Christchurch Earthquake bulletin edition 117

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Mon Sep 26 2011 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Christchurch Earthquake bulletin edition 117

Monday, 26 September 2011, 11:52 am
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party

[Description: Description: Description: Description: CANTERBURY EARTHQUAKE RECOVERY PLAN Labour will:
* Purchase 1500 properties and sell them at cost to red zoned residents
* Ring-fence $100 million as compensation for home improvements
* Release all available geotechnical information
* Resolve the insurance gridlock
* Intervene in the insurance market as a last resort
* Make community engagement a priority * Use youth unemployment to fill the skills gap
* Establish an independent insurance commissioner For full policy details go to: http://www.labour.org.nz/news/leadership-needed-to-rebuild-canterbury A regular bulletin started by the Labour Party's Christchurch electorate MPs, Clayton Cosgrove (Waimakariri), Ruth Dyson (Port Hills), Lianne Dalziel (Christchurch East) and Brendon Burns (Christchurch Central) to keep people in their electorates and media informed about what is happening at grass roots level.

CLAYTON COSGROVE: Over 200 people turned up to a protest rally in Kaiapoi yesterday organised by local earthquake victims' Brent and Shirley Cairns. Gerry Brownlee and Kate Wilkinson were invited but didn't show up; obviously this was not a priority for them. The key message for the Government from these folk is that earthquake victims' want a fair go. They want full information about the damage to their individual properties so they can make well informed decisions. Gerry Brownlee says he won't release any of the geotechnical information on individual properties until well after the election His only excuse is that this would require a bit of work from some Wellington based bureaucrats to pull together. That is a completely lame excuse. Gerry Brownlee also says people can appeal their zoning status but how can folk do that if the Government won't give them the information which would form the basis for any appeal. Local Cabinet Minister Kate Wilkinson bizarrely told the last meeting of the Kaiapoi Residents Association that if earthquake victims' wanted geotechnical information about their individual properties they should hire and pay for their own experts to get it! These people are taxpayers and as such they have already paid for this information which Kate Wilkinson and Gerry Brownlee refuse to give to them. These people have also lost their homes and many have lost their jobs. Where are they going to get the money to pay for expensive geotechnical reports and again why should they when this information already exists. Yet again this shows the Government's arrogance and how quickly they are getting out of touch with those in most need in our community. The plea from the protest rally was for the Government to start listening to local people, treat them with respect, and to be transparent and accountable. That accountability could have started with a Government representative showing up at the rally.

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BRENDON BURNS: Around 50 residents from St Albans turned out on Saturday morning at Abberley Park to air their feelings of being forgotten in the process of recovering from the earthquakes. Most of St Albans is green zoned but as I said to the meeting, green does not always mean go.

Many residents are facing delays getting assessments from EQC and insurers, let alone settlements. Some simply can't understand being green zoned when they've had three rounds of major liquefaction through their houses and even springs popping up in their gardens. They are sharing the frustration of not being able to get access to the geo-technical assessments which have zoned them green.

Landscape architect Di Lucas arrived with her now well-known updates of the 'Black Maps" which show most of St Albans was a swamp when the European settlers arrived. She's agreed to assess where the silt banks (natural levees) formed around the area - these tend to be where buildings are most at risk. We are planning further meetings to identify insurance and wider issues.

I saw first hand evidence of levee problems in another suburb, Linwood, yesterday when our team door-knocked. In one dipped stretch of Stanmore Rd where flooding has been common in recent months, three separate blocks of 4-unit single storey flats are entirely abandoned. Leaving your home is hard at the best of times, especially when you consider this is one of the most deprived areas in Christchurch.

LIANNE DALZIEL: I attended the first of four information meetings that CERA is holding on the Draft Recovery Strategy to facilitate people making comments before it is finalised. What a complete waste of time. I didn't do an actual head count but I would be surprised if there were more than two dozen people who walked into the hall, watched the ten minute video, viewed the displays that contained the same information contained on the website or in the booklets and spoke to staff from CERA, who for most of the time out-numbered the visitors. I don't blame CERA for the situation they are in. The Council has been given a set legislative timeframe for developing a recovery plan for the CBD separate from the rest of the city and their Share an Idea campaign captured the public's imagination. I thought their International Speaker Series provided incredibly useful ideas as well. The CERA process for developing the Recovery Strategy has been lacklustre by comparison. The draft strategy has the principles of recovery in the penultimate chapter and the community is completely invisible in the summary document. In short it fails to meet the standards set by international best practice Comments need to be received by the 30th October 2011 so CERA can submit a report to the Minister in January. There are no plans for any community engagement on the document and that says it all really.

RUTH DYSON: Another recess from Parliament is over, and the CERA briefing promised by Minister Brownlee did not eventuate yet again. We are now into the last two weeks of Parliament before we stop until after the election. The earthquake issues will not disappear because we are having an election, so I really hope that the Minister makes proper arrangements for us to receive briefings during this time.

Went to the opening day at Naval Point Yacht Club. Very well attended as usual, with lots of discussion about the future of the Estuary Clubs, with real concerns that the extent of the silt from the quakes will make yachting in the future very challenging. We need to get all the relevant stakeholders together to see what options there are for the future of this sport on the Estuary.

We have a big agenda for the meeting with Gerry Brownlee tomorrow night. I have added the concerns from the early childhood sector following a meeting between community centres, local Councillors and MPs last week. I can't understand, and nor can they, why the different parts of the education sector have been treated so differently by the Government. Early childhood centres have had their funding reduced to reflect falling roll numbers post quakes, primary and secondary had their funding maintained until the end of the year and tertiary have just received Government support! Our ECEs deserve support too!

Authorised by Clayton Cosgrove, Parliament Buildings Wellington.

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