Sunday 26th June, 2011

Q+A interview with Bob Parker.

Points of interest:
- 2500-5000 new sections “ready to go” in Christchurch
- “Another set” around Halswell and Belfast ready to go in a few months
- Not everyone in the red zone will have to leave: “There’s a question there… which is if people want to stay there indefinitely, can they do that? Because we’re hearing some voices from people in the city saying, well, I’m not going to move”
- Council do only temporary repairs to red zone infrastructure; in the medium to long term facilities will be run down
- Past spending on Auckland will now have to come to Christchurch
- “We will continue to pay our way in the future”
- Not concerned about “Christchurch fatigue”
- Before earthquakes Canterbury contributed 20% of New Zealand’s GDP from 15% of the workforce – “we’ve been more than paying our way”
- Not happy with “negative commentary” about Christchurch’s future, which “really hurts our people”

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

Q+A , 9-10am Sundays on TV ONE. Repeats at 9.10pm Sundays, 10.10am and 2.10pm Mondays on TVNZ 7

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BOB PARKER interviewed by PAUL HOLMES

PAUL Confirmation this week that for over 5000 of the worst-hit Christchurch homeowners, the government will buy their homes at pre-recession levels, which appears to most people to be generous. So a decision for the people zoned red. But where will they go and what options do they really have? The next group to be decided are the more than 10,000 residents in the orange zone. Further land investigations needed before they get resolution. And will earthquakes continue to rock the city? The Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says, in his opinion, no one is going to be building anything in the city in the next 12 months. Mayor Bob Parker is with us from Christchurch . Good morning.
BOB PARKER – Christchurch Mayor
Good morning, Paul.

PAUL Do you agree with Gerry Brownlee on that no building in the next 12 months?

BOB I’m not so sure about that. You know, I guess my view is that there is the possibility depending on where you are in the city. We certainly know the different parts of the city, in terms of the ground conditions, have responded in different ways. And although as you move west, you have less of that liquefaction issue, you certainly have shaking damage. You know, we don’t know what we don’t know, and nobody would have thought on the 4th of September last year that here we are 10 months later, we’d still be in this environment, and there is no doubt we’ll have more aftershocks. We don’t know how many or how big.

PAUL I suppose what he’s talking about, Bob, was, you know, it’s the number of diggers and the builders who can get the work done. I mean, you’ve still got, what, 1300, 1400 buildings in the central— in the CBD to take down, to demolish.

BOB But I think you’ve kind of got to separate the issues in the CBD from the residential issues. And by and large, although one is about accommodation for families and individuals, the other is about locating business, and many of the businesses have been very innovative in terms of finding other areas to accommodate themselves within commercial areas. So separate that out from the residential.

PAUL Got you, but I suppose if we’re talking about people moving out of the red zone, it’s likely they’re going to be buying houses that are already built.

BOB Well, that’s an option, isn’t it? And certainly it is an option

PAUL I mean, how many houses have you got for sale in Christchurch right now?

BOB Oh, that’s a question I didn’t expect you to ask me, actually, Paul—

PAUL I think it’s about 2000.

BOB I was going to say we’ve got a lot of people coming out of the investment market, so there will be a lot of residential property for sale. And we’ve got a pretty good land supply available which is actually ready to go and plans to bring a lot more land on stream very very quickly to increase the number of options. But the seismic climate will affect how quickly people can really get into that relocation.

PAUL Exactly. I mean, I suppose, really, what does anyone know about anything seismic in Christchurch at the moment regarding investing your dollars and putting your hand in your back pocket to build something.

BOB Well, I think we all can say that this event will end. What we can’t say is exactly when it will end, and that’s the $64 million question right now. But it will have an end, and I think we’ve got a temporary housing stock which is growing rapidly at this time. What we’ve been really amazed with so far is that many of the people who have been displaced in the city, some have left, but many others have found ways to remain in the city to keep the family, work and education connections.

PAUL All right, but I’m talking about people leaving the red zone, Bob. 11,000 new sections you were talking about the other day – are they available now, and have they got infrastructure around them, and have they been tested for seismic stability?

BOB OK, so if we move through the 11,000 first of all, I’m not sure exactly how many of those are ready to go at this instant, but we’ve heard different numbers from developers from between 2500 to 5000. Then there is another set of those sections – they’re in a residential zone. The council’s got infrastructure running past the gate. Sometimes there might be single lots, other times a number of lots or smaller subdivisions, and they can be brought on to the market very quickly. So, you know, that’s a matter of months. It’s not a matter of years—

PAUL And when we talk about those subdivisions, Bob— Excuse me for interrupting you, but when we talk about those subdivisions, we’ve got supermarkets, we’ve got shops, we’ve got schools?

BOB Yeah, many of those subdivisions are clustered around the existing fabric of the city. A number of them are in two areas which are designated for growth in the south-west, first of all, round Halswell, and we’ve got all the plans in place there to build that additional infrastructure that you’re talking about. And the other area is up around the north-east of the city – the north of the city – in the Belfast area. And then scattered in between that you’ve got smaller subdivisions on the edges of existing suburban areas.

