Christchurch Earthquake bulletin edition 110

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Tue Sep 13 2011 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Christchurch Earthquake bulletin edition 110

Tuesday, 13 September 2011, 12:02 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: After months of silence from the Government on reports of nefarious behaviour by the insurance industry in Christchurch, John Key has this morning admitted he is 'bothered' by the situation. Many residents are set to be hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket as a direct result of the inequity of the Government's offer and the refusal of insurance companies to honour full replacement policies for homes in the red zone. People in Christchurch are literally banking on the Government's every word. They don't have time for John Key to feign concern unless he is going to follow through and provide solutions. The situation is now effectively at a standstill.

The Government needs to demand that insurance companies justify retrospective decision making. People are doing it tough, and their concerns aren't new, it just takes a public rally for the Government to sit up and listen. It's been a year since the first quake. But the rebuild remains at a standstill due to a lack of leadership from Government which has allowed insurers to reverse decisions and retrospectively re-write contracts.

RUTH DYSON: Redcliffs School has had a pretty challenging time over the last six months, following the dramatic cliff fall behind their school. They were closed, then moved to Sumner School and then moved to Van Asch School recently. So it was great to be at the Canterbury/Westland annual Science Fair awards and see three of the awards go to Redcliffs pupils, Meg Brown, Fran Beaton and Dylan Ocheduszko-Brown.

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BRENDON BURNS: What are Red zone residents to make of the fact that the Prime Minister now says he is troubled that they will be as much as $150,000 or more out of pocket from the Government's offers? This information has been in the public domain for weeks now, courtesy of people like Rev. Mike Coleman who helped organise Sunday's rally which attracted more than 200 people. Surely Cabinet was provided with more comprehensive advice when it put the package together.
On the ground, it's estimated the average RV in the red zone is around $300,000. Given section prices start around $200,000, that's why people are going to be so much worse off. It's also why Labour has been saying the Government needs to articulate what it is doing to bring those section prices down. The first red zone couple to settle with the Government yesterday were able to get a satisfactory payment from their insurance company and put it with the Government's land offer. Mr Key said yesterday that people could always fall back on the Government's offer to buy both land and house. That would have left the first residents to settle with a $114,000 mortgage. As they said, there are winners from the offers and there are losers. What should be particularly troubling Mr Key is that Christchurch was told at the start that no one would be worse off and their equity would be preserved.

LIANNE DALZIEL: I spoke to the Brooklands Residents Association AGM last night. I read out the principles of recovery from the draft recovery strategy that CERA has released for consultation. Residents laughed when I read these words "the issues are complex, therefore communication must be clear and stick to the facts and give landowners, residents and businesses the information they need". No wonder it was buried in chapter nine of a 10 chapter document. These people have asked for information about the state of their land - not because they want to challenge any decisions - but because they want to understand the decision. I have three questions for the government Why would you put six to ten thousand people in the property market at the same time and not expect the government to have to play a role. Why would you tell the insurers what a red zone client's bottom line was, before they had made an offer? And why would you release a draft strategy containing principles you are not following. I have called on the government to make the engineering expertise available to my constituents.

Authorised by Clayton Cosgrove, Parliament Buildings Wellington.

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