides us with a place where we can share these treasured memories.

Other memories, the stories I would tell now, as the local MP I found out a whole 10 minutes before the public announcement, that my home was in one of the areas that would be red zoned. I also learned about the areas that were still up in the air; I knew instantly what more uncertainty would mean for them. I can recall the Brooklands residents who found out they were red zoned when they switched on the radio, or called into the dairy, whose owner had dissolved into tears when the journalist came in to find out what she thought about the decision.
I worked through all the issues with people who would come to my office and break down:

The woman we had helped get her rating valuation reduced as she thought it was too high. How could we even have guessed that her rating valuation would be used three years later for a purpose other than for what it was intended.

The home owners who were not insured - the reasons had nothing to do with a deliberate hard-nosed decision to self-insure - the callous and cruel reason given by the government to offer them insufficient money to move on.

There were those who were struggling with their insurers who were saying they could rebuild our damaged houses in the red zone, affecting what they would offer for our houses. ‘No one would be worse off’ became the reluctant concession that there were winners and losers.
As an MP I used my my own example as a means of making the case for countless of others, whose choices were limited by the rating valuations - I had been making the case for land swaps, so communities could rebuild together - the response was to attack me personally in Parliament - saying I wanted more for my land than it was worth. I was publicly humiliated by a Minister that had no feelings for the position I was describing not for myself but for others. It was hard for many of my constituents to accept a time limited offer when under duress that gave them insufficient money to buy land to rebuild one.

The truth is though after several months of living in Bexley as part of the red zone, as neighbours started to leave and the roads became even worse than they were after the quakes, I couldn’t wait to go. My reason for wanting to live there recorded in the stories of the red zone as distant memories.

What gives me hope today is the thought of all the uses that this area could offer right now, for trialling new technologies and bringing high paid jobs into this area, which would help New Brighton as the destination it is on the Otakaro Avon River Corridor that creates the journey from the city to the sea.

And one day I know Bexley will return to the state that nature intended, before the decision was made to drain the land and build a community that for more than a decade I was proud to call home.

Congratulations and thank you for letting us all share our stories.

National Remembrance Service -Ko Tātou, Tātou We Are One

29/3/2019

Koutou kua riro, e moe

Tātou kua mahue, aroha ki te tangata ko tātou tātou - kia atawhai ki te iwi

Those who have gone, may you finally rest in peace
We who remain, love and compassion to each and every one of us – care for the people

As-salāmu ʿalaykum Peace be upon you

Prime Minister, Your Excellencies, Heads of State and all the dignatories who have travelled here,

I stand alongside Ngai Tahu and mana whenua, to greet you all and to welcome you to Otautahi, our city of Christchurch.

To those who watch from afar, welcome; you are one with us today.

To all the people of Christchurch, including our elected members and local leaders, and especially especially our Muslim brothers and sisters, we come together again as one, as we have done every day in our hearts and minds since the 15th March 2019.

I started my welcome with an acknowledgement to those people who were taken from us on that day. I offer sympathy on behalf of the people of Christchurch to all the families, who grieve - you do not grieve alone, we grieve with you.

What happened here in our city on that day, which was a cowardly attack on our Muslim communities in their places of worship at their time of prayer, was also an attack on us all; on our shared values and on our way of life.

Inspired as it was by hatred, those actions were designed to divide us and tear us apart; they have instead united us, as we are embraced in the compassion and love that we feel for each other no matter where we were born, no matter how we express our faith.

We thank everyone who has sent a message, a tribute, a flower, a poem, a picture - children from across the country have shared their aroha in such special and poignant ways - and the city leaders across the globe, who have stood shoulder to shoulder with their communities in all their diversity, expressing the same solidarity we can feel here today.

Thank you for sharing our grief and thank you for helping restore our faith in humanity.

I ask that today, we collectively express our gratitude and thanks to all those who have played such an extraordinary role in our city in response to what has occurred.