PAUL OK.

BOB So I think, you know, that’s going to work out reasonably well. It’s when you start breaking completely new ground, as will be happening in the city, that that infrastructure question in terms of education and so on becomes a bigger questions.

PAUL Can you just clear something up for us? It occurred to us yesterday – we were uncertain of this when we were planning the programme – does everybody in the red zone effectively have to get out?

BOB Well, no, and, I mean, they’ve got a nine-month period in which to work through which offer they’re going to take, and I imagine to examine what their options are. And then beyond that time, there appears to be a figure of around about another 12 months before the government is indicating that those people should be off the land. But I think there is a question there which is a question I’m not clear on the answer of yet, which is, well, if people want to stay there indefinitely, can they do that? And because we’re certainly hearing some voices from people in the city saying, ‘Well, I’m not going to move.’

PAUL No, but I suppose it’ll be very difficult for them to get insurance, wouldn’t it? You probably won’t— The council probably won’t want to spend money on infrastructure in the red zone, so essentially—

BOB What we’ve said to people in the red zone, Paul, is that from our perspective at the moment, and we’re just coming to terms with this information – we only really got this on Wednesday as well – is that we’ll continue to supply the repaired infrastructure for as long as we can, so we’ll keep fixing the potholes with temporary fixes. We won’t be putting in new pipes, obviously, and new infrastructure. We’ll repair and continue to work on that, and we’ve had crews out there since that announcement continuing to do the temporary repairs.

PAUL So in the medium to long term, the red zone’s going to be run-down, isn’t it?

BOB Yeah. In the medium to long term, I think there’s no other option.

PAUL Bob, the orange zone, meaning problematic, needs to be assessed – time frame on that?

BOB Well, what we’re hearing from the government is about three months of that further assessment.

PAUL OK.

BOB We have to say a lot of those houses will be probably finding themselves in a green zone at the end of that work, so we’re not talking about 10,000 houses that are all going to go red. They’re orange because there’s more work that has to be done because we keep getting these aftershocks – the last significant on the 13th of June – and so there’s a reassessment to be done there. But they are not clearly in a zone that cannot be lived in, but there will be inevitably some that have now been built on ground that will be declared red.

PAUL But as the mayor of Christchurch , you’ve been going around the place for months and months and months. Can you quantify, can you give us what do you reckon is your guess about how many are going to go red in the orange zone?

BOB I don’t want to go there.

PAUL 5000?

BOB I don’t want to go there, Paul. I really don’t. I just don’t think that’s fair on people.

PAUL OK.

BOB I wish I really knew. If I knew, I’d tell them now, and I don’t know.

PAUL Here’s another one which I think will be of relevance to all New Zealanders – what’s going to end up being the split in terms of the costs of the rebuilding of Christchurch ? What’s going to end up being the split between the cost to New Zealanders and the cost to the Gnomes of Zurich?

BOB Well, I think the greater part is going to lie with the Gnomes of Zurich, to use your phrase, but, you know, we’ve already heard the government talking about a total of probably around $7 billion at this stage. There’s clearly a cost for the nation, as there always is in this nation, and we’re four-and-a-quarter million people. As a group, we tend to put the money where it’s needed. We’ve been putting money in Auckland as a country to solve very important infrastructure problems there. We’ve now got some very important issues here in the city. That’s what a country is all about – you put the resources where you need them. You don’t all need them at the same time, you hope. That’s what we’re going through here now. We will continue to pay our way in the future and support other areas as we’ve done in the past.

PAUL Yes, but do you worry going forward, as they say— do you worry going forward that the country will start to get Christchurch fatigue in terms of financing the rebuilding of Christchurch?

BOB I think at this stage we’ve got a pretty good fix on where that financing is. There will be some variation. There always is in these things. No, I don’t. I think that, you know, it’s not all about money, Paul. The most important thing to us, actually, right now is that people don’t get this down-and-out view about Christchurch . I’ve heard a fair bit of commentary lately which has been very negative about the future of this place, and that really hurts our people in the city. You know, we feel very strongly, the majority of us, that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and we will work our way through this, and we will continue to contribute to the fabric of this nation. It is a hard time. We’re not quitters, and we don’t have to be. You know, there’s a lot of stuff here that is up and running and working. This is not the end of the world as we know it. It is, and I spoke to a wonderful woman who lived through the Blitz in London , and she said, ‘This is actually worse than the Blitz because you just don’t know what’s around the corner, and it is very very harrowing.’

PAUL That’s right.

BOB But like the Blitz, it came to an end. This will come to an end, and, you know, we already contributed 20% of the GDP of this nation from 15% of the workforce. We’ve been paying more than our way. We just want to get back there and help the rest of you make this country what it can be

PAUL It will come to an end as must this interview, Roberto. I think—

BOB OK. (laughs) Thanks, Paul.

PAUL Thank you very much, Mayor of Christchurch, Bob Parker.