Christchurch Earthquake bulletin edition 61

Christchurch
LABOUR MPs

20 June 2011 MEDIA STATEMENT
Christchurch Earthquake bulletin edition 61

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: The Government still seems to be at sixes and sevens about when it is going to make public a timeline for announcements on the future of land. There is understandably a great deal of speculation and rumour about what is going to happen and when, and that’s not doing anyone any good. John Key is dropping broad hints that an announcement is due any day about which homes can be saved and which can’t, with speculation that 12,000 houses might have to be demolished. If the announcement is, in fact, that imminent, then that means the Government already has all the facts, and is simply not saying. Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee continues to maintain that it is impossible to give a timeline. Maybe he should tell John Key, because the conflicting messages are churning people up unnecessarily. It is most unfortunate that the Government is continuing to bandy around speculative material and yet is criticising others who don’t have the information they apparently have. On that point, it is interesting that Gerry Brownlee has again deferred a cross-party briefing --- the third time he has done so in the past week or so. The meeting is now scheduled for Thursday, again adding to speculation that the Government may have made announcements before then. This is all about people’s futures. It is not right that they should be subject to myths and rumours. As Labour has been advocating for months, it would have been far better to roll out factual information as it became available instead of saving it up for one massive announcement. In respect of issues around insurance claims, I have been talking to AMI’s project managers, and have been impressed with the detailed scope of work they are providing for claimants. That is really encouraging. It was also heart-warming to see all the great work done over the weekend by people cleaning up the silt from the latest quakes. It was a tremendous effort.

RUTH DYSON: I spent some of the weekend in Brookhaven and Bromley with volunteers who were helping clear silt. With widespread liquefaction locals were overjoyed with the help at hand. There has been more talk from John Key and Gerry Brownlee about the estimated number of homes to be demolished in Christchurch. Today the figure is 12,000. Unfortunately, this misses the point. The primary question is whether people can rebuild on their land and here the Government remains silent. Our message to the Government is simple; people must be given full and frank information. A meeting attended by over 200 residents in Sumner on Friday night was incredibly successful thanks to the up-to-date advice and information offered. While speakers couldn’t answer every question about the future, they told residents what they knew, leaving people feeling empowered. On Saturday and Sunday I attended two separate meetings in Lyttelton. The first was a meeting led by Di Buchan, a resource management and community consultant specialist and member of the Leadership Group that drew up the Waterfront Framework to guide future development of the Wellington port. Di has consistently advocated for more effective and respectful methods of involving communities in decision-making. Di led a discussion drawing from her experience in the development of the Wellington waterfront which transformed a once unsightly container storage area, largely closed to public access, to what is widely regarded as one of the most well utilised public ports. The reconstruction of Lyttelton could offer similar opportunities. The second meeting had Green MP Kennedy Graham as guest speaker. Lastly, I was thrilled with the Crusaders win over the Hurricanes on Friday evening. The game was a well-deserved boost for Canterbury.

LIANNE DALZIEL: Over the weekend the streets of Bexley were literally crawling with volunteers who had come from far and wide with shovels, bobcats, wheelbarrows and a spirit of giving that was heart-warming. Thanks to Alan & Mark from Kaiapoi who were the first to wander up my driveway, shovels in hand. While I declined their offer of help due to having to be somewhere else at the time, I capitulated when members of the Farmy Army turned up a little later, given I had been shovelling silt since 9am (and I can definitely feel it in my muscles today). I have just realised I never truly appreciated the meaning of the word dispirited until now, when parts of my electorate have been hit for a fourth time. I remember sending an email to the EQC on September 7th last year saying that people needed to know what would happen to their houses so they could work out how much cleaning up of the silt they needed to do on their properties. My constituents are now asking me the very same question; how many times do we have to keep doing this? Still, the Farmy Army, the Students Volunteer Army, the Rotary Clubs, the Church groups, the friends, neighbours and families have helped lift our spirits enormously. On Friday night I spoke at the St John Ambulance Honours and Awards Presentation Ceremony, with invited guests welcomed as part of the St John family. St John is an organisation to which so many people owe their lives. This had been made very real with St John Ambulance volunteers in Culverden having saved Cr Chrissie Williams' life. I wanted to thank them and reiterate the importance of being able to rely on neighbours, friends and families - in every sense of the word - in times of disaster.

BRENDON BURNS: Last night's Close Up encapsulated the tensions and frustrations of three quakes, three loads of silt and water and still no clarity about whether we will see information this week about whether people can rebuild. Three families from Retreat Rd in Avonside featured in the programme. One family is emigrating to Australia, one wants to stay in Avonside, the other will relocate within Christchurch. On TV3’s The Nation over the weekend I challenged Gerry Brownlee for saying it was "blindingly obvious" what land will be abandoned, yet refusing to say where. He said he regretted using the term but as of this morning will still give no signals on when announcements might be made. People deserve to know what is happening with their land. The continuing absence of information is the worst possible situation and has undoubtedly added to the poorest building statistics in recent memory. It has been reported that only 21 earthquake-related building consents have been issued for new homes in Canterbury since September 2010. Statistics NZ’s trend series for new homes authorised nationwide has fallen nearly one-third since April 2010, to the lowest level since the series began in 1982. Progress in Canterbury is stalled while residents wait for a government timeline on the pending land reports. Information relayed to my office confirms heightened tensions among property developers and residents because of difficulties dealing with the consent process through the Christchurch City Council. Given that the Government is soon to announce areas of the city that will not be rebuilt this clearly raises serious issues about the Council’s ability to respond, as a matter of some urgency, to new housing needs. The IConIC group I chair is still waiting to hear from CERA about the inner city buildings damaged or further damaged in last Monday’s quakes. There are plans to urgently demolish perhaps 100 of them. We want to know how many heritage buildings are on the list. IConIC meets tonight at 5.30 above Tiffany's restaurant. My electorate caravan is out again today, 3-4pm, cnr Grafton St and Wilsons Rd, near AMI stadium.


ends

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