PM has head in sand over insurance market

new-zealand-labour-party

Wed Sep 28 2011 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

PM has head in sand over insurance market

Wednesday, 28 September 2011, 4:48 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party

Lianne
Dalziel
Christchurch MP

28 September 2011 MEDIA STATEMENT
PM has head in sand over insurance market

Earthquake-affected homeowners in Canterbury will be disgusted at the Prime Minister’s continued shrugging off of a his commitment to getting the region back on its feet, Labour’s Christchurch East MP Lianne Dalziel says.

“The best John Key could do in the House today when asked what the Government was doing to resolve problems around the stalled insurance market was to reiterate his mantra that there would be ‘no free lunch’, and in the meantime residents unable to rebuild or repair should just hang fire.

“These are people whose lives have been on hold for months. A functioning insurance market is pivotal to them rebuilding their lives and to the recovery of the region,” Lianne Dalziel said.

“Yet the delays continue. It is now seven months since the February earthquake and nearly three months since the Government made its first announcements on the land review of the most damaged communities.

“The only indication he will give on how long he will allow insurance money to bleed out of the economy is an ‘if all else fails’. That attitude will cripple the region.

“Not only is this impacting on individual home owners who cannot move on as they have been effectively locked out of the insurance market, but it is also affecting the construction industry, which cannot get work while building is stalled because of the lack of insurance.

“The Prime Minister has his head in liquefaction-prone sand if he thinks that no Government intervention is required,” Lianne Dalziel said.

“To borrow a phrase from the Chamber of Commerce’s Peter Townsend, the delay in getting back to a functioning insurance market is a cancer. And like any cancer, intervention may be necessary to achieve a healthy recovery.”

ENDS

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