O'Rourke Denis: General DebateText is subject to correctionO'Rourke Denis: General Debate[Sitting date: 23 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:14197. Text is subject to correction.]DENIS O’ROURKE (NZ First): It will not be long before it is 3 years since the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. It is now over 3 years since the September 2010 Greendale fault earthquake. Who would have thought that after that period of time there would still be people trying to settle insurance claims let alone actually getting progress on the rebuilding of their homes?Let it be recorded for posterity that the constant delays by insurers over Canterbury earthquake claims the failures by insurers to honour their policies the treatment by insurers of the people who placed their trust in their policies and those companies and the full replacement insurance that has not actually meant what it said have all defined what is one of the most disgraceful episodes in New Zealand’s commercial history. Never has such utterly despicable behaviour been seen by commercial insurers on such a scale in this country. We are not talking about just a few cases; we are not talking about just a small minority of difficult cases but literally hundreds of cases—in fact a very significant percentage of the whole. It is a national disgrace that this should still be the case 3 years from the disaster. We are not talking about just a few of the insurers but all of them—some are better than others.The current situation is truly an indictment on the insurance industry in New Zealand as a whole. Among the worst is an entity known as Southern Response Earthquake Services. Is that not a great name? Well it would be if it were true. But “response” is exactly what it is not. This is the entity that took over a failed insurer AMI Insurance. AMI was so inept that when the first major disaster came along for which it was required to be prepared it did not last 5 minutes and had to be taken over by the Government.That should have solved the problem should it not? Well no it did not. Anyone who saw theCampbell Live show recently would know for sure that Southern Response is just another one of the shonky insurers that we are all so disgusted with in Christchurch. It is just another failure. It is just another incompetent performer. It is just anotherdelayer. It is just another arrogant and unhelpful obstacle for policyholders. In the meantime people suffer. Health suffers families suffer and communities suffer.Christchurch people have had enough of it. What on earth has the Government been doing about it? The Government was told years ago that it needed to intervene just as the Australian Government intervened in past disasters there. That Government did not tolerate the incompetence of insurers; it legislated it regulated and it made sure that its people were not put through what ours have been put through.After the first 2 years all this National Government would do is provide some free advisers not even advocates. The response from our Government since has been a long deafening silence. So after the next election when New Zealand First forms part of the next Government it will seek to establish a new State insurance company to replace the one sold by Labour. We will get a new one—“KiwiSure”—to ensure that there is a reliable insurer that will give genuine replacement insurance and deal with disaster claims promptly and fairly. That is why this country needs New Zealand First because it needs good governance and people need a fair go.