Dalziel Lianne: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Dalziel Lianne: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 16 August 2011. Volume:675;Page:20896. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
10. 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL (Labour—Christchurch East) 
 to the  
Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery 
: How many letters of offer from the Crown will be sent to insured residential red zone property owners this week? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (Associate Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery) 
on behalf of the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery: Those who had correctly supplied information will begin receiving letters of offer by the end of this week. An estimated just over 3000 letters of offer will be sent out in this first tranche. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Why has the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority arranged for a briefing for Canterbury lawyers this evening ahead of the offer going out yet no such briefing is being made available to the people who will be receiving the offer meaning they will have to pay to see a lawyer which the Government will subsidise only if one of the offers is accepted? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: I am advised that due to the nature of the offers being made there are variations from a standard sale and purchase agreement. What is happening is two documents are going out: one in plain English to the homeowner explaining in general terms what the offer will be and another to the Law Society to explain to the lawyers how the legal aspects of it will work. That means that when the homeowners have read the plain English and decided whether they want to take the package they will need to get some legal advice with regards to the offer— 
Sue Moroney 
: Only if they get to accept it. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Only if they accept it? Of course it is only if they accept it. That is a stupid interjection. Only if they accept it? Of course they would not do it if they did not accept it. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: I seek leave to table these six documents that I was able to download from the New Zealand Law Society website last night. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: These documents are? 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: These documents relate to the Crown acquisition of insured residential red zone properties. None of this information is being made available to people who live in those properties.  
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is—[ 
Interruption 
] A point of order is being dealt with. Leave is sought to table those documents. Is there any objection? There is no objection. 
Documents by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: How is it acceptable that people will not know what their insurer is prepared to offer them to settle the claim or indeed what the Earthquake Commission’s cash settlement might be if the land settlement price under the Earthquake Commission’s arrangement is greater than the purchase price for the land-only option? How is it acceptable that an offer will go out from the Government before any of that information is known to the person receiving the offer? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Let us get some facts on the table. Approximately 4500 residential properties with insurance are located in the red zone. To date 3500 of those people have responded to the offer which means about an 80 percent uptake. I have to say to the member that the individual cases for each individual specific— 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Last week I tabled the letter. There has been no response to the offer. The offer has not gone out yet. The Minister just said that 3500 people have responded to the offer. This is what is frustrating to people in the red zone. They have signed a consent form only to receive the offer. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member is debating the issue. I sense her frustration because it sounds like different things are being talked about here. To overcome this problem I invite the member to repeat the question—because I accept the question is a serious question and there is a genuine public interest—just to make sure the Minister is answering exactly the issue the member is raising. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I did not have that question written down so it may not be exactly word for word. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Well the best the member can do. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: How can it be acceptable for the Government to send the offer that is being sent tomorrow to people who do not have the information from their insurers as to how much they would cash-settle the building and contents part of the offer and when they do not know whether the Earthquake Commission land settlement is greater than the purchase price if they accept just the land offer? How can that be acceptable? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: I am going by advice but the advice I have is that the offer documents that go out will lay out the process but then people will need to get advice from their lawyers. That is why the documents that the Law Society posted on its website had the technical and legal explanations in them. Only then will the homeowners determine whether to go ahead with the package. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Does he stand by his repeated claims that quake victims’ equity in their homes will be preserved including the following quote: “I have said consistently since 4 September that it is the equity that people have in their properties that we have an obligation to protect” given that many Kaiapoi residents in the newly announced red zone—announced today—have calculated that accepting the Government’s purchase offer will mean they are out of pocket by over $100000 and they have no alternative? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Yes. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Is the Minister aware whether the offer document that will be sent to residential homeowners in the red zone contains details about how much the Earthquake Commission calculation for the land settlement would be if the cost exceeded the cost of repairing the land? It seems to me that if the Minister does not know the answer to that question then there is a fundamental flaw in the Government’s offer in that not all of the information will be with homeowners when they receive the offer. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: As I said in answer to the principal question those who correctly supplied information will begin to receive letters of offer by the end of this week and the details of that offer will be in that letter.