Christchurch Earthquake bulletin edition fourteen

new-zealand-labour-party

Tue Mar 29 2011 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Christchurch Earthquake bulletin edition fourteen

Tuesday, 29 March 2011, 12:18 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party

The Labour Party’s Christchurch electorate MPs, Clayton Cosgrove (Waimakariri), Ruth Dyson (Port Hills), Lianne Dalziel (Christchurch East) and Brendon Burns (Christchurch Central) have started a regular bulletin to keep people in their electorates and media informed about what is happening at grass roots level.

CLAYTON COSGROVE: The premature decision to water down the Government’s quake assistance programme for businesses will mean that taxpayers end up funding workers on the dole instead. I am very disappointed at the lack of forethought shown by the Government in announcing its reduced assistance package yesterday. As businesses are also pointing out today, it’s totally unrealistic to expect them to recover from such a major disaster in just 12 weeks, yet that is what the Government is assuming. The new package seems as little in touch with what’s happening on the ground as the Government’s previous decisions to allow demolitions to go ahead unauthorised and to prevent businesses gaining timely access to the materials and records needed to carry on their livelihoods. Cutting all subsidies to businesses by late May is simply silly. The Government is, in effect, saying to businesses if that if they are not up and running in a few weeks, then that’s tough. The result may well be that many previously successful businesses and employers --- who have the potential to be successful again in the future --- are forced to close up shop and make staff redundant. The Government will keep paying out through the dole, but businesses that could have become poised to take advantage of the improved economy as the rebuild starts won’t be there to employ Cantabrians. People around the rest of the country have been magnificent in supporting Canterbury, and the Government has misread the situation if it believes that the rest of New Zealand feels it is time to start winding back support. Kiwis understand that Canterbury is a special case, and will remain so for many months ahead. Today I will be following up with the Civil Defence controller on two issues – seeking urgent information on demolition companies that have been sacked for inappropriate activity, and also seeking urgent advice on emergency and temporary accommodation. We also need information on what is happening in terms of home heating as the autumn/winter chill begins to be felt at night. We are particularly worried about elderly people who don’t want to see themselves as a burden. If there is not enough home heating provided, it is not too hard to predict that there will be grave health problems ahead.

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RUTH DYSON: Today I am in Dunedin for the Labour front bench meeting. These meetings are held weekly but it is the first time I have been able to attend in person for several weeks. I will update my colleagues on the current situation in Christchurch. The clock is ticking for quake affected businesses with John Key’s announcement yesterday that he will scale back financial support packages for businesses two months from now. It is too soon for business owners to be able to fully assess their company’s future and my colleagues and I fear the decision to end funding will result in unnecessary redundancies. Another important issue I am following up is disrupted paid parental leave in the wake of the most recent quake. I have been contacted by a constituent who has had their paid parental leave payments disrupted. Although the parent concerned qualified for the emergency grant this is only covering basic costs normally covered by the paid parental leave allocation. I will be contacting the Minister of Labour on this issue this week as it is my firm view that emergency grants should not be counted as income and I am sure this is not an isolated case.

BRENDON BURNS: This morning we have a meeting with the Civil Defence controller. I will reiterate to him the concerns I am hearing from central city businesses following yesterday’s announcement that the Government will cut assistance packages. Most of the affected businesses are small and medium enterprises still struggling from the September and Boxing Day quakes. The February 22 earthquake exacerbated this struggle and businesses are now in a precarious position. Cash flow was strangled by the September 4 quake and is now cut off for many businesses. The two month timeframe imposed by government is too short for businesses to assess their real and on-going prospects of reopening. The consequences are plain--- jobs will be lost due to insufficient mechanisms from government to give businesses a fair leg up. The second pressing issue in my electorate today is the fate of the Brooke Gifford Gallery. The gallery is one of Christchurch’s finest, established 36 years ago. It hosts over 400 iconic New Zealand artworks, including 20 pieces by Bill Hammond. The gallery housed at 1 Manchester Street is in the red zone surrounded by the all too familiar threat of red stickers. The iconic wooden building houses irreplaceable art and heritage pieces which seem condemned to demolition. Other New Zealand artists whose work lies in the balance are Gretchen Albrecht, Shane Cotton, Peter Robinson and Don Binney. I have bought the issue up with the Civil Defence Controller and while I understand it is in a particularly hard hit area of the city art and heritage must be preserved where possible. Christchurch City Gallery is on stand-by to assist with the evacuation of artworks and I understand they have the services of Te Papa Tongarewa behind them if needed. I will follow this closely.

LIANNE DALZIEL: There are two things at the forefront of my mind today. One is with regard to significant land reallocation issues in my electorate. I am calling for the City Council to take a more open view on available land and its reallocation. Many families in my electorate have a deep connection with Christchurch East. They do not simply want to relocate to another part of the city; they want to stay near their beaches, their friends and their schools. My argument is that due to the significant land damage suffered by Christchurch East, we need to revisit some plans that were devised three or four years ago. The criterion for development has changed significantly. The second issue focuses on constituent concerns around the proposal by Orion to build new high voltage overhead lines after four large underground (66kV) power cables supplying north-east Christchurch were damaged in the February quake. While the security of our electricity supply is of prime importance as we head into winter, there is also a need to balance the concerns of the community, who are calling for consultation, with the tyranny of the urgent reality of the situation. Today I am trying to gather as much information as I can in order to aptly represent my constituents at briefings this afternoon with Orion. Orion has arranged a couple of street corner meetings today which I will be attending.

ends

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