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Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Thank you all for your warm welcome; it’s a pleasure to be here this morning. I would first like to acknowledge:

Tēna koutou, tēna koutou, tēna koutou katoa.

Good morning and thank you for inviting me to open this forum on managing volcanic risk in Auckland.

I am very pleased to be here. It's great to see so many people taking this opportunity to increase and share their knowledge about volcanic risk in Auckland, and the plans that are in place in the event of an eruption.

Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, katoa.

Good morning distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

I have been invited to speak to you today about three themes:

Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, katoa.

It is a privilege to be giving this address at the opening ceremony of the 4th Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction.

New Zealand has been challenged by the major recovery and rebuild of Canterbury both in terms of scale and complexity, following the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011.

We have been rebuilding not just our infrastructure, but also our communities.

For a small nation, losing 185 people, including foreign citizens, has been hard.