Wagner Nicky: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWagner Nicky: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee[Sitting date: 17 June 2014. Volume:699;Page:18543. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NICKY WAGNER (Associate Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery):I am very pleased to speak in this debate on the report on the Earthquake Commission. I speak in this debate as the member of Parliament for Christchurch Central. I want to talk about the operations of the Earthquake Commission in Christchurch. Christchurch people love to hate the Earthquake Commission. We love to hate the Earthquake Commission because in the last 3 years things have been very tough in Christchurch. Nothing has been simple about our earthquakes and the Earthquake Commission has had to work under very difficult circumstances.But we are also very aware that New Zealand is in a unique insurance situation because of the Earthquake Commission. When you look at other similar earthquake-prone countries especially those around the Pacific Rim—the US and Japan—only about 15 to 20 percent of ordinary citizens have their homes insured simply because of the cost and no one’s land is insured at all. I visited San Francisco in 2012 and I was horrified to see properties homes that had been rebuilt on the area of the land that had been very hard hit during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. These homes were mostly uninsured and certainly nobody had land insurance. They were uninsured because of the cost of insurance. If you live in an earthquake-prone country unless it happens to be New Zealand it is prohibitive to pay for insurance for normal families. That situation would be the same here except that the Earthquake Commission takes the very high - risk first $100000 of risk so that supplementary insurance is affordable. So although we love to hate the Earthquake Commission in Christchurch I cannot imagine what it would be like in Christchurch if 80 to 85 percent of our homes were uninsured and our land was also unprotected.I acknowledge that there have been issues with Earthquake Commission claims. The size of the event the number of earthquakes the fact that most people have multiple claims the management structure of multi-unit properties and the tough environment for everyone who works in our communities have made it particularly hard. The Earthquake Commission has had to scale up very fast. But I sincerely believe that everyone in the Earthquake Commission is working hard to settle claims and we are now seeing real progress. Ultimately we have to remember that every last claim will be paid out and that the Earthquake Commission will continue to provide New Zealanders with insurance long after Christchurch homes are restored and our city is rebuilt.Let us now have a look at the Earthquake Commission’s statistics. We can get a good idea of the size of the task in hand and of the progress that has been made. Since February 2011 the Earthquake Commission has had 1.64 million interactions with homeowners. That is equivalent to dealing with every single person who lives in Auckland and in Northland. The assessors have done 750000 assessments or reassessments after multiple earthquakes which is equivalent to two assessments for every single person who lives in Christchurch. The Earthquake Commission has paid out $7.4 billion including GST.Let us have a look at how those claims pan out. Eighty-three percent of cash settlement claims have been completed. Ninety-one percent of all claims under $15000 have been resolved. Seventy-five percent of claims between $15000 and $100000 are settled. And 90 percent of overlapped claims are settled. That means that 90 percent of those claims have moved on to the insurance companies for a rebuild or a repair. On top of that 78 percent of properties in the Canterbury Home Repair Programme are complete.I really do want to focus on vulnerable customers because this is a priority area of the Earthquake Commission and it is an area that concerns us all. Eighty-six percent of the claims of vulnerable customers are complete and the Earthquake Commission is absolutely committed to fixing the homes of the rest of these people. One of the issues that we have had in Christchurch is that it has been very difficult to get to the people who most need our help. If you compare an earthquake like the Christchurch—