Dyson Ruth: Financial Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDyson Ruth: Financial Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 04 March 2014. Volume:696;Page:16269. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills): Just a few days ago my Labour colleagues and I went to visit the home of Mrs Dot Boyd who has been waiting for over 3 years for her house to be repaired. On several occasions she has been told that she is just about to move out so she has packed up all her possessions and waited and nothing has happened. For over 3 years this fine and feisty woman in her 80s has waited with her entire possessions packed into cardboard boxes living as if she is in a refugee camp because of the incompetence and arrogance of the Earthquake Commission and her insurance company. This is not acceptable in a developed country and the agency that is charged with leading our recovery the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority is like the Earthquake Commission and the insurance companies providing more obstacles to our recovery than it is providing support and recovery.I regret to say that I hold the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery entirely responsible for that bureaucracy the burden that has been put on Canterbury people because I think that Minister is out of touch. It may well be because the scale of the job is just too big. It may be that he has got such a massive bureaucracy in the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority now. There are over 300 bureaucrats in a Government department that was meant to be an enabler of recovery that was meant to drive and support other agencies and that is now being described by everyone across the political spectrum from the residents through to the property developers in the central business district as more of an obstacle than anything else imaginable.I think the Minister is in denial about it. It is exactly the same as the situation with Mrs Boyd. When Mr Brownlee was told by the media about Mrs Boyd’s case he said it was “disappointing” and that clearly somebody had “dropped the ball”. That is disappointing! What makes the Minister angry? What makes the Minister so fired up that he actually wants to not address individual cases but wants to fix the system so that Canterbury can get back on to a path of recovery? Disappointed is what you might be if a call was a week or two late but 3 years too late is a lot more than disappointing and I think it should make the Minister angry. I think the Minister should be getting in the head of his Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority and saying “Get some action in our region.” As a constituency MP I cannot imagine how he is not exactly on top of the issues that our constituents face but from his response to that case and to others he seems completely out of touch.That is actually consistent with the behaviour of the rest of his Cabinet colleagues who breeze into Canterbury go to the opening of an envelope—it would be the opening of an oyster if we had them in Canterbury—turn a sod say “Aren’t we doing well forthe people of Canterbury?” and catch the next plane out. Very rarely do they get off the Memorial Avenue highway—a quick zoom into the city back out again to the airport and out of town. Come over to our side of the city other Ministers and see how we are living. See how day in day out people are coping with the lack of support from the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority. The scale of damage both physical and emotional in our region is huge. For some it has been overwhelming.It is my view that at times like this all our leaders should be pulling together should be sharing their collective skills and saying “What’s the agreed vision and how do we all do our bit to get there?”. We have not seen any of that. I think it is a wasted opportunity. We have seen in Waimakariri and Selwyn the mayors and the councillors getting on with it. What we saw for 2½ years was the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery throwing pot-shots at the then mayor and recently he has started it up with the current mayor. This is an opportunity to work together that should not be wasted. Reconnect with the people of Canterbury show some leadership and some vision and use the powers of the authority to help others.