We thank our first responders including the NZ Police, St John Ambulance services and the members of the community at the mosques and passers-by. We honour those who went above and beyond the call of duty.

We thank all the hospital staff, who worked tirelessly to save lives and who have offered care to those who were injured and their families.

We acknowledge the dedication of the coroner’s, city council, City Care and funeral director teams, along with members of the wider NZ Muslim community, who all worked together to ensure the families could bury their loved ones with dignity and respect.

We honour the Imams for their inspiring leadership and for inviting us to attend their Call to Prayer; we honour the Muslim Community Leadership Group for their dedication and we thank all those that have provided cultural advice and ensured decision-making has had the community at its heart. We will continue to work together as one.

We acknowledge and thank the Prime Minister and the NZ government for all the support they have wrapped around our city and thank them for taking urgent action to strengthen New Zealand’s gun laws.

And we call upon the social media platforms to take more responsibility for ensuring that such atrocities cannot be live-streamed and that messages of hate that fuel attacks on members of any community cannot be shared. Hate has no place here; hate has no place anywhere.

I have witnessed people across the city and within the building where I work drop everything and commit every ounce of their being to supporting the response and setting up for the recovery. We know from our experience that placing the community at the heart of all that we do, ensures our purpose and direction will be true.

That is why I am confident that we will get through this time and emerge a kinder and more compassionate place, something we wish for the world.

However, first we each have a responsibility to ask the hard questions of ourselves about what comfort any of us might give to people who harbour racist or extremist views. We now know where this can end. We need to look in the mirror, be honest about who we are and we must all pledge to being a city of inclusion that genuinely embraces diversity every day.

Otautahi Christchurch is a city of peace; we are a city committed to honouring human rights. We need to make this real and we can help lead the way.

We will not be defined by what happened on the 15th of March 2019, we are defined by what followed - the unity, the love, the compassion and the kindness - they are who we are.

Nothing will come between us, no one stands alone, we stand together. We are one - ko tatou tatou.

No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou tēnā ra tātou katoa

Christchurch City Council condemns terror attack 28 March 2019

28/3/2019

It is with a heavy heart that I stand to record the atrocity that was perpetrated on our city on March 15, 2019, and to invite all of us as the Christchurch City Council to record our condemnation for this attack, which may have targeted our Muslim communities, but which was an attack on us all - an attack on our values - and our way of life. This act, which was inspired by hatred and was designed to divide us and tear us apart; it has instead united us with all our communities and embraced us in compassion and love. An injury to one is an injury to all. We are one.

On March 15 2019, as school students handed over their open letter to city and government leaders demanding that we take action on climate change, a white supremacist opened fire on a group of people who had gathered in prayer at Al Noor Mosque. He then went to the Linwood Islamic Centre and opened fire once more. His plans were disrupted by the courage of a man, who took action, and then by the two police officers who rammed his car and brought his rampage to a halt. The lives that were saved by the actions of these three men are incalculable. Other stories of heroism are emerging every day as we come to terms with the enormity of what has occurred.

This man, who is entitled to a fair legal process, is entitled to nothing more. No name. And no voice to his extremist views.

He came to our city with hatred in his heart and his intention to kill already formed in his mind. His hate was not born here nor nurtured here.

However, we all have a responsibility to ask the hard questions of ourselves about what comfort any of us might give to people who harbour these extremist views, through anything we might say or do.

In 2017, we as a council endorsed the Christchurch Multicultural Strategy Te Rautaki Matawaka Rau – Our Future Together - I have reflected on its words since Friday the 15th, and I have asked myself whether we fully appreciated their significance before now.

The strategy’s vision is:
- Aroha ki te whenua, te tūāpapa o te manaaki. Kia atawhai ki te iwi.
Love and respect to the land, which is the foundation of hospitality. Care for the people.
- Ōtautahi Christchurch is an inclusive multicultural and multilingual city that honours Te Tiriti o Waitangi and values our environment – a city where all people belong.

