Estimates Debate — Vote Canterbury Earthquake Recovery

We acknowledge in these estimates, of course, that the department Mr Brownlee heads as Minister, the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, is only some months old. Therefore, it presents some difficulties for us in attempting, if you will, to measure its performance.

Just for a moment, and given that we are almost at the 12-month anniversary of the September quake, I will review some of the issues that have arisen. I shall be generous to the Government from the kick-off, and say that I think most Cantabrians would acknowledge that the initial Government response following the September quake was pretty good. We have to acknowledge that. Resources were put into play, and the volunteer community, and the Government agencies to a large extent, I think, exceeded expectations in many cases.

Indeed, if we come forward directly to the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, I know that my colleagues in Canterbury, and all my colleagues on this side of the Chamber, supported the Minister’s appointment of Roger Sutton as the chief executive. Indeed, I think it is fair to say that had we been in the seats across the aisle we probably would have looked to appoint Mr Sutton, too. I have not seen, certainly in my days here, universal support for a Government, or even a local government, appointment in the way there was and is for Mr Sutton. We all wish him well. I do not think that any commentator, politician, or anyone else criticised the appointment.

That being said, the acid test is about the performance of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, given, firstly, that its Minister, Mr Brownlee, has wartime powers. He has more extensive powers probably than any Minister has had in the history of our Parliament in terms of legislative capacity. Secondly, there is a $5.5 billion budget that this Parliament has provided that Minister, and, thirdly, that Minister has the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, his own dedicated department. So to quote the Minister’s words, and as he is fond of saying, we look forward to him “getting on with it”, because some critical issues are now facing our community.

There have been questions raised about home heating, but I will leave it to my colleague Brendon Burns to touch on that. There have been delays as we have moved through winter—it has been a pretty cold winter, especially last week.

There are some substantive issues of basic human relations in terms of the quality of communication that people have received. I have to say that leaks had come out before the big announcement was made, when the sort of Nuremburg-type rally was held as the zoning was announced some months ago. The media had that information days before, and a sort of uncontrolled leak materialised out of nowhere that shocked people. They were shocked even in my patch, where the council was days away from breaking ground, and where morale was high. Spirits were high, but 2 days before Mr Brownlee’s announcement many of the people of Kairaki Beach were literally sitting with their insurers with new plans confirming them for their new houses. They assumed there may well have been a delay but they had not had any advice—and that included the Mayor of Waimakariri and the chief executive of the Waimakariri District Council—apart from an hour or so beforehand, that their community would, effectively, be toast. Those are basic things, I think, on which the Minister needs to shape up. I am sure his department, with Roger Sutton at the helm, a person who has demonstrated openness and transparency, will shape up and that may well change.

The difficulty and concern we have is that now Mr Sutton is under the thumb, the constraints, of the Public Service, and that was evident when he came to Kairaki Beach. He was asked whether he would provide the geotechnical information to those local people who were distraught. He answered that, yes, he would, and that he saw no reason why he should not. But over subsequent weeks and days, that has been wound back. Now we know of course that that information will not be provided until all the other zoning in Canterbury is confirmed in approximately—I do not know—6 months, whenever, the never-never.

So, the acid test for the performance of this department, and the acid test by which the people of Canterbury will judge Mr Brownlee, his Government, and the department, is on two promises that were made and were made repeatedly. The first was made after the September quake, and I commend the Prime Minister for it. He said that he would put a stake in the ground, and he said that no one in Canterbury would be worse off as a result of that quake. Mr Brownlee confirmed that before the select committee some weeks ago. He confirmed that. It is Mr Brownlee who, including up until I think 15 June, has repeatedly said that his priority is that equity will be preserved by those property owners. Those are the two acid tests as we move forward to unravelling and getting the details about the offer document that the Government is yet to provide to those people in the red zone. People have quoted them back to me time and time again, even at those public meetings where Ms Wilkinson—

It is a pleasure to take a call on Vote Canterbury Earthquake Recovery, but it was a bit of a tragedy to have to curtail my colleague the Hon Clayton Cosgrove, who was just warming up to the subject.

