O'Rourke Denis: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to MembersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Rourke Denis: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members[Sitting date: 27 June 2013. Volume:691;Page:11365. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]7.DENIS O’ROURKE (NZ First)to thePrime Minister: Has he read the open letter to him dated 25 June 2013 written on behalf of the quake families who lost 185 of their loved ones in the collapse of the CTV building in the February 2013 earthquake?Mr SPEAKER: 2011 earthquake.Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Economic Development)on behalf of thePrime Minister: I am not quite sure of the accuracy of the question but obviously the tenor of the question is understood and the response is no the Prime Minister has not yet had the opportunity to read the letter which was received by his office earlier this week. However I can assure the member that as it has done in the past the Government will carefully consider the issues raised in that letter and respond directly to the writer.Denis O’Rourke: Whether he has read the letter or not what is his response to the last paragraph of the open letter from the quake families which says: “We know what went wrong. We know who is responsible. We know that the CTV building was code non-compliant. It was illegally built by inexperienced negligent and incompetent individuals and entities—even a so-called engineer who had a false name and fake degrees was involved. The Government has the responsibility to ensure justice and that this will not happen again.”?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Well I certainly understand the sentiments in the letter as quoted by the member but I just have to reiterate that the Prime Minister has not had the opportunity to read the letter which was received just earlier this week. But again I assure the member that as has been done in the past the Government will carefully consider in full the issues raised in the letter and respond directly.Denis O’Rourke: Given the statement in his letter to the quake families dated 13 September 2012 that the “judicial avenue will remain available” what is his reply to the plea in the recent open letter from the quake families which says: “I am asking you Prime Minister on behalf of the families to give us your support as you promised in providing the families with legal help to give us advice information and the resources to undertake legal proceedings against those responsible.”?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Given the previous two answers I have made to the member I am not sure how much further I can advance matters for him today but I will point out one further matter. My understanding is that the police are currently looking into this matter and they are yet to make a decision on any prosecution and that would feed into the timing of any other things as proposed by the families.Denis O’Rourke: What action has his Government taken to ensure that every person or organisation having any degree of provable culpability for the fatal defects in the CTV Building in the state it was in as at the date of the February 2011 earthquake is brought promptly to justice in the light of the findings of the royal commission?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Again I think we have to be very careful while the police are investigating these matters. It would not be appropriate for the executive to direct the police in the approach that they should take. They have to have the opportunity to consider the situation and decide whether they want to take a prosecution.