Disaster teams in Papua New Guinea are still struggling to reach parts of the country hit hard by Monday's 7-point-5 earthquake: the Tongan branch of aid agency Live and Learn is still busy helping people patch up their homes two weeks on from the battering dished out by Cyclone Gita: Oceania leaders of the Anglican church gathering in Fiji will be looking at better preparing their people for natural disasters at a fono this week in Suva attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury; Pacific people call for more influence on global issues that affect the region's rapidly changing climate; a mould problem in Australia's refugee detention centre on Nauru posed a serious health threat.
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.
Mindful Mover was born after the Christchurch earthquake, the anxiety and stress caused by the continuous rattling. From there it's grown to help young people dealing with bullying, troubles at home, and learning difficulties.
A magnitude 6.2 earthquake was felt widely throughout the central New Zealand and as far south as Christchurch today. We spoke to people throughout the country, who described what impact the quake had on them.
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.
Businesses in the Christchurch suburb of New Brighton are demanding urgent action to pull the area out of an economic slump. The seaside town has struggled since the Canterbury Earthquakes, with thousands of people - and customers - leaving the area due to land damage under their homes.
Some central Christchurch businesses are having to close their doors, blaming a tough economic climate. Retail spending in the central city is only 80 percent of what it was before the devastating 2011 earthquakes, while the number of people living in the area has shrunk by a third.
Hundreds of Christchurch homeowners have discovered extensive damage to the on-sold properties they purchased after the 2010/2011 earthquakes. Licenced Building Practictioner Dan Paltridge talks to Logan Church about what people need to look out for, and what they need to do before buying a home in the city.
The Christchurch City Council's plans to to help curb a rising homeless population has left some people who live rough worried. The council is considering funding the Christchurch City Mission to employ outreach workers for the first time since the Canterbury earthquakes, and police are increasing central city patrols. Christchurch reporter Logan Church has the story.
It's seven years today since Christchurch was rocked by the magnitude 6.3 earthquake. It killed 185 people, injured thousands more and led to whole suburbs and most of the central city being demolished. Seven years on, the rebuild is still underway and some residents are still struggling to get the repairs they want.
Two tragedies have brought two groups of young people from opposite sides of the world together for a special tree planting in Christchurch. Twenty-eight students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida -- the scene of a deadly shooting in February -- are spending the week with the Student Volunteer Army, established after the Christchurch earthquake. Jonathan Mitchell reports.
It's almost eight years to the day since the first Christchurch earthquake, and as anyone who lives in Christchurch knows, some insurance claims are still in dispute. Dodgy repairs are still being discovered and previously undiscovered damage is being found. Earthquake Commission minister Megan Woods says as problems emerge, people can come back and ask for re-repairs or have their home looked at. But just how much money is in the National Disaster Fund?
A review of the week's news including... The bill to fix botched EQC repairs from the Canterbury earthquakes is now four times what the previous Government predicted just two years ago, immigrants are being computer profiled, MPs are told that medicinal cannabis should be legalised for more people, Middlemore Hospital's woes continue, the Government orders a compulsory recall of 50 thousand vehicles with faulty airbags, Auckland drivers face a double tax hike under proposed sweeping changes to transport funding, Parliament changes the law so New Zealand men with historical homosexual convictions can have them wiped, a bus company wants to recruit more than 100 drivers from overseas because it can't find enough people to do the job here, Dunedin has its biggest weekend ever in terms of money spent thanks to Ed Sheeran, first it was closing - now it's not, Kaikohe's Warehouse is to stay, it all comes together for the New Zealand cricket team against England, an international consortium reaches a verbal agreement to buy the New Zealand Warriors and the woman who was RNZ's Washington correspondent for more than 20 years has died.
The decision on what to do with Christchurch's earthquake damaged redzone is one step closer, with the end of the public consultation period on the plan for the area. Over the past month Christchurch people have been asked to comment on a draft land use plan for the 602 hectares of land. Now those pitching ideas want the authorities to get on with the next step, so they can have some certainty about whether their projects can go ahead.
Businesses in the Christchurch suburb of New Brighton say something needs to be done urgently to pull the area out of an economic slump. The seaside town has struggled since the Canterbury Earthquakes, with thousands of people - and customers - leaving the area due to land damage under their homes. And they're pointing the fingers at city leaders like the Christchurch City Council and its rebuild agency, Development Christchurch. Logan Church spoke to New Brighton business owner Nigel Gilmore.
Eye patients in South Auckland face threats to their eyesight because of long waits for treatment. But patients in central Auckland do not. The Auckland DHB doesn't have a backlog, but Counties Manukau has 4000 people waiting to see a specialist. Why is there such a difference? Simon Dean is head of ophthalmology at Counties Manukau. He tells Susie Ferguson the size of their department is the main problem at Counties-Manukau DHB. It was due for an upgrade in 2013 but was sidelined because of the needs around the Christchurch earthquake.
More than 600 Christchurch home-owners face a wait of up to 18 months before its decided who foots the bill for earthquake repairs that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The problem - first revealed on Checkpoint in March - is that owners bought homes thinking all quake damage had been identified and fixed - only to find more problems that weren't addressed. The people affected cannot claim on their insurance - because the damage pre-dates them buying the house - and any grant from the Earthquake Commission is capped. EQC has publicly apologised to those affected but the Minster, Megan Woods, says it's unclear who will pay for the needed repairs.
A review of the week's news including... the former wife of a highly regarded Maori community leader who died in 2016 says she has passed on to Police the names of people she believes may have been involved in, or have knowledge of, what she's calling a paedophile sex ring involving her former husband, Peters on Trump, Wellington's new bus fleet hits the streets, more details of plans to cut jobs at the national museum, anti-gambling groups want poker machines included in a crackdown on money laundering, the worst winter for moteliers since the Canterbury earthquakes and who's to blame?, a statue on Bastion Point that could be as big as the Statue of Liberty and what happens when RNZ meets thrash metal?
