Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (National): Thank you, Mr Speaker. This is a very timely bill, and one that I think the National Party will enjoy working through with the select committee process. It has enormous advantages in it for New Zealanders. While it's true that, in 2010, the Earthquake Commission (EQC) was a bit of a sleeper—that no one had ever really thought we'd ever face the problems that it faced, both in September of 2010 and then February of 2011—that is no particular excuse for them not being ready for those sorts of events in the future. But the Minister said there were 22 people working for EQC in September. It's grown by four. My recollection is that they told us 18, but whatever, it was a very small group of people. It had been quite an easy task for them to operate, over the 17 years the Act had run, without any particular consideration of the need for change.