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Audio, Radio New Zealand

The former Earthquake Commission minister, Gerry Brownlee, is defending EQC over claims its assessors in Christchurch were not properly qualified. A growing number of homeowners in the city are discovering EQC assessors have completely missed quake damage including broken foundations costing hundreds of thousands to repair. That's been disastrous for people who've bought homes with hidden damage who are sometimes finding private insurers unwilling to cover the cost of putting right mistakes made by EQC. The company hired by EQC to carry out repairs was Fletcher Construction. Its chief executive at the time, Mark Binns, told Checkpoint that EQC probably hired unqualified people to assess quake damaged homes. Gerry Brownlee refused to be drawn on the comments from Mr Binns. But when asked by RNZ Christchurch reporter, Conan Young, if it was acceptable to have retired policemen, school principals and vacuum cleaner salesmen carrying out assessments for EQC, he admitted finding enough people to do the job was a challenge.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

The bill to fix botched EQC repairs from the Canterbury earthquakes has hit $270 million - four times what the previous Government predicted just two years ago. The Minister responsible for the Earthquake Commission, Megan Woods, has asked Treasury to urgently crunch some figures to give the Government an idea of its future liability, with many experts warning thousands more homes may be affected. The former Canterbury Rebuild Minister Gerry Brownlee, who was in the job for six years until a year ago, speaks to Guyon Espiner.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

The Earthquake Recovery Minister's released what he says is a how-to strategy for the rebuild following the Canterbury earthquakes. Gerry Brownlee says the strategy for improving investment, innovation and job creation will extend beyond economic recovery and into education, culture and social recovery.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

National MP Gerry Brownlee says it's a great tragedy that the former chairman of government insurer Southern Response has been treated the way that he has. Ross Butler resigned on Tuesday night after a State Services Commission inquiry found Southern Response had broken its code of conduct and possibly the law, when it used private investigators to secretly record meetings of earthquake victims. The Minister for Christchurch Regeneration Megan Woods says Mr Butler was aware of what was going on, as was Mr Brownlee when he was a Minister.