Speech
Official opening of Emergency Responders Display
E nga mana, e nga reo, e nga iwi o te motu e huihui nei, tēnei aku mihi māhana ki a koutou.
Kia ora tātou katoa.
Your Worship the Mayor, Justin Lester; Police Commissioner Mike Bush; Chairman of the Wahine 50 Trust, Rhys Jones; Leigh Taylor from BP; Paul Dalton, CEO of Surf Lifesaving; Wahine 50 Trustees;
survivors and rescuers who are here today; participating organisations, ladies and gentlemen and my able and willing helpers from Worser Bay Surf Life Saving Club.
It is a privilege for David and me to join you all today in remembrance of the Wahine.
Our thoughts are with those among you who lost loved ones 50 years ago, and with the families across New Zealand who live also with the trauma of that loss.
As we all reflect on the events of that day, we also reflect on the lessons that were learned – lessons that have made New Zealand that much better prepared for times of extreme emergency.
The emergency responders of this region have worked together on this display to highlight what we need to do in such situations.
The key message is that if we are prepared, our families, schools, workplaces and communities can be that much stronger and resilient.
It may be that there are opportunities for more of us to become involved in emergency response work ourselves – as volunteers or members of the organisations represented here today.
Now it’s time for me to perform my role in helping to unveil this gift to the Wellington region.
I think we all have more than a sneaking suspicion about what it is – and what a valuable addition it will be to emergency response capability in Wellington.
I will now ask Paul Dalton of Surf Lifesaving to join me and our young surf life-savers in the unveiling, on the count of three, and in so doing, I declare the PS Are You Prepared? Display, officially open.
One, two THREE.