﻿Mr SPEAKER: Question No 9, Dr Megan Woods.
Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram)
to the PM: Does he have confidence in the Minister
responsible for the Earthquake Commission?
[MEMBERS INTERJECT]
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Acting PM): On behalf of the PM, yes.
[MEMBERS INTERJECT]
Dr Megan Woods: Does he—
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I just want to hear you, you see,
so I am waiting for a bit of hush.
Dr Megan Woods: Thank you. Does he believe Cantabrians
having to sue the Earthquake Commission (EQC) 263 times
since the 2010 earthquakes began, at a cost to the taxpayer
of $31 million, is a good use of taxpayer money
and a sign of success for people wanting
to move on with their lives?
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: This Government is not going
to deny anybody their rights to claim what they think
they are entitled to through the court system.
What is salient here, of course, is that there
has been no success experienced by anybody in any of that litigation,
other than the EQC. So, given that the EQC protects
the entire obligation of the wider taxpayer, it is totally appropriate.
Dr Megan Woods: What was the Minister's explanation
of the robustness of record-keeping and accounting processes at the EQC,
given that it discovered 2,200, or nearly 40% more,
remedial repair requests in its self-titled bungle?
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: On behalf of the PM, I am informed
that the Minister was not overly concerned by this,
for two reasons. Firstly, there were no repairs
of this nature that were unattended. They were simply
not accounted for in an appropriate fashion,
and that matter is now being dealt with. The second point
that I think is worth considering is that anybody
who does have an issue in Canterbury with an EQC repair
does have a place to go to make that complaint.
Had the EQC exercised, as the Act allowed it to,
the opportunity to simply pay out cheques on the basis
of its assessment of damage, those people would not have had
that same recourse. It is also important to note
that the call-back rate on EQC repairs is dramatically lower
than it is on new builds. It is a very successful programme.
Dr Megan Woods: Has he seen examples of other Ministers
losing nearly 40% of a data set from their internal reporting systems,
or is the Minister responsible for the Earthquake Commission
currently winning the botched systems award?
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: The member is trying to make an issue
out of something where no issue exists. The reality
is that those repairs were in the programme.
They were being dealt with. There was a data mismatch
between Fletcher EQR and EQC. The fact that it was found
would indicate that the system is robust.
Dr Megan Woods: Has he asked the Minister whether he
is sufficiently "annoyed" to finally call for
an independent inquiry into EQC and get
to the bottom of this mess?
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: On behalf of the PM,
I am extremely satisfied with the way the Minister
responsible for the Earthquake Commission is handling
that portfolio. It is, quite frankly, outstanding,
and I wish the Opposition would take some lessons from him
in terms of how it might itself make assessments
about its contribution to Parliament's work.
Mr SPEAKER: Question No 10.
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