I will begin by acknowledging the three significant days of quakes we have had in Canterbury over the last 12 months, in September, February, and June. I particularly acknowledge the tragic loss that so many of our citizens have endured: loss of lives, loss of limbs, loss of homes, and loss of jobs, and sometimes all four within one family. We have a strength and resilience in Canterbury that we are very proud of, but I think that some people have had to endure a lot more than other people really understand. So, I pay tribute to the people who have gone through that, and who have started rebuilding their lives again. We have had horrendously hard times behind us, and I think we will have hard times ahead of us, as well. But, our communities are strong, our communities are passionate, and they are certainly committed to a recovery.

I think it is important to put on the record that the key to a successful recovery—and I suppose this could be taken as advice to the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery or as general comment, but I am sure he will understand it and not need reminding about it—is harnessing the strength and the passion of our communities and turning that into a genuine contribution to what our region, our city, and our suburbs will look and feel like, and what we will do in them, in the future. If people see the devastation, but feel that they have had their voices heard during the recovery of our city, particularly on what happens in our communities, they will have had an opportunity to say “We might have lost that, but actually it wasn’t as good as we would have liked it anyway. We want to do something better, and here are the sparks that will set us alight again.” Those people will remain committed to our region.

I am concerned that at the moment the only thing that is holding many people in our city is the lack of a payout from the Earthquake Commission or their insurance company. Once they get that payout they might just say “Thanks very much. I am out of here.” We do not want to lose our skilled people from our region. We need them now more than ever, so ensuring they are part of the recovery is also a very important part of keeping them there.

The critical part to harnessing that passion and strength and turning it into a contribution is to give people information. Sometimes it is really hard—I have heard the Minister explain the dilemma and I agree with him—to pick the right time for sharing information. Often we will feel, and of course it may be true, that as soon as we tell the people what information we know, they will want to know the answer to a question for which we do not have the answer. Well, it is my strongly held view that we should do that anyway. We should tell people what we know, as we know it. If they ask a question that we do not have the answer to, we should say that we do not know the answer to that yet. They may get a little frustrated, but they will not feel as disempowered as many currently do.

Many people do not have information about what happened to their land. They do not understand the process that caused the liquefaction and the silt to destroy their suburb. They do not understand the land movement. They do not understand the rockfall risk or what happened to our cliffs. There are a whole lot of questions that are unanswered for people. We could provide that information, in my view, in a much clearer way than we have to date.

There will be questions that the Minister does not have answers for, yet. I think that is entirely acceptable. We cannot tell people what we do not know. I really urge the Minister to share as much as possible with everyone in our shared community of Canterbury the information that he does have. People feel stronger for knowing what is happening in their area. Information is empowering, but knowing that somebody else has information that is not shared with everyone is very frustrating and disempowering. We have the opportunity now to share that information with people, to give them the power that information provides. We have the opportunity to harness that passion and that commitment to our communities, which is so evident in things week in, week out.

I believe that the Government had a laudable aim when it committed to preserving homeowners’ equity in our badly damaged suburbs, but given that that has not been possible with the offer the Government has made, I really want the Minister in the chair, the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery, to say that that is the case—that the Government tried to preserve equity but has not been able to do so for a large number of people.

The reason it is important for the Government to actually say that is that opinion polls have been run on the status of the Government’s offer. I know that Government members are all circulating little questionnaires in our Christchurch electorates at the moment to see what people think of the Government’s offer. I am worried about that because, of course, the constituents that I am dealing with, who are in the red zone and who are having to face up to the reality of what that offer may mean for them, are concerned that people are commenting on an offer, believing it to be one thing when, in fact, they know it to be something quite different.

The majority of homeowners, certainly the ones whom I have spoken to in the red zone and who will be receiving the offer, do not believe that this preserves equity for them at all. The ones who have expressed anxiety about what they will do in the face of the offer that they are soon to receive are virtually being told by the Government that they are ungrateful for feeling the way they do about what is generally perceived to be a fair, balanced, and reasonable offer—which is the language the Government members have used in the House.

For some people, that is the case. Members on this side absolutely accept that, on average, property prices fell by 5 percent from 2007 to 2010 and that therefore the property valuations as established in 2007 as a general rule should be more than people could have sold their property for on 3 September 2010. But, unfortunately, when one talks about averages across a country, that does not always produce a very good result for individuals.

Let me just talk about the four groups of people who are in this category. The first group are people who bought their homes when the market value exceeded the 2007 rating valuation. We have a number of constituents, I know, in our electorates who now will end up in a situation, if they accept the Government offer, of negative equity. They will owe the bank more than they will get from the Government offer.

