Supporting CanCERN’s letter to Minister Brownlee
A number of community groups have sent e-mails to Minister Brownlee supporting CanCERN’s letter. Click the link to see our e-mail sent yesterday to Minister Brownlee. A copy of the e-mail was also sent to MP Nicky Wagner, who seems to have disappeared from the radar over these issues which affect much of her electorate.
Dear Minister Brownlee
Earlier today Leanne Curtis of CanCERN sent to you a letter (copy attached) in response to your appearance on Campbell Live. Our resident's society, predominantly Red Zoned but with a number of TC3 families as well, fully endorse her comments.
While the comments made by Ian Simpson and yourself to Campbell Live (and also those of the Chair of ICNZ) have a superficial air of knowledge and accuracy, they do not stand up to knowledgeable analysis because they are not the truth of what is happening. They seem to be primarily public relations performances to the rest of the country to suppress anxiety and avoid scrutiny.
Along with a catastrophic level of failure on the part of EQC first, and then the insurers, one of the biggest issues of the post-earthquake experiences has been the shortage of the whole truth. Perhaps conveniently, there are no working mechanisms for feedback into the bureaucracies that run EQC, private insurance and CERA. The one attempt at this was the Forum which soon became a gathering of disillusionment. Individual attempts to acquire information via the OIA have invariably met with delays from your office, EQC and CERA. The absence of a suitably resourced and productive Office of the Ombudsman allows this to continue.
Even when attempts are made by the government to establish a snapshot of how people are faring, as with the CERA Wellbeing survey, the process is gerrymandered to ensure only good news is generated.
It is chilling to think that, if it were not for Campbell Live, all the suffering and despair would be invisible outside of the damaged areas and no one in government or the public or private sector bureaucracies would feel compelled to acknowledge or change anything. The sub-text to this is we are discovering an underlying callousness and disregard for human beings one could never have anticipated from the fine words of government and corporate spin.
Lawrence Roberts
Co-chair Cowlishaw Pattern etc Residents Society (CowPats)
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