“The families of the 115 victims of the CTV building are angry that the Government is going to retain, for current or previous design work, the 1 year 1 day rule, which makes prosecution in a case of flawed design more difficult,” says Maan Alkaisi

“We have been badly let down by Justice Minister Andrew Little who committed to repealing this law, which acts as a potential barrier to prosecution in a situation like the CTV building collapse”.

The Crimes Amendment Bill is before the house today and clause 6 repeals the ‘one year and a day rule’ which the families welcome.

However, clause 2(2) in the schedule says the ‘one year and a day rule’ continues to apply for any current or previous design work (i.e. the 1 year 1 day issue is only resolved on a forward looking basis). The practical effect of the bill is that the rule will still be relevant to the bulk of the Christchurch rebuild.

“We urge the Government to reconsider and close this loophole now. No engineer designing a building for the Christchurch rebuild did so with the expectation of using this get out of jail free card. Our number one priority is public safety. The advantage of repealing this loophole now is that the engineers will have a stronger incentive to check and correct any designs they subsequently discover are flawed. The CTV tragedy would have been avoided if the engineers properly fixed the flaws when they were discovered five years later.”

“This Friday we mark the 8th anniversary of the CTV tragedy. It will add insult to injury for the CTV families if the Government passes a bill that would allow our injustice to be repeated in future.”

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