The second group are homeowners who cannot buy property without borrowing, and who cannot afford to service a mortgage or who do not meet lending criteria. I could buy another house with the Government offer, and I am probably in a position to accept the whole of the Government offer. Obviously, I will wait till I see it in writing, but I will probably do that. I have put on record my conflict of interest in that regard. I do fit within this category. But imagine if I were an 85-year-old widow in a freehold home that I had lived in all my life and raised my kids in, and the property is worth only $250,000. What can I buy for $250,000? Not much, I am afraid. That person will not be able to get a mortgage. So that is the second group.

The third group are homeowners whose land component of their 2007 rating valuation does not represent the market value of an unimproved section and/or is insufficient to buy an equivalent-sized section in the current market. I think that in some suburbs more than others—and Bexley is obviously one of those—the land values are very low, even though the overall 2007 capital value may be better than the 2010 market value would have been for the home. I think that is because the land value calculation is not an exact science. It is worked out in the context of the capital value—the capital value, of course, looking at that general market value—but the land had a property built on it at the time. I think it is very hard to identify it.

I have had put to me wildly different land values within my electorate. There was a $60,000 difference between three properties that front on to the River Avon in the Avondale suburb. They have quite different valuations; $60,000 is the difference in the three properties across that range.

The fourth category are homeowners whose properties have not been so damaged as to warrant a rebuild and whose insurers are willing to fund only the cost of repairs. Those people are left in a situation where they will find themselves out of a home at the end of this arrangement, and not in a position to restore anything like the equity that they had in their property before.

Vote Canterbury Earthquake Recovery has been put forward by this Government in response to the worst-ever natural disaster this country has seen in our history, and I hope in all of the history of this House. The Minister in the chair, the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery, has done a wonderful job in the work done to date. We have heard from members on the other side of the Chamber some of the compliments that have been given to Mr Brownlee as the Minister in charge of the Canterbury earthquake recovery; I will reiterate some of those. If there has been a time for a wonderful man to step forward, it is now, and if we wanted a person to stand in front of the people of Canterbury and deliver as a Canterbury son, then it is Mr Brownlee. He is a former builder, and someone who understands the issues that the people of Canterbury are dealing with. One of the wonderful things we have seen after the three major disasters that we have experienced—not just one but three—is that Mr Brownlee has stood steadfast on every single one of them.

We have seen the Prime Minister come down to Christchurch and stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Canterbury, including Mayor Bob Parker, and outline to them that the Government will step in behind them and that we will rebuild our great, wonderful city in the South Island. I think that is a wonderful thing. We have a fund that has been put aside, in this estimates debate, that talks about $5.5 billion. That is a drop in the bucket, but we need a lot of support and help from the good people of New Zealand to rebuild our city. The Minister in the chair has steadfastly stood up for the people of Canterbury, whether they come from the eastern suburbs or the western suburbs, from the rich houses or the poor houses. That man has stood behind them and put forward many, many options for them.

We saw just today how some of this money will be spent. Today we have had to put in place a situation where half of people’s legal fees will be paid for, and that is worth up to $750 for those people in the affected red zone. That is a good step forward. We have seen the issue put forward of allowing upfront deposits for those people who take up the option of the Government offer they will see in a few weeks. Those are the sorts of things, when we go out and talk to the community, that we hear that people want. This Government listens to what the people want, and it is using some of that $5.5 billion wisely to deliver some of the things that people really want and think are important. This is not about side issues. It is not about media hype and the rubbish that some Opposition members have put forward. It is about someone who is solid and reliable, like the Minister, Mr Brownlee, putting forward those measures that people need to get back on their feet and get our city into recovery again.

The people of Canterbury are showing that themselves: 76 percent of people in a recent Christchurch Press poll stated that the Government was doing a good job.

💬 Hon Clayton Cosgrove: How many are in the red zone?

I say to Mr Cosgrove over there that the Opposition would love to have those sorts of numbers supporting their party, because 76 percent of the public are happy with what the Government is doing. We think that is a good step forward.

