'The Nation'

Brendan Burns & Amy Adams
Interviewed by Duncan Garner

Duncan Well the Prime Minister says the government now has a clear picture of what will happen next in Christchurch and says thousands of homes will have to be abandoned but he refuses to say which homes or where the occupants might go. On top of that Event Management Company VBase has just announced it's to cut 45 full time positions in the city because of a dramatic drop in the number of evens at its four venues. The City's Anglican Bishop says people are shell shocked and deeply deeply exhausted. So let's talk about the mood in the city in and Christchurch Central MP, Brendan Burns joins us now from the Christchurch out, and National Selwyn MP Amy Adams is in our Christchurch studio. Good morning to you both.

Duncan I'll just start with you Brendan if I can. I mean how frustrated are your constituents down there hearing those comments this week from both Brownlee and the Prime Minister, about the information that they seem to have, but on one else seems to have it?

Brendan Burns – Christchurch Central MP
Well it is very frustrating for them, and obviously this has been a heck of a week for people in Christchurch. Monday's double whammy, a series of aftershocks, people really are at the end of their tether, and the fact that the government knows the information about where rebuilding is not going to be possible, but isn't prepared to share that, not only with my constituents, but with me and my colleagues as MPs trying to service our constituents and reassure them, is just enormously frustrating.

Duncan I mean Amy are you suffering that as well, because I mean you are in the government? Do you agree that your government's been too slow to get some of this information out to constituents?

Amy Adams – National Selwyn MP
No not at all. It is incredibly frustrating not knowing, and we can understand that absolutely. People want to know, and we want them to know as soon as they can. But I actually think it's gonna be worse for people if we're in the position of giving them incomplete or possibly incorrect information. We've gotta make sure that if we're gonna say to someone, you can never go back to your home, we can also tell them what that means for them, what their options are and where to next. And I think if we went out with half-baked or incomplete information, that would actually make a difficult situation far worse.

Duncan I mean Brendan isn't it a fair argument, I mean this could only be weeks away now, I mean isn't just a little bit more patience the right thing to do, because what we're talking about is writing off suburbs potentially?

Brendan Well Duncan you reported in early March, suggestions that suburbs were going to be written off, so this information has been increasing over the months, and this week really brings it to a head for people. I mean I'm getting constituents as recently as last night out to my caravan in Avonside. A dozen people through all wanting to know, are we going to be able to rebuild on our houses here near the banks of the river? I can't give them that information, I can't give them a signal nor a steer on it, and the government has tried to bring together the package for the insurance. But surely the information is needed now because people are wanting to know, shall they dig their homes out of the silt for the third time? Shall they try and repair the sewer mains, should they try and get a heating unit installed before winter really sets in. These are urgent questions and people are at their wits end, they deserve to know the information, the information about the insurance arrangements can come in a second package. People are just desperate …

Duncan So what you're saying is that the government is actually sitting on information that is ready to go. I mean you don’t know that for a fact do you?

Brendan Well you had the Prime Minister saying this week that there's a clear picture. You’ve had Gerry Brownlee saying that it's blindingly obvious where the rebuilding is not going to take place. Three months ago you were reporting, presumably from government sources, that there were going to be suburbs not rebuilt on. So the picture is pretty clear to some, and it's not being shared and people like myself and my colleagues in electorates like Port Hills and Christchurch East, are having to take the questions from people, and we've not even had a briefing this week. We've had one in fact in the past month, and we are trying to put the lines for government without the information being provided to us. It's enormously frustrating and really it's asking a heck of a lot of people who have been through a lot over nine months now.

Duncan Yeah, Amy can you respond to that, Gerry Brownlee has said it's blindingly obvious. Now this information, I mean Brendan does appear to be right. This information needs to be shared, and needs to be shared quickly doesn’t it?

Amy Look I think Duncan this week has shown us among other things that this situation is just not clear and it's changing all the time, and we've gotta be very clear when we go out to say something as significant as you can never go back to your home. And the other side of this is that when we come out with that information, we'll be saying to people who are going back to their land that look it is safe, you can have confidence in rebuilding on that site. This is not the sort of thing you can cut corners on, and I can tell you that everyone is working incredibly hard. This is not just a question of what the land's doing, there's 12 different agencies that have to come together to give some of these answers, and I can tell you everybody is working under extreme pressure to get this out as fast as humanly can be done. But we just have to get this right. We're not gonna take the chance of going to people with information that isn't right and isn't complete. But I can tell you as soon as that picture is together we want people to know as soon as we possibly can give it to them.

Duncan Okay Brendan just quickly and finally, what does the future of Christchurch look like for you? What does success look like at the end of this?

Brendan Well once we get past the situation where people are being told whether they can rebuild, we will rebuild our city, and we will rebuild it well. But it is just an enormously frustrating time to go through at the moment. We have a strong future in this city, it is a very very powerfully connected community, but now it is time to connect to those people. We've been saying for weeks and weeks now that we want the people's input, we want to hear what they have to say about the rebuilding of Christchurch. Surely that starts with the information that they need to know about whether they can rebuild their homes and if they can't, then they can move on. It's not fair to not share the information when it's known.

Duncan Okay, Brendan Burns and Amy Adams thank you so much for joining us from Christchurch this morning and all the best.

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