The Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission has heard evidence that a heritage order on a row of dangerous buildings may have contributed to the deaths of a dozen people in the February quake.
A report commissioned by the Ministry of Health has found Canterbury residents are unlikely to suffer any health risks from asbestos exposure during the canterbury earthquake repairs. The Report is a review of Scientific Evidence of Non Occuptional Risks - and was convened by the Royal Society and the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor. Sir David Skegg, president of the Royal Society of New Zealand and Dr Alistair Humphrey, Canterbury Medical Officer of Health.
The warnings, or lack of them from the government's scientists about the likely size of aftershocks following the first Canterbury earthquake have been a focus of the Royal Commission into the quakes.
Page 2 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Tuesday 26 June 2012.
A PDF copy of The Star newspaper, published on Friday 10 August 2012.
The Canterbury Earthquake Royal Commission has heard that a breakdown in communication between structural engineers, a property manager and owner led the tenants of a building to wrongly assume their shop was safe.
Page 1 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 15 September 2012.
Page 2 of Section C of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 15 September 2012.
The Royal Commission investigating the Canterbury earthquakes has heard that the premises where a man was killed by a falling concrete wall was not inspected by structural engineers between the September and February quakes.
A banner listing the 18 people who died in the PGC building collapse.
Page 3 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Tuesday 4 December 2012.
A PDF copy of The Star newspaper, published on Wednesday 27 March 2013.
Page 3 of Section C of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 15 September 2012.
Page 5 of Section A of the Christchurch edition of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 18 August 2012.
Page 4 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Thursday 9 February 2012.
Page 1 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Thursday 5 July 2012.
Page 1 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Tuesday 26 August 2014.
Page 1 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Friday 10 February 2012.
Page 1 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Monday 9 July 2012.
A PDF copy of The Star newspaper, published on Friday 9 March 2012.
Page 9 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 29 September 2012.
Page 1 of Section A of the South Island edition of the Christchurch Press, published on Wednesday 27 June 2012.
Page 5 of Section A of the South Island edition of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 18 August 2012.
Page 4 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Tuesday 11 December 2012.
Justice Minister Andrew Little said on Thursday that "everybody involved in this has walked away scot-free. And that's not right." Nigel Hampton QC, who was counsel for the families at the Royal Commission in to the Canterbury earthquakes, joins us to discuss the outcome.
Page 1 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Wednesday 3 July 2013.
Page 1 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Tuesday 25 February 2014.
Page 1 of Section C of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 1 March 2014.
Page 4 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Friday 5 December 2014.
The Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 caused significant damage and disruption to the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. A Royal Commission was established to report on the causes of building failure as a result of the earthquakes as well as look at the legal and best-practice requirements for buildings in New Zealand Central Business Districts. The Royal Commission made 189 recommendations on a variety of matters including managing damaged buildings after an earthquake, the adequacy of building codes and standards, and the processes of seismic assessments of existing buildings to determine their earthquake vulnerability. In response the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, the agency responsible for administering building regulation in New Zealand, established a work programme to assist with the Canterbury rebuild and to implement the lessons learned throughout New Zealand. The five primary work streams in the programme are: • Facilitating the Canterbury Rebuild • Structural Performance and Design Standards • Geotechnical and structural guidance • Existing Building Resilience • Post Disaster Building Management This paper provides more detail on each of the work streams. There has been significant collaboration between the New Zealand Government and the research community, technical societies, and engineering consultants, both within New Zealand and internationally, to deliver the programme and improve the resilience of the New Zealand built environment. This has presented major challenges for an extremely busy industry in the aftermath of the Canterbury earthquakes. The paper identifies the items of work that have been completed and the work that is still in progress at the time of writing.