I will talk in terms of what is actually happening in Canterbury. There was a comment from the Opposition that 20,000, 30,000, or even 50,000 people in Christchurch would be unemployed. What have we seen? Nothing like that! We heard from the Opposition that something like 50,000 to 100,000 people would leave our city. What have we seen? Nothing like that, because we have leaders in John Key and Gerry Brownlee who are willing to put forward options for those people to move ahead and commit to their lives in Canterbury for the next 1, 2, 10, or 20 years. Christchurch has had more jobs in the last 3 months than have Auckland and Wellington combined. Members opposite sat there and told people in this Chamber that Canterbury would have a massive increase in unemployment. We have seen absolutely the reverse. In the Christchurch Press in the weekend there were 17 pages of job advertisements. The member opposite who is smirking might be looking at some of those pages, because he might need a job in a couple of months’ time. I think that on the latest polling about half a dozen of the people on the other side of the Chamber might need a job in Christchurch. We will give it to them: there are 17 pages of jobs in the Christchurch Press, and plenty of work. I say to Mr Cosgrove that he might have to work a bit harder. He might not be used to hard work and getting his hands a bit dirty, but who knows? There are plenty of things he can do. Mr Brownlee needs a lot of help in the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, and so does Roger Sutton, who is doing a good job. Mr Cosgrove might be gainfully employed in some way.

This Parliament has put forward its confidence in Mr Brownlee and the Prime Minister, in this vote, to rebuild our fair city—the city that I was born in, as were many generations of my family. I think that one day in 10 or 20 years’ time, when those members opposite probably will not be here, we will stand back and say what a great job Gerry Brownlee and Prime Minister John Key did at the time of the worst natural disaster in New Zealand’s history. They will build statues to this man, recognising how great and wonderful it is to have the heritage, grandeur, and greatness of Canterbury restored. We will sit back and say what a wonderful time that was. Thank you.

I raise a point of order, Mr Chairperson. I know this is an unusual situation, and I know that Mr Brownlee is too modest to do it himself, but I seek leave for an extension of time of that speech.

The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): The member can take a call if he wishes.

It is a point of order, Mr Chairperson. I have sought leave.

The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): You cannot seek leave for somebody else.

I caution the member opposite, Aaron Gilmore, about talking up the benefits of recovery too much, because the experience internationally is that we should take a little time to see just how things do pan out. One example of that came yesterday with the Electoral Commission figures for my seat of Christchurch Central, which suggested—and we are still trying to absolutely verify these figures—that 11,800 people had left Christchurch Central and relocated and re-enrolled in other seats. Although 9,700 people have come into the electorate, we can see the enormous impact that the earthquakes, which started about 11 months ago this week, have had on life in our city. When we talk about jobs in our city, let us not forget that as of 3 September last year 56,000 people were employed within the four avenues of Christchurch; I would be surprised if we have as many as half that number at this point.

We, of course, want the rebuild to happen, we want the jobs to come back, and we know that the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority is the entity that is charged with that work. We unanimously supported the appointment of Roger Sutton as the chief executive. It is pretty unusual for anybody to take a $200,000 salary cut to take on a job in New Zealand—or anywhere in the world, I suspect—but we believe that he is the best man for the job. I think it is perhaps the hardest job in New Zealand at the moment, and probably in a long, long time.

I will comment on a few things that are still popping up for me as an electorate MP, and one of them comes back to heating, as my colleague Clayton Cosgrove mentioned. I would like to ask the Minister to give us some reassurance about the heating programme continuing, because there have been signals that there was a first phase to get heating installed prior to the real onset of winter in May but that things may have been buttoning back since. As recently as Sunday I was doorknocking in the Avonside area, and I came across a man who had lost two chimneys and was still waiting for a heater. I would like some assurance from the Minister that in fact the heating programme is continuing at the speed, scale, and pace that it was before, because many thousands of people in Christchurch are still in the grip of what is still a pretty severe winter, and they do not have proper, appropriate heating.

I also ask the Minister, the Hon Gerry Brownlee, to comment on the temporary accommodation assistance that is available to people in the red zone. We need some clarity here. I was approached by a constituent, Sue Skeet, who is now living in Timaru. Her accommodation, as provided by her insurance policy, runs out this Friday, I say to the Minister, and she has been anxiously emailing the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority and trying to get some assurance. The indications are that there may be an interim measure for her, but I think that many other people in the red zone would like to know whether they are eligible for temporary accommodation. Support seems to be precluded by the initial wording of what was stated when the package was announced on 18 February, because it was then envisaged that it would be for people who were returning to their homes. Of course, people in the red zone are not returning to their homes, and they need some clarity as to what accommodation support will be available to them.

