National Manager Special Operations, New Zealand Fire Service, who lead the Urban Search and Rescue Teams in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake. He then lead the New Zealand USAR team which travelled to Northern Japan to assist after the earthquake and tsunami there.
In this week’s programme we’re featuring evening hymns, and you can hear a setting of Psalm 23 – it’ll be the third in our series so far. We’re also commemorating the Feast Day of German theologian Martin Luther, and the 11th anniversary of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.
Phil Holdstock, a homeowner; Leanne Curtis, relationships manager for the Canterbury Communities' Earthquake Recovery Network, a network of residents association and community group representatives from the earthquake-affected neighbourhoods of Canterbury; and Jeremy Johnson, insurance partner at Wynn Williams in Christchurch.
David Rockefeller has died. He was a believer in great responsibility coming with great wealth. What the Panelists Ali Jones and Michael Moynahan want to talk about. Kim Button of the Neighbourhood Trust talks about the emotional scars Christchurch children are bearing after the earthquakes.
The historic home of New Zealand's most popular beer has been secured with a forty-million dollar upgrade. The Prime Minister John Key yesterday officially opened the redeveloped Speight's Brewery in central Dunedin, which has taken over the Lion company's South Island production because of the Christchurch earthquakes.
Today on The Panel, Wallace Chapman and panellists Julia Hartley-Moore and Phill O'Reilly discuss the idea of restoring passenger rail in New Zealand. Plus, they discuss the shortage of homestays in New Zealand, and the favourite finds by archeologists post Christchurch earthquakes.
Stonemason Mark Whyte puts sculpting commissions aside in order to respond to the Christchurch earthquakes and save classic street facades from the 1870s. Across the Red Zone and 3 generations of the Aires family- Bob, Rob and Suzie are at work on the Heritage Hotel which were the old government buildings.
A property developer says he rejected an approach from a company who went on to build a substandard multistorey building in Christchurch's central mall. The building at 230 High Street is in limbo, having finally been ruled substandard with numerous design weaknesses that are an earthquake risk. Phil Pennington reports.
In 1987, Jack Perkins recorded an award-winning documentary capturing the life, the sounds and the personalities of Cathedral Square in Christchurch. Thirty years on, Deborah Nation parallels that experience with the sounds of September 2011 as engineer Gabrielle Parker escorts her Shrough the earthquake Red Zone into the square as it is today.
Provincial towns and rural communities around the country say they will be financially ruined under proposals to strengthen buildings following the Christchurch earthquakes. Dale Williams is Mayor of Otorohanga, Dave Cull is Mayor of Dunedin and Lawrence Yule is Mayor of Hastings and president of Local Government NZ.
Ethics in the engineering profession is under scrutiny following the Christchurch earthquakes and Pike River disaster. We hear from Professor John Uff, an international arbitrator specialising in professional negligence. He has led many public inquiries including the Southall Rail Crash in London which killed 7 people and injured 150.
One of the defining images of the Christchurch earthquake has been the photo of an ash covered Shane Tomlin, pulled alive from a bakery in Cashel Mall. His mother Doreen Tomlin, says she only realised her son had been rescued when she saw his photo on the front page of The Press.
Our Christchurch features producer, Kary Gosset has a story from one of the worst affected areas from the Feb 22 earthquake. Sumner has frequently been in the news with images of its crumbled cliffs, and Sumner is where Katy Gosset lives. This is her latest snapshot at where her suburb is at.
Survivor Nick Walls, who was pulled from the rubble of the Pyne Gould Corporation building, says his life will change as a result of the earthquake. From his bedside in the Christchurch hospital's orthopeadic ward he explained to our reporter Lorna Perry what he was doing when the earth shook.
Survivor Nick Walls, who was pulled from the rubble of the Pyne Gould Corporation building, says his life will change as a result of the earthquake. From his bedside in the Christchurch hospital's orthopeadic ward he explained to our reporter Lorna Perry what he was doing when the earth shook.
Legal aid changes incense legal fraternity, No eftpos available at Rugby World Cup, Japan says radiation declining but crisis matches Chernobyl, Government budgets $8.5 billion to rebuild Christchurch, Unanimous support over earthquake powers breaks down, and Maori Party MP says using police in oil protest extreme.
After a damning report into the CTV building, how many other Christchurch buildings had faults when the earthquake struck? Police investigate the tragic death of a five year old and when so many businesses are struggling, how did the country's big banks increase profits by a quarter?
