7/29/2019 2012-11-21 HON BROWNLEE Follow Up From Cross Party Forum (2)

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Wellington: T 04 817 8209 | F 04 817 6437| Private Bag 18 888, Parliament Buildings, Wellington 6011 | lianne.dalziel@parliament.govt.nzChristchurch: T 03 382 0288 | F 03 382 0275 | PO Box 18898, New Brighton, Christchurch 8641 | lianne.dalziel.mp@parliament.govt.nzlabour.org.nz |Authorised by Lianne Dalziel, Parliament Buildings, Wellington 6011

21 November 2012

Hon Gerry BrownleeMinister for Canterbury Earthquake RecoveryParliament BuildingsWellington

Dear Minister

I have received your reply (20 November 2012) to my letter of 1 November followingup on our last meeting of the Cross Party Forum.

Since the time that I wrote, colleagues and I have received further approaches frompeople affected by the red zone clearance deadline. As we said in the meeting, thefear of a short-term move before the new house is built is proving over-whelming forsome. We also have people whose insurance companies wont pay for a secondmove. We now have people who were only red-zoned in August who have to makealternative arrangements in a very short timeframe.

Your response that the cost of maintaining the infrastructure in these areas simplymeans that the cost and the disruption that arises from two moves as opposed toone is being transferred from the council to the affected individuals. And it will putmore pressure on temporary accommodation at a time when this is in high demand.We were advised at the Cross Party Forum meeting that people were beingcontacted by CERA about the difficulties that they were facing about finalising theshift, but it appears that this is not to collate information about the numbers, butrather to reinforce the need to be moved out of the red-zone by the deadline. This iscausing additional stress to people whose houses will be ready a matter of weeksafter that date.

It is true that those who chose Highfield will not be in that category, but as we said inthe last letter, CERA allowed them to advertise at the Housing Expo in June lastyear, despite being warned about the wisdom of doing so when they were so farbehind the consenting process. You have to take some responsibility for thissituation.

We repeat that it really is a win-win to allow people to stay where they can, even if itis on a case-by-case basis subject to a reasonable period of time to allow thecompletion of the new home in progress. For those red-zoned in August as a resultof the zoning review, they need a general extension of time.

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With respect to your comments about the so-called voluntary offer for people whodidnt or couldnt insure their land, it is disappointing that the government has noregard for the rule of law in essentially forcing people off their land without faircompensation. Even if we agreed with your proposition about those who wereuninsured, (and we dont because we know the stories of those who offer no

justification to your claims of moral hazard), we can see no reason why you wouldoffer half the rating valuation of the land (which cannot be insured) to bothcommercial owners and those that owned bare sections. We are sure that a courtwill eventually find it as repugnant to justice as we do when the time comes.

I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely

Hon Lianne DalzielMember of Parliament for Christchurch East