I also raise with the Minister the issue about the future of any remaining heritage buildings in the central business district of Christchurch. The Minister’s initial comments back in February that we might end up with only four heritage sites in Christchurch Central’s central city area sparked me and some others to form a group called Interests in Conserving the Identity of Christchurch, or ICONIC, which put together a list of 40 “must keep” heritage buildings, the crème de la crème of the heritage sites across the central business district. The Minister acknowledged that it was a reasonable list when it was put to him in April, but it would appear that now just about 12 of the crème de la crème, the very best of the heritage buildings, are still standing. I would like the Minister to indicate what can be done—what support and what signal the Government can provide to building owners—to say that we must keep some of these buildings for the future. The generations that follow us will look back and judge us on this issue, and, if the Christchurch of the latter 21st century is reduced to four heritage sites, I think we will be judged to have failed the generations who follow us. There is not a case to retain very many buildings; most of them have already gone, and many of them had to go. Buildings that were truly unsafe had to come down, but I think we need some signal to say that some will be retained as a reminder of the Christchurch that proudly stood before the quakes.

I will make a few brief comments in response to those who have spoken already. Occasionally in this Chamber we hear outstanding speeches delivered by members, and I congratulate Aaron Gilmore on his contribution this evening. I note that it will be something that is referred to in Hansard for years to come. It was very, very insightful and incredibly accurate.

The difficulties that Canterbury has experienced over the last 12 months have been considerable; there is no doubt about that. I do not know any people living in the greater Christchurch area at the moment who are not making some change or concession in their lives towards getting the communities they live in back in operation, whether it is in the way they travel around the city, conduct their work activities in the city, or have to make alternative arrangements for their children to get to sport and other things; we could go on and on. An enormous amount of extra effort is being made by many, many people to get things going.

Earlier this year after the 22 February event we established the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority. It was a follow-on from the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Commission, which had much lesser powers, and which was set up after the September event. In setting up the new Government department the Public Service in New Zealand was very much to the fore, and was showing itself to be the best that it is. I congratulate John Ombler on his initial work in setting up the authority, and reaffirm the comments made in this Chamber about the delight we have in Roger Sutton taking on the chief executive role for that organisation. I should mention the names of other people—there are many of them—who are working very, very hard in a very, very focused and collaborative way with all of the districts—Selwyn, Waimakariri, and Christchurch—to get a good result in the long term.

I will also mention the Order in Council process, and the wartime powers that Mr Cosgrove regularly suggests that I hold. Those powers are very, very muted by the processes that we have in place, not the least of which are those relating to Orders in Council. I acknowledge the work that the Opposition parties are doing, in collaboration with Government parties, to make sure that that process works well.

There are a couple of things I will cover in the brief few minutes I have left. Firstly, we think the offer made to the 5,000 households so far, which would see them being given the option of leaving those properties at their 2007 valuation, is a fair one. There is no question about that. If we look at all of the valuation data for real estate sales, etc., over a period, we see that that offer stacks up very, very well.

On the issue of temporary accommodation an announcement is imminent, which is of an addition, effectively, to the arrangements that have been put in place so far. I need to make it clear that only about 80 families so far have accessed that additional accommodation support, because the private insurers have stepped up in the first instance to make sure that people get those entitlements.

On the issue of emergency heating, I can tell members that under the winter heating programme there has so far been over 9,000 installations of heat devices in houses in the greater Christchurch areas of Selwyn, Waimakariri, and Christchurch—over 9,000. The bulk of that has been of heat pumps, with a smaller number of pellet fires and wood burners. The programme continues, but when we have put that much heating in, and it is on an emergency basis, there will naturally be a time when it starts to slow down.

I think there are good things we can look forward to in Canterbury, because there has been no significant depopulation and no outright collapse of our local economy. Our Paymark data and electricity usage confirm both of those things, which I think points to a community that wants to recover, and that has a very strong will to get things back to being as good as they can be, and better.

When it comes to those heritage buildings, all I can say is that if there is an ongoing economic value in those buildings as well as heritage value, the owners of those buildings are bound to recognise that and find a solution for their continued survival. One of the things we must make sure of in the future is that both our residences and our places of work are safe, and that our commercial and industrial activities are conducted in safe buildings.

Vote agreed to.

Vote Commerce