Proof will be in the CERA pudding

new-zealand-labour-party

Wed May 04 2011 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Proof will be in the CERA pudding

Wednesday, 4 May 2011, 2:35 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party

Clayton COSGROVE
Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Spokesperson
4 May 2011

Proof will be in the CERA pudding

Labour MPs agree with Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee that the first cross-party MPs’ forum held in Parliament last night offered opportunities for constructive discussion, but say “the proof will be in the pudding”.

Labour’s Earthquake Recovery spokesperson Clayton Cosgrove said Labour MPs raised a number of issues at last night’s meeting.

“Gerry Brownlee says in his statement today that topics discussed included nominations for a community forum,” Clayton Cosgrove said.

“Discussion ranged much wider than that, however. Canterbury’s Labour MPs believe there needs to be a formal plan developed for community engagement that goes well beyond the hand-picked community forum.

“We also raised a number of other extremely serious issues around home heating, emergency housing and geotech mapping,” Clayton Cosgrove said.

“It appears thousands of heating appliances won’t be installed until the end of July. By then we will have had two months of winter, and we have already experienced sub-zero nights.

“We also understand that some emergency or temporary housing won’t be ready until winter’s over. That’s also potentially a serious problem.

“People need timely geotech mapping information, so they know whether their houses are liveable in and what their future entails. This has the potential to be extremely stressful, so a personalised and formalised communications plan for the release of this information to affected families will be needed. We have offered to help develop and implement that if Mr Brownlee agrees.

“Labour is committed to trying to make CERA (Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority) work. Mr Brownlee has listened to what we have to say and we thank him for that. Now we wait to see if any of our recommendations are taken up by him.”

ENDS

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