Mr SIMPKINS (5:50 PM) —I rise to join other members to express my condolences and the condolences of the people of Cowan for the losses Christchurch has suffered: the damage, the death and the total overall tragedy that Christchurch and the district of Canterbury have endured. I think we all remember where we were on 22 February when this earthquake struck Christchurch. The vision that came over our television screens in our offices was surreal in many ways. People were literally walking out of buildings, some covered in blood, buildings behind them collapsed—it was graphic detail. When you think about how close the New Zealanders are to us, it is a very stark reminder of the fragility of human life, and there but for the grace of God might we all be in a similar situation.

As we know, around 166 people have died, there are still people missing and, possibly most tragic of all, there are some bodies that are expected never to be finally identified, because of their injuries. That, of course, is the greatest tragedy for the families who have come to accept the loss of loved ones but who may never have the final resolution of having a specific grave where they can go and pray and remember their loved ones. That is certainly a great tragedy.

But out of this great tragedy a lot has been learned. There have been discussions about whether this was an aftershock of the major earthquake in the district last year or whether, because it was along a different fault line, it was a new earthquake unrelated to what happened last year. But, in any case, the significant damage inflicted upon buildings and the obvious loss of life in Christchurch, Lyttleton and the surrounding districts are very clear reminders of the need for earthquake ratings and of the fact that even older buildings need to be looked at.

As I understand it, 10,000 homes and many buildings are to be pulled down. The Grand Chancellor Hotel in Christchurch—all 26 stories of it—is to be pulled down within the next six months. A hundred thousand other houses and many more buildings were damaged and are in need of great repair. This is a significant disaster. It is something that New Zealanders will have to live with for a long time and there is no doubt that it will always be remembered.

It is, however, literally from the ashes, the crumbled ruins and the dust of this adversity that we have seen great courage: people who were prepared to go straight back in or fight for the lives of those who were injured around them. These are the great stories of the great Kiwi courage that we know of and, while that might be normally seen when we are playing the All Blacks, it was most definitely on show in Christchurch on 22 February. I pay tribute to the New Zealand people for their courage and determination not to let this beat them and to save as many people as possible.

What they should also be very proud of is the rapid response to this tragedy, the organisation that so quickly swung into action to make sure that the emergency services were able to cope and get on top of the situation as soon as possible, despite the huge amount of devastation. So I pay tribute to their emergency services, their police, the government of New Zealand and the city governments of Christchurch and of Canterbury. They were wonderful efforts by a well-organised nation, so congratulations to them as well as condolences.

We applaud the rapid reaction by the government here in Australia, and of course we support that all the way as opposition, as well as the readiness of our emergency services, our police and our urban search and rescue teams to be ready to go so quickly. They were on the ground within 12 hours, which is a wonderful demonstration of our commitment to our friends across the Tasman. We also had so many police—I believe over two periods there were 323 Australian police from every jurisdiction around the country—represented in the weeks after the earthquake to help the New Zealand police out. It is a very clear demonstration of the Kiwis thoughtful plans that they immediately, within the first 12 hours, were talking about the succession planning for when their people would start to run out of strength because they would be up for so many hours. They were locking in rescuers, they were locking in police and other emergency services to be able to cope with the days and weeks ahead, such was the foresight of the conditions that were required to be met.

I will finish by saying that it is a great tragedy and that the people of Australia, the people of Cowan and obviously all members of this parliament express our deepest condolences for the losses the New Zealanders have had nationally and to all of the families who have lost people over there. But out of that adversity, I salute them for the wonderful effort that they displayed, and of course all Australians who did so much to help out our friends across the Tasman undertaken from the time of the earthquake to this point and from here onwards as well.