As Auckland and Northland brace for more atrocious weather, city leaders are calling for funding to repair the city's broken infrastructure to be along the lines of the help given to Christchurch after the quakes. Auckland deputy mayor Desley Simpson says that the damage so far is equivalent to the biggest non earthquake event the country has ever had and should be treated accordingly. The Opportunities Party says the "alliance" model established after the earthquakes, was effective and would work for Auckland's rebuild, because it provides a structure that the Central Government can fund directly. ToP leader Raf Manji was a Christchurch councillor after the quakes and closely involved in the rebuild. He tells Kathryn Ryan it is vital to ensure water and transport infrastructure is repaired quickly and efficiently, especially with a view to future extreme weather events - and there is much to learn from the post-quake rebuild.
Kaikoura and Wellington businesses operating adjacent to quake damaged buildings may face disruption for years to come as owners drag their feet on repair or demolition work. A Christchurch property owner has been unable to completely re-open for business since the February 2011 earthquake.
Time is nearly up for owners of on-sold quake damaged properties in Canterbury to apply to claim money for botched repairs. The Government announced last year it would give an ex-gratia payment to home-owners with properties that went over the Earthquake Commission's then cap of $100,000. Today is the last day for applications after the original August deadline was extended due to Covid-19. But there are calls to extend that deadline again, as applications have flooded in over the past month.
A legal settlement between the Earthquake Commission and a group of Canterbury homeowners over the standard of quake repairs, is being described as a milestone for house owners throughout the country. The Reserve Bank has left the cost of borrowing unchanged at a record low 2-point-25 percent, athough it is signalling further cuts remain on the cards.
The Prime Minister Chris Hipkins today announced an additional three hundred and one million dollar boost for the rebuild of earthquake damaged Christchurch schools, and said the programme in Christchurch may be a template for repairing flood damaged schools in the North Island.
Some schools are still waiting to be repaired more than a decade after the devastating quakes.
On his first visit to Christchurch since becoming Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins visited one of the schools still in the midst of its rebuild process, and to celebrate the progress being made.
Our reporter Rachel Graham and videographer Nate McKinnon went along.
EQC was ill-prepared to deal with the wide spread damage of the Christchurch Earthquakes and as a consequence its reputation been left in tatters with many seeing the commission as uncaring, miserly and inefficient.
That is according to the findings of the inquiry into EQC and its handling of quake claims in Canterbury and Kaikōura.
Inquiry Chair Dame Silvia Cartwright lays out a raft of inadequacies including EQC not being equiped to handle a mass scale managed repair programme - leading to multiple mistakes, poor staffing decisions and inadequate quality control.
Damage assessments were the root of claimants disputes time and time again.
Dame Silvia Cartwright described to Checkpoint the way claimants have been treated by EQC.
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.
Its budget may have blown out by almost a third more than the original figure, but this weekend the doors to the Christchurch Town Hall will re-open for the first time since the 2011 earthquakes. It was touch and go whether the 47 year-old building would even be repaired after the 6.2 quake eight years ago today. 167-million-dollars later and the city is finally getting its town hall back. Conan Young was allowed inside for a sneak peak ahead of Saturday's official opening.
Hundreds of children and 12 schools have pre-registered for swimming lessons at Christchurch's new Taiora QE2 sports centre, which opens today. The Canterbury earthquakes damaged the complex beyond repair, and almost six years after it was demolished, a new QE2 has risen from rubble - admittedly smaller and without the athletics track the old one was so well known for. Schools in particular are welcoming today's opening, after having to spend big bucks on transport to get their students to pools for lessons since the quakes. Logan Church reports.
Resilience and community spirit have shone through in North Canterbury in the aftermath of the earthquake. With no active civil defence post in operation in Cheviot in the days after the 7.8 quake, a group of locals mobilised a task force to support those in need. Further north at Mendip Hills Station farm manager Simon Lee has been repairing broken water pipes and clearing slips in time for weaning, while on Ben Lissington's dairy farm near Waiau, milk tankers are having to go off the beaten track to get to the rotary shed after a six metre section of the road was destroyed.