Topic 1: The Minister for Earthquake Recovery, Gerry Brownlee, was quick to apologise to the Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker for calling him a clown. Topic 2: The Electoral Commission says John Key's hour-long pre-election radio show gave him the chance to raise his personal profile unchallenged.
The Earthquake Commission says it's likely homes in the Christchurch suburb of Bexley, which sank and cracked in Saturday's quake, will be rebuilt. People in the hardest hit areas of Canterbury have been learning more about their insurance entitlements, as the commission's assessors arrive in Kaiapoi and Bexley to begin evaluating the damage.
The Royal Commission into the Canterbury Earthquakes has heard evidence questioning the measure used to judge how resistant a building is to earthquake damage. It's come on the second day of hearings into why unreinforced masonry buildings collapsed in Christchurch during the February 22nd earthquake, killing 40 people.
National says campaign on track despite focus on Key; Radio New Zealand political editor discusses campaign; Don Brash says his leadership is solid; Pike River anniversary service 'will be non-political'; Auckland protesters may receive trespass notices today; Martin Johnson quits as England rugby coach; Earthquake documentary opens in Christchurch cinemas.
In Christchurch the Court Theatre is about to reopen, more than nine months after the earthquake ruined its inner city premises. The country's most successful professional theatre, which used to be in the 19th century gothic style Arts Centre, has moved to a shed in the suburbs.
As if the crumbling ceilings, broken sewage pipes and torn up roads weren't enough for the people of North Christchurch to deal with, now there's a new problem that may be caused by the September earthquake: Mosquitoes. Pines Beach and Kairaki residents say black clouds of mosquitoes are descending on them at dusk and dawn.
The Student Volunteer Army (SVA) are pulling together their troops to assist in the Canterbury clean-up . SVA chief executive Sam Johnson has been putting out the call to arms. He says it's time to help the region's farmers who helped Christchurch after the earthquakes. Sam Johnson spoke to Susie Ferguson.
The Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter has stockpiled a thousand tonnes of hazardous waste near an eroding beach, A court ruling finds inmates at Auckland Women's Prison were treated in a cruel and degrading manner,We speak to some of those affected by the devastating earthquake that struck Christchurch ten years ago today.
Father and daughter Peter and Cait O'Connor set up the Teaspoon of Light theatre company in Christchurch after the earthquakes, working with young children in the most quake-affected schools. Lynn Freeman speaks with Peter and Cait ahead of a trip to Mexico for similar work.
Rick Wentz is a Chartered geotechnical engineer originally from Northern California who has lived in New Zealand since 2011 - coming here in response to the Christchurch earthquakes. Rick talks to Mark about seismic risk - what it means for the general community and the role of a geotechnical engineering in helping to manage it.
New Zealanders are paying too much for house and contents insurance, according to a new survey. Consumer NZ's price comparison survey shows climate and natural hazard risk is being factored in, and is more expensive than ever. Quotes for a large house differed by more than $3,000 across Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin, and there's a more than $2,000 difference between the cheapest and most expensive policies on offer for a standard-sized house. If you live somewhere with a higher chance of earthquakes - such as Wellington or Christchurch - you'll be charged more for insurance. The cost of house and contents insurance has risen by 5.6% this year, over the past ten years it's gone up 150%. Kathryn is joined by Consumer NZ's Gemma Rasmussen and Katrina Shanks Chief Executive of Financial Advice New Zealand, which represents independent and professional financial advisors.
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.
Anna Leask has worked for the New Zealand Herald since 2008 and is currently a senior reporter, covering crime and justice for the daily newspaper as well as for the Weekend Herald and Herald on Sunday. Notably she's reported on the re-investigation of Arthur Allan Thomas, 43 years after the double murders for which he served nine years in prison before being pardoned, and the Christchurch 'House of Horrors' murderer Jason Somerville, who killed his wife and buried her under his East Christchurch house a year after doing the same to his neighbour Tisha Lowery. Leask covered the Pike River Mine disaster in 2010, the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes, Fiji's Cyclone Winston in early 2016 and travelled to Gallipoli in 2015 to cover the centenary of the Anzac landings. She won a Canon Media Award for crime and justice reporting in 2014. Her first book, Behind Bars: Real-life stories from inside New Zealand prisons has just been released.