‘I have no power to intervene,’ Ardern tells CTV families
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has offered a sympathetic ear to the families of those killed in the Canterbury Television (CTV) building collapse, but not the words they wanted to hear.
Ardern met a group of families in Christchurch yesterday to discuss the police decision not to pursue criminal charges. The CTV building collapsed in the February 2011 earthquake, killing 115 people. Police said the decision was due to a lack of evidence and low likelihood of conviction.
After the meeting, Ardern said she updated families on progress in law reforms since the collapse. This included work on a corporate manslaughter law, removing the ‘‘one year and one day’’ limitation in the Crimes Act, which potentially absolved CTV engineers of responsibility, and revising prosecution guidelines for police.
‘‘The difficult thing [is] all of these things are of course forward looking,’’ she said. ‘‘None of these unfortunately have an impact for the situation that the CTV families find themselves in. When it comes to decisions around prosecution . . . we unfortunately don’t have the power to intervene.’’
Many families railed against the lack of accountability after the tragedy.
Spokesman Maan Alkaisi said those families ‘‘managed to send the message that we would like to send’’. ‘‘This is an opportunity for the Government to fix something that has been wrong for seven years.’’
Alkaisi was still considering pursuing a judicial review of the decision not to prosecute.
‘‘I will consult lawyers to see what is best for us, but we will never give up.’’
Earlier, Ardern faced a horde of protesters at the Christchurch Art Gallery and told them the quagmire of outstanding earthquake insurance cases was ‘‘just not good enough’’.
Ardern and Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Megan Woods were met by about 100 protesters outside the gallery yesterday. Ardern was due to speak inside but talked to the group first.
The protesters echoed the longheld refrain of insurance critics – delay, deny, defend – and condemned recovery entities including Crown-owned claims-management company Southern Response and the slow-moving High Court earthquake list. They were eager to hear what Ardern would do differently.
‘‘We are working as quickly as we can,’’ Ardern said. ‘‘I think New Zealanders would be astounded to know how many of you are still having to battle to get what you believe [you are] rightly entitled to. Seven years . . . The fact that there are thousands of these cases is just not good enough.’’
Protest organiser Ali Jones, a former Christchurch city councillor, asked Ardern and Woods their advice to stressed claimants who were ‘‘right at that cliff edge’’.
‘‘If there’s any particularly pressing cases . . . we’re happy to get people to look at those files and see what we can do,’’ Woods said.
Ardern presided over the symbolic launch of the fundraising campaign to rebuild the earthquake-damaged Christ Church Cathedral, accepting a $1 million cheque from cathedral restoration advocate Philip Burdon on behalf of the Great Christchurch Buildings Trust (GCBT).
‘‘This will be an enormous project, but the fact now that we have consensus, a path forward and an amazing team to undergo the work that will be required, I think will be the source of a lot of faith and hope that we will see the CBD now start to really redevelop around this amazing symbolic monument for Canterbury,’’ Ardern said.
Woods said it was ‘‘very much a symbolic gesture while we get ready to start that fundraising campaign’’.