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 February 2012. Volume:677;Page:491. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
9. 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL (Labour—Christchurch East) 
 to the  
Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery 
: Does he stand by the part of his statement of 27 January announcing the extension of the red zone offer to retirement villages that letters of offer would be sent to each resident and CERA would work with village owners as quickly as possible to ensure the residents are assisted; if not why not? 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery) 
: 
 It was always the Government’s intention that red zone offers would go to residents. Receivables from the sale of retirement villages to the Crown must be applied to exit payments to residents via a statutory supervisor as a priority over any other person including the owners so that the residents’ interests are protected. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Why was the wording of the media statement which said a letter of offer would be sent to each resident changed to the one now on the Beehive website which says that an offer to each owner will follow and was that designed to cover up the humungous blunder as one person has described this communication of this policy? 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: No it is because the legalities around this mean that the owners of the rest home own the property—have the title to the property. The residents in the cases we are generally talking about have a licence to occupy. So by law—by one law—the settlement is with the owners but as I said before receivables from the sale of retirement villages to the Crown must be applied to exit payments to residents as a priority over any other person including the owners so that the residents’ interests are protected. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: How has he responded to the son-in-law of one of the former Kate Sheppard Gardens residents who was advised by his colleague Kate Wilkinson that the Government was not about to make Lance Bunting a rich man and that the Government was going to look after the residents in light of the statement from his own office to Kate Sheppard Gardens’ statutory supervisor that there is no wider policy decision providing for top-ups above contractual obligations for residents? 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: My advice is that the rest home that is mentioned by the member in this question has effected exit payments with all of its residents bar a few who are still waiting to have their situation reviewed and that it is currently—my advice is—a matter between the residents and the owner. But by and large the particular owner you mention has settled with his residents unlike another owner who has the expectation of an $8.712 million settlement from the Crown and $5.2 million worth of obligations to his residents but is enlisting the help of some MPs to see whether he can wheedle more out of the Crown. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Can the Minister confirm the advice that I received from the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority that residents do get the first call on any money that legally goes to retirement village owners—that it is like being a preferred creditor as they get first call on any money that is passed to the rest home owners—and will he actually apologise to all of those people whose hopes have been raised and dashed again with the announcement that he will not provide for the residents to be looked after in this matter? 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: I repeat for the third time: any payments made by the Crown for the sale of rest homes or retirement villages must be applied to exit payments to residents via a statutory supervisor as a priority over any other person including the owner so that the residents’ interests are protected. That is exactly what the member has asked for it is what we are doing and there is nothing to apologise for. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: I seek leave to table a number of documents. The first is the press statement from Gerry Brownlee referring— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! We do not table— 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Excuse me there have been changes to the wording from the website—[ 
Interruption 
] I am sorry Mr Speaker but I am not putting it— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! We do not table press statements in this House. The member has other ways of getting her information out in the public if she wishes to. Tabling documents in this House is to provide members with information and press statements are not part of that package. There are plenty of other mechanisms for the member to get her points out in the public if that is what she wants to do. But the procedure for tabling documents is not a procedure for making political points. It is a procedure for providing information to members that they would not otherwise have available to them. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Point of order the Hon Gerry Brownlee—I am sorry the Hon Trevor Mallard. [ 
Interruption 
] Order! I apologise indeed. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: It is not the worst thing that has happened today. [ 
Interruption 
]  
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! I want to hear this point of order. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I think it is a relatively important point and I think you outlined very clearly the reasons that press statements are not tabled in this House and that is because they are otherwise available. The point that my colleague was beginning to make and was about a sentence off finishing was that this press statement is no longer available because it has been taken down and changed on the Minister’s website.  
Mr SPEAKER 
: Presumably the press statement was available to all members. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: But it is not now available to members. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Well I will leave the matter for the House— 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: Mr Speaker— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No the House can decide. I will leave— 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: I would like— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I will hear the honourable Leader of the House.  
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: I am prepared to put my original press statement up on TradeMe with a “buy now” price.  
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Speaking to the point of order— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No no. I am not going to have any. I guess several members have got away with points of order today that are not points of order and I blame myself but I guess there has been some humour around all of them. I will leave the matter for the House to decide. I will let the member describe the documents.  
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: The first is the original press statement dated 27 January 2012 which referred to a letter of offer going to each resident. The second is a summary of the SMS text messages with the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority where I was trying to get details of the red zone retirement village announcement as the advice I had had from the press was different from the statement I had received from the Minister’s office. The third is a letter to the Hon Gerry Brownlee dated 6 February 2012 making him aware of the frustration their family feels at having a family member resident at Kate Sheppard Gardens and the last document is the email from Peter Orpin statutory supervisor for Kate Sheppard Gardens explaining that he had spent several hours researching the matter and regretted to inform that the additional funds would not be forthcoming.  
Mr SPEAKER 
: 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.