Cosgrove Clayton: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCosgrove Clayton: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 06 November 2013. Volume:694;Page:14398. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]6.Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour) to theMinister responsible for the Earthquake Commission: Does he still believe that New Zealanders can have confidence in EQC?Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Minister responsible for the Earthquake Commission): Yes. In 2013 18315 claims have been made to the Earthquake Commission from throughout New Zealand. So far over $7 million has been paid in settling those claims.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: How can New Zealanders have confidence in the Earthquake Commission when the Auditor-General has confirmed the Earthquake Commission’s inability to communicate with its claimants stating: “Homeowners have experienced inconsistency in information and long periods without specific information” and “a lack of certainty while waiting for repairs”?Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: The Auditor-General has been engaged in the Earthquake Commission process from the outset largely at my request so that we did get good information and an acceptable assessment of how that performance was going. The Earthquake Commission has in fact improved that performance quite considerably. It has repaired over 46000 damaged homes in Christchurch and paid out in excess of $6.3 billion to Cantabrians to date. Further the latest survey from the Earthquake Commission has got an 86 percent satisfaction rate on those repairs.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Oh yeah. What about the people you didn’t survey?Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Point of order—Mr SPEAKER: Point of order the honourable—Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Oh no I had better answer. It will be easier if I answer.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Does he believe that the Earthquake Commission—to quote him in this morning’sPress—is doing “pretty well” given that the Auditor-General notes that 3 years on the Earthquake Commission was not completing repairs to properties with vulnerable occupants any faster than the repairs to other properties and that the reason for this provided by the Earthquake Commission was that 3 years on the “process for prioritising the vulnerable has yet to … bed in”?Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Well the member can sit over there and say that we are 3 years on. The reality is—Hon Clayton Cosgrove: The Auditor-General said that not me.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Well that is right. The Auditor-General is closeted here in Wellington doing a distant observation. The reality is that the decay curve on the seismic activity in Canterbury has shown a settled pattern only for a bit over 12 months. So yes there has been a fair bit of time elapsed but do not forget that the Earthquake Commission was directly responsible for fixing up over 170000 houses. So I think my comment that it has done pretty well is a reasonable one. The other thing of course is that I well remember the member who is asking the question predicting that we were going to see real estate values drop through the floor in Canterbury. That has not happened largely because of the efforts of the Earthquake Commission.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Does he believe that the Earthquake Commission is doing “pretty well” given that the Auditor-General notes that 3 years on—and she is capable of counting 3 years—“some contractors were accredited and inducted before criminal credit and conflict of interest checks became a routine part of the accreditation process” that “the issuing of performance improvement notices … to contractors has not been centrally recorded for most of the programme” and that “the controls for ensuring compliance with the building code are not consistently followed;” and that the reason given for this by the Earthquake Commission 3 years on was that these checks had only recently been implemented?Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: The member is quoting selectively from the Auditor-General’s report and it is available for anybody to read and to put into the right context. In the early days there may well have been contractors accredited who did not meet some of the strict criteria that are there now and have been there for the vast majority of the last 3 years. There are 1287 accredited contractors employing thousands of people and to characterise them in the way that Mr Cosgrove has is completely inappropriate.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Given that my word has been questioned I seek leave—and it is a recent document; I accept that given your recent rulings—to table page 33 of the Auditor-General’s—Mr SPEAKER: No I do not need to hear any more. That document is very available if members wish to further inform themselves.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Will he now acknowledge 3 years on the genuine ongoing difficulties and struggles that the people of Canterbury are having with the Earthquake Commission given that he has in the past brushed these issues aside and questioned their validity in light of the Auditor-General publishing a 100-page report detailing evidence and facts independently illustrating the Earthquake Commission’s ineptitude?Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: It does not matter how many flowery words the member might throw into his question to try and make it seem a little more reasonable and direct. The fact is that the Earthquake Commission is dealing with a very big problem in Canterbury. There are 170000 houses that need to be dealt with. It is getting on with that task extremely well. In addition to that it has done land assessments on over 180000 individual properties and has settled literally thousands and thousands and thousands of contents claims as well. The Auditor-General has noted a condition that existed in the Earthquake Commission at a point in time. The Earthquake Commission is committed to improving its performance. Frankly every statistic that can be amassed around the Earthquake Commission does indicate a reasonable performance. I think it is worth noting that the old Department of Building and Housing did a survey on building work that was done while that member was the Minister and found that 69 percent of people had a satisfactory outcome with their contractors. The Earthquake Commission has consistently been at the 80 percent mark and as high as 91 percent and is currently at 86 percent. It is a very good performance.