Q+A’s Paul Holmes Interviews Mayor Bob Parker

Q+A’s Paul Holmes Interviews Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker.

The interview has been transcribed below. The full length video interviews and panel discussions from this morning’s Q+A can also be seen on tvnz.co.nz at, http://tvnz.co.nz/q-and-a-news

Q+A is repeated on TVNZ 7 at 9.10pm on Sunday nights and 10.10am and 2.10pm on Mondays.

BOB PARKER interviewed by PAUL HOLMES

PAUL Let’s now go back to the plight of our friends in Christchurch, our brethren and sorority in Christchurch. Welcome to the Mayor Bob Parker who's with us there on the street. Were you happy with what you heard from Gerry Brownlee.

BOB PARKER – Mayor of Christchurch Sorry Paul I didn’t hear what Gerry had to say, I've been out around the city this morning, so you'll have to update me.

PAUL Actually he had nothing to promise at all. Tell us about your mayoral fund Mr Mayor, how is it going to work?

BOB Well it's doing really well. We've got about three and a half million cash in there, and promises that I think would bring it up to about another 11 million dollars, and the idea of the fund in broad terms is that we get money out to the people who need it quite frankly, as quickly as possible. So we're working with the Red Cross, they're used to running these sorts of appeals. It's not something that’s an everyday thing for us. They’ve got criteria, they’ve kinda got a framework kitset that we can put in place. My Deputy Mayor Norm
Withers is keeping an eye on the whole thing and making sure that we keep it moving as quickly as possible. We've now got a group of commissioners for want of a better term who will be helping disperse that money and we're keen to get it out and on to the streets to the people who need it as quickly as possible with a good safe criteria to protect us against people wanting to you know abuse the process.

PAUL I understand. So it will be a most deserving kind of a case scenario. There are difficult things. I heard the other day Air New Zealand had very generously come up with a 1000 return tickets out of Christchurch for you to be given away, to be allocated at the discretion of the Mayor and I'm thinking God how’s he gonna spend the time, it's a very nice gesture…

BOB I think the way that we do that, and thanks to Air New Zealand, you know thanks to Fletchers, thanks to all the p that have given. Most of all thanks to the ordinary Kiwis who have been so incredibly supportive to us, and we've gotta figure out a process, a 1000 tickets, they need to be used wisely. But here's an example, you know we've got a lot of people that get forgotten in an event like this, paraplegics, people caught in wheelchairs with spinal injuries and things like that, very difficult for them in this scenario with aftershocks when accessibility and mobility is an issue for them. So I think there's an example where maybe we can help with the airfares, get people out of the cities to a place where when you have a difficulty with access and ease of access, you can get a little more peace of mind. There are many deserving people in the city Paul, I would need 400,000 air tickets to say thank you frankly.

PAUL Bob it's been an amazing week, it's a week you will never forget of course, and it's been a very bad week in some ways, and I spose it's been in some ways the worst of times, but in others I would suggest to you it's been the best of times, and I imagine there's been something very special about a city coming together the way it has.

BOB Oh Paul we're still in the middle of a local state of emergency we mustn’t forget that, it's a gorgeous day but there's a lot of pressure and a lot of suffering but yes you're absolutely right. It's been an inspiring time as well as an upsetting time, and the human spirit in Canterbury is unbelievably courageous, fantastic, decent, real Kiwi spirit, and that’s immensely moving for all of us to be in a small way involved in trying to make things better.

PAUL Thank you Mayor of Christchurch Bob Parker.

ENDS