The Earthquake Commission has settled with a Christchurch homeowner, just days before their test case was due to be heard at the High Court. Jamie Gibling used his KiwiSaver to buy his first family home in New Brighton after the quakes, believing it had been properly repaired. He later learned the repairs were botched and would cost $300,000 to fix. His "onsold" test case was supposed to be heard on Monday to clarify who was liable. But today EQC announced it had reached a settlement with the family and that agreement would provide a framework for the 54 other claimants also with Shine Lawyers. Finance and EQC Minister Grant Robertson last week announced an "onsold" settlement kitty of $300 million for the next 12 months but legal experts working with claimants have told Checkpoint it could cost taxpayers much much more. EQC's Deputy Chief Executive is Renee Walker. On Thursday she came into the studio and Lisa Owen asked her if the Giblings got what they asked for and if the 54 others who signed up to the class action would get the same.
A Christchurch homeowner in a five year battle with the Earthquake Commission over the damaged house she unwittingly bought says a critical new report about EQC tells her nothing new. The 27 page review by Independent Ministerial Advisor Christine Stevenson looks at how to resolve the 3,600 claims that still haven't been settled after the 2010 and 2011 quakes. The recommendations include getting the Commission to hire more staff and to stop forcing people to use the Official Information Act to get their files. It also suggests giving EQC more power to settle the on-sold claims where people bought houses under the impression all damage had been identified and fixed. Georgina Hannafin has a home that needs $260,000 worth of repairs but EQC has offered her just $48,000.
A Christchurch couple locked in an ongoing legal battle with state-owned quake insurer Southern Response says it is sobering for a Court of Appeal decision to go their way, one decade on from the harrowing earthquakes.
An earlier High Court decision found Southern Response guilty of misleading and deceptive behaviour when it short-changed Karl and Alison Dodds tens of thousands of dollars after their quake damaged house was written off.
The Dodds say they were tricked into accepting a lower offer from Southern Response only to later discover the insurer had kept secret from them a second higher estimate to rebuild their damaged house, a so-called second secret detailed repair and rebuild analysis (DRA).
The High Court ordered Southern Response to pay the Dodds almost $180,000 in damages, plus costs.
But the government appealed the decision, saying it needed clarity, because of the thousands of similar cases it could be liable for.
The Court of Appeal reduced the damages Southern Response has to pay $10,656.44 due to an earlier error in calculations.
The Minister responsible Grant Robertson has declined to be interviewed.
Southern Response also declined to be interviewed. Neither have ruled out appealing the decision in the Supreme Court.
Rocket Lab's Electron rocket launch today on the Mahia Peninsula has been scrubbed again, sadly. A power fault this time. Kaikoura residents and businesses are celebrating the re-opening of State Highway 1 north following a year of earthquake repairs. The coastal highway link between Picton and Christchurch was badly damaged during the November 2016 quake but will now re-open during the day from 7am. It will close at 8:30 each night so more repairs and assesments can be done. Kaikoura Top Ten Holiday Park co-owner Ed Nolan tells us what this means for his business and others in the town. The Prime Minister Jainda Ardern says the Government's new families package will reduce child poverty in the country by 48 per cent. We ask the panellists whether this is realistic or if there are other, more entrenched imprediments to lowering poverty in New Zealand. The panellists also discuss the state of the books, and discuss if they worry about national debt iincreasing, as the opposition has warned. The Prime Minister says wealthy New Zealanders can opt out of the Government's Winter Energy Payment, which will see those on a benefit, NZ Superannuation or a Veterans Pension get an extra boost due the winter season. Many are doubtful that will happen though. The panellists discuss why some wealthy people have missed out on tax cuts only to be able to reap the reward of this package. We also ask if they suspect this money will be used for heating purposes. The University of Otago has a new degree which brings science and art together, the BaSc. It aims to break down barriers between the two disciplines. Two students are graduating the degree this week. We talk to Eirenie Taua'i who has been studying Pacific Studies and Neuroscience. We aslk her what careers she is considering now and what it was like to study to very different courses. The families of those who died in the CTV building collapse in Christchurch's 2011 earthquake say they will continue to fight for justice. Police announced earlier this month they won't be prosecuting the engineers of the building after a three-year long investigation. The families met with police to ask and why say they aren't convinced all has been done. We ask panellist, barrister Jonathan Krebs, if other charges could and should be laid.
