2 July 2015

Recovery needs more than a rebrand

Today’s announcement of new governance arrangements for Canterbury seems to be nothing more than a fresh coat of paint on the same old approach, says Labour’s Canterbury Earthquake Recovery spokesperson Ruth Dyson.

“The Canterbury Recovery has been too slow, with delays to major projects. At first glance, there is nothing new in today’s announcements to speed up progress.

“Gerry Brownlee himself admitted the community is crying out for a new approach to get things moving. Instead, the new development agency announced appears to be just CERA with a new name.

“One of the slowest and most frustrating parts of the recovery has been the lack of progress under CERA on the central city rebuild. Instead, Gerry Brownlee has announced a new agency with much the same functions and approach.

“The announcement that MBIE will be picking up many of the functions of the residential rebuild is also an admission that progress has been too slow. Clearly John Key is sending in ‘Mr Fix-it’ Steven Joyce to hurry Gerry Brownlee along.

“People in Canterbury want to see faster progress. Chucking a new coat of paint on the same old way of doing things is no way to regenerate Christchurch,” says Ruth Dyson.

ends

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