Quake Outcasts Response to Minister Brownlee's Remarks

Christchurch- The red zone saga continues with Gerry Brownlee's latest outrageous 'offer' to 'assist' red zoned vacant land, uninsured, and commercial property owners.

The so-called Minister for Earthquake Recovery gave his reasons to the Press newspaper for not fully compensating property owners who had their land condemned by the government.

Mr Brownlee suggested that full compensation to these red zone property owners would "set a dangerous precedent" while ignoring the fact that it was his zoning policy that saw to the condemnation of people's homes and land, not the earthquakes.

He further suggested the absurd idea that somehow uninsured property owners had the power to foretell an impending disaster and that government would bail them out.

This insinuation is as absurd as pulling a donkey out of another animal's bodily orifice.

What Mr Brownlee suggested was grossly inaccurate. The government is not being asked to foot the bill to repair people's homes. Instead, it is being asked to compensate for the government's taking of property by the action of red zoning.

Red zoning is an instrument contrived to mitigate EQC's claims liability, because to allow all EQC claims to be honoured would leave the state-owned insurer in ruins. The vacant land, uninsured, and commercial property owners are collateral damage in the government's attempt to save the failing EQC.

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