Burns Brendon: Taxation (Canterbury Earthquake Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Burns Brendon: Taxation (Canterbury Earthquake Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:672;Page:19044] 
BRENDON BURNS (Labour—Christchurch Central) 
: 
 I will pick up a couple of the points made by our Green colleague Kevin Hague in relation to this Taxation (Canterbury Earthquake Measures) Bill. It is and has been a bipartisan bill and appropriately so. When I talked about Canterbury in my past address on this bill to this House I did not acknowledge that Canterbury extends north to the Kaikoura electorate and south to the Rangitata electorate and that people as far afield as those electorates have been affected as well as those of us who live in Christchurch or on its periphery. 
But I will pick up on a point particularly with Minister Kate Wilkinson in the House. I know that it does not pertain to her particular portfolio area but it is a concern that has come through to me just this week in a parliamentary question. It relates to the earthquake subsidy. Of course this bill will support those who have suffered through the quake so that their eligibility for Working for Families is not affected and so that they do not have to pay tax on donations received from employers. But obviously the big element of Government support to those in employment has been the earthquake support subsidy which I acknowledge the Government commenced quickly. I think it was an initiative driven by both the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce and the Canterbury trade unions and it kicked in quickly and generously. Figures back to me this week from Minister Bennett say that in the first phase of the subsidy which began on 22 February and went through to 4 April 46607 employees and 8020 employers were represented and supported by that subsidy. There was an interim period of a 2-week extension from 4 April which brought in a smaller number but we now have what appears to be—unless there are announcements pending—the final phase of that. At this point as of 9 May 660 employers—from that peak of 8020—and 3300 employees have been granted a second round of subsidy. 
The point I will make is that one of the conditions of that second or third phase of subsidy in effect is that an employer needs to show that his or her business is viable before employees can receive the subsidy and the business needs to be shown to be viable beyond 6 weeks. I guess the concern for me as the MP representing Christchurch Central with all of the central business district is that I would expect that many of the affected businesses and those most likely to benefit from the subsidy would be businesses within the red zone. Of course for some of them it is not just a question of needing to be viable beyond 6 weeks; some of them will not get access to their businesses for 6 months or more. I just wanted to see whether a Minister might pick up on that and give us any assurance about whether anything further is coming and whether that is just a technicality that might be able to be overcome in individual circumstances. I have for instance a bar owner in the central business district who is very keen to keep his key staff employed. He wants a little bit of help to keep that going but does not know when the bar will be able to reopen. It is my view that if the Government can step up on an individual basis to assist a business like that it will help to keep people in jobs and the cost will be met in a way other than through unemployment benefits. 
I will take members through a kind of audio tour if you like of the red zone of Christchurch because on Monday a number of MPs from Christchurch went for their first visit for several weeks at least into the red zone. We went down through Armagh Street past buildings that even some non-Christchurch members would recognise which now have major question marks about their future including high-rise buildings such as the Forsyth Barr building which is a 20-storey building. It has a big question over its future. The PricewaterhouseCoopers building I think from the indications probably will come through. We went through to Cathedral Square where there is the Regent Building known to some members who have visited Christchurch as the building that housed the aquarium and also the Holy Grail Sports Bar at one point; it might be known to some other members for that purpose. There is a major question mark about that building. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Name them. 
BRENDON BURNS 
: No I do not want to name members at this point but they will know that bar I am sure. The BNZ building on the corner of Hereford Street has major question marks upon it. Interestingly two heritage buildings that have had been earthquake strengthened came through well. The first is the Heritage Christchurch Hotel which used to be opposite my former electorate office. That office was one of a number of electorate offices I have lost—[ 
Interruption 
] I have lost only two electorate offices. The third one I am very pleased to say is now on the corner of Fitzgerald Avenue and Bealey Avenue which is a very prominent site. The hotel which used to be the Government Buildings had been earthquake strengthened and has come through with very little damage. I think it is a signal in the rebuild of Christchurch that heritage buildings where strengthened should be able to play that part. The second building is the former Chief Post Office and that has come through very very well. Clearly buildings without that amount of strengthening—as indeed our dear cathedral—have not come through so well. 
We went down to the Cashel Mall area. The Ballantynes building had come through pretty well. Ballantynes is going to be at the heart of the Cashel Mall Re:Start programme which is the initiative to get a part of our city reopened by Canterbury A and P show weekend by the end of October into the first week of November. It is being driven by the Central City Business Association headed by Antony Gough and Paul Lonsdale who are doing a fantastic job on behalf of the inner-city business groups. They were working with the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority to get that going as an early symbol of the rebuild of Christchurch. But we actually went left rather than right on Cashel Mall and up past some of the shops towards the Hotel Grand Chancellor. The Hotel Grand Chancellor again about a 20-storey building is definitely coming down. Although the options were still being weighed up the signals are that they will be taking a more traditional route to bring it down. We may be looking at a 12-month period to bring down that major building at the heart of our central business district—12 months. High Street and Lichfield Street one of the cultural precincts of our city had extensive damage. A number of buildings had already gone. 
One of the sombre impacts for me of the tour was to see cleared sites where buildings had been felled and the rubble has gone. It is getting to the point where at times one has to look and think what on earth was there. The point about that is that the schedule of buildings to come down already extends to 900 buildings in the central business district and I think we can expect well in excess of a thousand to come down. That if one thinks of the size of our city centre is a huge huge tally and underlines the importance of that Budget earthquake recovery funding of $5.5 billion for the rebuild of our city. Just concluding my audio tour other members may know the Holy Trinity Church a base for the Pasifika community in particular. That has already gone. It was identified as probably the most damaged building. It had already experienced earthquake damage and a fire prior to February. That has totally gone apart from the foundations. Dorothy’s Boutique Hotel will be an institution known to many members of this House now known as Beaufort House. It has sustained moderate damage and there is a question mark on whether it will be rebuilt. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: We want to keep Dorothy’s! 
BRENDON BURNS 
: We want to keep Dorothy’s. I am absolutely with my colleague the member for Port Hills on that but it has sustained considerable damage. We went around the corner of Latimer Square through to the Harcourts Grenadier building—a modern building. That has been earmarked for demolition. The Council of Trade Unions building also has a major question mark on it. It has slumped about half a metre in one corner. We came back down through Gloucester Street and saw that the TVNZ building had already been completely felled and demolished. So that sort of completes the picture as part of the central business district. 
That leads me to the Earthquake Kiwi Bonds put in place in the Budget. I acknowledge and applaud that contribution. It will be important for the rebuild of our city. I had an email tonight from one of the members of the Interests in Conserving the Identity of Christchurch group which I chair. Nicky Wagner is another member of that group. One of the members noted there is nothing in the bonding structure to assist the private sector with its rebuild programme. I think there is an assumption that the private sector insurance will be sufficient. The word is that that is not likely. So maybe that issue needs to be given some further consideration as we move towards the rebuild of Christchurch.