Christchurch Earthquake bulletin edition 109

new-zealand-labour-party

Mon Sep 12 2011 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Christchurch Earthquake bulletin edition 109

Monday, 12 September 2011, 10:26 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: On a positive note, I attended the launch of NZ Search and Rescue Group 12's first mobile command centre over the weekend. The command centre is custom built with state-of-the-art equipment and is fully mobile allowing the team to be entirely self-contained and transportable. I'm told commercially it would cost up to a quarter of a million dollars to build. The project was spearheaded by a group of search and rescue volunteers who raised the money themselves. The launch was a great tribute to their efforts and it is a privilege to have the command centre, at least initially located in Waimakariri. On a sad note, the weekend's rally of red zoned people in central Christchurch illustrated the stress that many Cantabrians are still going through when dealing with insurers. Gerry Brownlee has said he is not in a position to do anything. Well he is in a position to call a meeting, to bang some heads together and get some fairness, clarity and consistency for residents. Mr Brownlee can call a meeting and make insurers justify each case where they are reversing decisions and retrospectively re-writing contracts. This is not a matter precluded by reinsurance, this is a matter where the Minister must be proactive and demand accountability. The Prime Minister has this morning admitted that residents' losses are of concern to him. His voiced concern is better late than never and I hope it will spur Mr Brownlee into action on this issue.

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

RUTH DYSON: There were another two CERA meetings over the weekend in my electorate. The first at Cashmere High was well-received by the pulbic. People left with practical information and felt as though they were listened to respectfully. Sadly, this was not the case at the Lyttelton meeting. Residents left feeling frustrated and some were openly angry. CERA CEO Roger Sutton was unable to be there which was understandable, and his replacement Dr Jan Kupec (CERA's chief geotechnical engineer) had to leave before the end of the meeting. Without a representative from CERA many questions went unanswered. At both meetings, the offer of smaller street meetings where individual questions could get detailed answers was very warmly received. However CERA must insure qualified representatives are present at every meeting in future. People give up their time to attend these meetings, and this week that meant missing the opening of the RWC! One question which I will be following up is whether subdivisions where homes are yet to be built have fallen through a land assessment gap, given that EQC won't be assessing them. In areas like Cass Bay, where Geotech experts have said there are no land issues, many potential new homes are still not being built. This is frustrating as well as expensive for the landowner, who is still in the white zone.

BRENDON BURNS: There was a strong turnout yesterday at the rally protesting the way the Government's offer and insurance company hardball tactics are impacting on peoples' equity. I spoke at the rally and outlined the concerns I have had relayed to me by constituents who are fed up with insurance company offers which are being revised from rebuilds to repairs now red zone classification has been confirmed. Labour has for months been calling on the Government to provide free legal advice on such questionable decisions. Even the insurance companies are questioning how they've behaved. NZI's CEO Karl Armstrong is quoted in the latest industry journal on the issues have been created by inconsistent policy and broker wordings. "Whilst no doubt controversial, I believe the time has come for us to look at creating consistent wordings across the industry. It's not acceptable for us to ask own legal departments or our customers to decipher what our wordings mean." Many Christchurch residents would heartily agree. I would also like to pass on thanks to the RebuildChristchurch website team for their Let's Get it Done weekend. Around 80 volunteers turned up at a Wainoni church base to shovel silt and do other jobs. RebuildChristchurch founder Deon Swiggs told me many people, mainly older, are still reluctant to ask for help as they feel others are worse off than they are. RebuildChristchurch had its first birthday on Saturday and continues to attract tens of thousands of visitors every week for the latest, independent quake-related information and the ability to engage and post information and images - for more information visit http://www.rebuildchristchurch.co.nz.

LIANNE DALZIEL: At the beginning of August, we were told that Brooklands, Spencerville and Southshore could expect the announcement of their zoning status in 4-6 weeks. The Minister said they had deliberately chosen longer timeframes to avoid going beyond them - as they were anticipating providing answers sooner. So what is the hold-up for these communities that are still on tenterhooks at the end of six weeks? Imagine my annoyance when I received an email from a constituent who has been told by the CERA call centre that the announcement has been delayed and that a new date would be given at the beginning of October. The rumour going around Brooklands is that the recommendations are ready to go to Cabinet, but they have been deferred because Gerry Brownlee has gone overseas to see the reinsurers. If that proves to be the case then this is an appalling abuse of process, as is the decision to withhold all the geotechnical information that the government used to decide the zones. These are people's lives that have been put on hold. I have already asked the Minister for a geotechnical engineer to be made available to talk through all the issues with their land, but have now sent an urgent request for a geotechnical engineer to come to the Brooklands Residents Association AGM tonight at 7.30pm at the Brooklands Community Centre. It is the least they can do.

Authorised by Clayton Cosgrove, Parliament Buildings Wellington.

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

a.supporter:hover {background:#EC4438!important;} @media screen and (max-width: 480px) { #byline-block div.byline-block {padding-right:16px;}}

Using Scoop for work?

Scoop is free for personal use, but you’ll need a licence for work use. This is part of our Ethical Paywall and how we fund Scoop. Join today with plans starting from less than $3 per week, plus gain access to exclusive Pro features.

Join Pro Individual Find out more

Find more from New Zealand Labour Party on InfoPages.