Christchurch Earthquake bulletin edition 29

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Tue Apr 19 2011 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Christchurch Earthquake bulletin edition 29

Tuesday, 19 April 2011, 11:23 am
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: It is ludicrous that builders are being laid off in Christchurch despite the fact that we face a looming massive skills shortage. The likelihood is that a skills shortage will slow the pace of recovery, but we could be doing something about that skills shortage right now. We need to as Christchurch will be competing with the rest of New Zealand for skilled labour as well. Nothing has happened since the September, however. In Christchurch alone it is estimated that 10,000 homes will have to be demolished and rebuilt. Another 100,000 require repair work. As well, there is a further $3 billion worth of non-residential reconstruction needed in Christchurch. Nationally, the cost of dealing to leaky buildings is estimated at up to $20 billion, while in Auckland there’s is a backlog of new housing needed to cope with population growth. All in all, the Building Research Association forecasts more than $48 billion worth of new housing and non-residential building over the next five years. That will require a doubling of the number of skilled tradespeople. My fear is that our badly-damaged city and region will miss out. But that need not happen if Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee and the Government show some evidence of understanding the need for planning. Why hasn’t anything happened since last September? Instead of training more people, the Government is presiding over a situation in which the building and construction industry has continued to downsize, with a 30% reduction in intake of new apprentices. The number of industry trainees has shrunk from 9,800 in 2008 to around 5,500 at the start of this year. Skilled tradespeople are New Zealand (including Christchurch) for Australia in droves, just when we need them most. It is tragic to hear of one Christchurch company laying off 35 skilled building trades people. My Christchurch Labour colleagues and I find it hard to believe that no effort has been made to boost the number of apprenticeships, and we aren’t putting new training course in place. We have got many young people whose skills just need topping up. They need the courses to go to. Tomorrow we have what may be our final regular briefing with the Civil Defence controller before CERA’s John Ombler takes over. We will ask Mr Ombler if he intends to keep a hot line to deal with urgent constituent problems, and whether he will hold regular meetings with MPs. It was four degrees this morning out my way. That’s cold and it will get much colder. Home heating will be high on our agenda with the controller tomorrow and with CERA.

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RUTH DYSON: Last night’s community briefing in Sydenham was a success. We moved the meeting from Sydenham Park into the Bowling Club which on a cold Christchurch evening was a warm welcome. We have had a lot of feedback from people who following the most recent bout of rain have discovered that their homes are not weather-proof. This poses a concern in the short term for their well-being, but also in the long term as leaks can lead to expensive and on-going damage. Concerns were raised by those whose homes have been red-stickered. Residents cannot get in and the water is causing further preventable damage. I will follow this up with the geotech team (or our ‘rock stars’ as we have been calling them locally) today. I will also seek advice from the Insurance Council around concerns that insurers are not processing claims until the geotech reports are received. Where damage is preventable we should act quickly to insure repair costs are minimised. The Student Volunteer Army has expanded this week to include high school students who have come on board in the school holidays to help clear silt from the most recent bout of liquefaction. Sam Johnson was at the most recent Lyttelton community meeting and attended last night’s meeting in Sydenham. Sam received a huge round of applause from the community and has done students everywhere a great service with his organisation and civic service. With liquefaction not quite as severe after the most recent aftershock high schoolers have the opportunity to help over the shorter time period of the school holidays as university students gear up for exams.

LIANNE DALZIEL: I welcome the news that a special fund has been set up by the New Zealand Law Foundation called LawCAN to provide legal services for quake-stricken Cantabrians. I agree with Community Law Canterbury manager Paul O’Neill that LawCAN will help people rebuild their lives as they deal with insurance companies, building contractors, employers, local authorities and others. Some of these dealings will be legally complicated and any help LawCAN can provide will be more than welcome. Today I would like to pay tribute to the Māori wardens who have just stood down after working tirelessly for Christchurch since the quake. The wardens are said to have knocked on an average of 700 doors per day. Their work was especially concentrated in the eastern suburbs in conjunction with New Brighton police. Often the wardens were the first faces to be seen by many following the quake and came as a great comfort. Their services ranged from providing food and water to emotional support, and many much-needed hugs.

BRENDON BURNS: The Government's initial response to the loss of tens of thousands of jobs in Christchurch was wholly appropriate, but the package, which provided up to $500 a week gross for full-time employees, started to wind back this week. Sole traders have been cut off from support, affecting many one-person businesses in the CBD. I know this is causing difficulties and hardship, especially as some still can’t even access their premises. We still don’t know if the Government will provide any support at all after the end of next month, but if they don’t, many businesses and people will be in real trouble, and thousands more people will join the unemployment scrapheap. That’s a cost the Government will have to meet anyway. Last night I attended two public meetings --- one called by the CanCERN group for Avonside residents, and another for the Avon Loop Association. There is great concern in Avonside about the future of land there, but I told the meeting that while houses and streets are badly affected, Labour is determined that the suburb will not be abandoned. I visited Avon Loop residents last Friday with Phil Goff and understand the level of damage around the loop is severe --- quite a number of houses have been abandoned. One woman is living in her garage as she battles to get EQC funding for repairs and has now come down with the flu. This is not an unusual story, and I intend to follow this up with EQC today. Tonight at 6pm I will chair the weekly meeting of ICONIC (Interests in Conserving the Identity of Christchurch), which brings together CBD building owners and heritage advocates.

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