New assessment guidelines are reclassifying houses which were previously written off as being repairable, leaving owners up to $180,000 worse off. Kathryn talks to Leanne Curtis, spokesperson for the Canterbury Community Earthquake Recovery Network, and Renee Walker, spokesperson for IAG New Zealand.
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 Government report into the depth of the housing shortage in Christchurch shows the number of rental properties has almost halved since the earthquakes.
Pregnant women and new mothers are escaping the disruption and risk of Christchurch in the wake of Tuesday's earthquake.
Christchurch's Court Theatre devastated by February's earthquake has found a temporary new home - an old grain store in the suburb of Addington.
The chairman of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Commission, Murray Sherwin, joins us for the morning in our Wellington studio.
Some residents in one of Christchurch's worst affected suburbs doubt a new government agency will help their earthquake recovery. An announcement about a new department is expected within days but some of those still severely affected question the setting up of a new bureaucracy.
The Government is welcoming a report from the Canterbury Earthquake Royal Commission that calls for urgent changes to building standards.
Survivors of our biggest national disasters say new guidelines will better supporting families in the wake of future tragedies. The new "Public Service Commission Model Standards" - to be released at parliament today - addresses what survivors say have been consistent shortcomings in the treatment by government agencies of those most closely affected by disaster. The standards were co-authored by the Pike River Families Group after consulting with families of survivors caught up with events such as the earthquake and mosque shootings in Christchurch, the Aramoana massacre, the Cave Creek platform collapse and the Whakaari White Island eruption. Sonya Rockhouse, who lost her son Ben in the Pike River mine explosion 12 years ago, spoke to Corin Dann.
Kaiapoi, just north of Christchurch, has unveiled a bold new plan for the parts of the town wiped off the map in the Canterbury earthquakes. The plan proposes having house boats on the river that runs through the town, there'll be a place for campervans to park up and a covered sports facility is on the cards.
A state house tenant in the Christchurch suburb of Avonside is withholding her rent, saying Housing New Zealand has left her in the lurch following the big earthquake.
Fleur Beale is one of New Zealand's most prolific authors and the winner of many awards for children and young adult books. Her latest work is a novel that tells the story of a young girl who experienced the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. It's part of an international series called Through my Eyes - Natural Disaster Zones, which is a series written by different authors focusing on war zones and disasters throughout the world. Fleur's book is based on real accounts of what happened in Christchurch told through the eyes of a young girl, Lyla. Fleur, who has won the Margaret Mahy Medal for her outstanding contribution to children's writing, and was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature, joins Kathryn to talk about her latest work, and why young adult fiction is the best and the process of getting a story right.
Earthquake prone buildings in Christchurch are to be strengthened to new, higher standards. The new code was passed at an extraordinary council meeting today.
Te Pae, Christchurch's near $450 million convention centre, has been officially opened this afternoon with a pÅwhiri and unveiling by Mayor Lianne Dalziel and Minister Megan Woods. Billed as a legacy for the city, it replaces the old centre which was demolished following the Canterbury earthquakes. Niva Chittock is at the ceremony and joins Lisa with the details.
A law change is being looked at to tackle the problem of property boundaries moving in the Canterbury earthquakes.
Seismologists studying the Canterbury earthquakes say aftershocks from the September 2010 quake were so unusually strong because of the type of rocks along the faultline.
The Earthquake Commission has more than doubled its estimate of costs from the Canterbury earthquakes, to 7-point-1 billion dollars.
The Government is considering introducing a new law to cover any natural disaster of a similar size to the Canterbury earthquake.
The Christchurch suburb of New Brighton was hit hard by the Christchurch earthquakes, with roads that still haven't been fixed and many families on struggle street. One local is hoping a fridge offering free food, will help.
Highlights from Radio New Zealand National's programmes for the week ending Friday 9 September. This week .... New Zealanders getting savvy about price discrimination, sorting the News from the TV programmes, studying coral reefs to save them from extinction, we remember sports braodcaster Graeme Moody, the World of Wearable Arts travels to Hong Kong, and we have a series of features and interviews from a weekend of commemorating a year of earthquakes in Canterbury.
Roger Sutton, the chief executive of networks company Orion has taken up a five-year contract as the CEO of the Christchurch Earthquake Reconstruction Authority, the top bureaucrat in the post-quake city.
Public and electoral law professor at Otago University, Andrew Geddis.
The collapse of the Christchurch Cathedral during the devastating earthquake of February the 22nd struck a powerful blow to the core of Canterbury and New Zealand as a whole.
With the silencing of the Cathedral bells in Christchurch following February's earthquake there are now just six places in New Zealand where a full set of bells can be rung.
On October 23, 2010 Christchurch's Hagley Park hosted one of the biggest ever free concerts in New Zealand, following the first big earthquake to shake the city a month earlier.
The Royal Commission into the Canterbury Earthquakes continues today, with overseas experts critiquing a New Zealand report that calls for a two-billion dollar upgrade to strengthen earthquake-prone buildings.
A woman badly injured in the Christchurch earthquake is astonished a new building in the city has been found to have serious seismic flaws. The empty new office building at 230 High Street has multiple problems in its earthquake design that the city council was warned about almost two years ago. Construction of the seven-storey building continued even after those warnings in December 2017. Susie Ferguson speaks to University of Canterbury lecturer Ann Brower, who was crushed after falling masonry fell on her bus during the February twenty-second 2011 earthquake.
A new office building in central Christchurch has multiple flaws in its earthquake design that the city council was warned about almost two years ago. Construction of the seven-storey building above the busy shopping precinct at 230 High Street, continued even after those warnings in December 2017. Three leading engineering firms have found critical faults - the latest are detailed in a Government-ordered report that's been leaked to RNZ. Phil Pennington joins Corin Dann with the details.
The insurance company, Tower, is confident that putting its costly and complex outstanding Canterbury earthquake claims into a separate company will allow the rest of the group to flourish.
International research has shed new light on why the February earthquake in Christchurch was so damaging.