Our Future Together was developed in partnership with community leaders and seeks three outcomes:
1. Ngā Pou Haumaru – The sheltering mountains – the land
A safe place that people are welcomed into, where each person is cared for and Rangatiratanga is respected.
2. Te Wairua Rāhiri – The welcoming spirit – the home people
A commitment to welcoming all who arrive to Ōtautahi with aroha and manaakitanga. A commitment to reciprocity when given such a welcome.
3. Te Waka Eke Noa – A purpose and model – the canoe we all are part of
An environment we can access where we can achieve common goals and understand the importance of working together.

I ask colleagues to reaffirm our commitment to ensuring those words are translated into reality.

And finally I ask that we collectively express our gratitude and thanks to all those who have played such an extraordinary role in our city since this atrocity occurred, acknowledging the impact it has had.

We know from our experience that placing the community at the heart of all that we do, ensures our purpose and direction will be true.

We will not be defined by what happened on the 15th of March 2019, we are defined by what followed - the unity, the love, the compassion and the kindness - they are who we are, and we commit to ensuring that this moment in our history defines a future committed to social change for good. That’s our history and that’s our future.

I formally move the motion, which has been seconded by Cr Jimmy Chen who led the work on the Christchurch Multicultural Strategy:

That, as a council:

We Condemn the attacks on our Muslim brothers and sisters as they worshipped at the Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre on March 15, 2019, and extend our deepest sympathy to the families of those whose lives were so cruelly taken and express our heartfelt sorrow to those who were injured and to the members of all our Muslim communities. Your pain is our pain, we are united in our shared grief; none of us stands alone, we stand together as one;

We Affirm our commitment to Otautahi Christchurch being a city of peace and a city that honours human rights, by truly living up to being a city of inclusion that embraces diversity, as declared in the Christchurch Multicultural Strategy Te Rautaki Matawaka Rau – Our Future Together, and we are thankful to all the people of Christchurch, who have demonstrated their commitment to its vision by coming together as one to offer support and care for each other at this time and into the future

We Express our gratitude for the extraordinary efforts of our first responders including the NZ Police, St John and the members of the community at the mosques and passers-by, and honour those who went above and beyond the call of duty;

We Express our thanks to all the hospital staff, who worked tirelessly to save lives and offer care to those who were injured and their families, and to the coroner’s, council, City Care and funeral director teams, and members of the Muslim community, who all worked together to ensure the families could bury their loved ones with dignity and respect;

We Express our thanks to the teachers, who looked after our schoolchildren yet again, providing reassurance at a time when little was known of what was happening, and we acknowledge the impact on residents and businesses affected by the lockdown and the cordons around the mosques in Riccarton and Linwood;

We Honour the Imams for their inspiring leadership and for inviting us to attend their Call to Prayer, and we honour the Muslim Community Leadership Group for their dedication and thank all those that have provided cultural advice and ensured decision-making has had the community at its heart;

We Acknowledge the support provided by the Prime Minister and the government to our city and to our Muslim communities; and thank them for taking urgent action to strengthen New Zealand’s gun laws; and resolve that the Council will make a submission in support, delegating authority to sign off the submission to the Mayor and Deputy Mayor if necessary;

We Call upon the social media platforms to take responsibility for ensuring that such atrocities cannot be live-streamed and that messages of hate cannot be shared;

We Thank all the Council staff who have built on their existing relationships with our local communities and partner agencies to ensure a well-coordinated response with the community at the heart of all we do, and for their absolute commitment to ensuring our communities jointly lead the recovery process;

We Thank all those who organised opportunities for different parts of the Christchurch community to gather together, so we could pay our respects in ways that were meaningful to us all;

And We Thank everyone who has sent tributes, messages of support, offers of help and financial contributions, along with all of those who have attended vigils in cities and towns across New Zealand and around the world.

Before I put the vote, I ask that we all stand in silence in memory of those whose lives were lost.

Assalaam Alaykum - peace be upon you - peace be upon us all.

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