New EQC boss hopes to speed up claims

Former Labour stalwart Dame Annette King has been been given the top Earthquake Commission (EQC) job in a bid to speed up unresolved Canterbury earthquake claims.

Minister Responsible for the Earthquake Commission Megan Woods appointed King, who retired from politics at the 2017 election, as interim EQC chair yesterday.

She replaces outgoing chairman Sir Maarten Wevers, who resigned last week after Woods made it apparent she was not satisfied with the number of unresolved claims still with EQC seven years after the earthquakes.

‘‘There are still 2600 claims unresolved and that’s simply not good enough. Each claim represents a family that is stuck in limbo – unable to move on with their lives until their homes are repaired or rebuilt,’’ Woods said.

The minister yesterday also appointed Christine Stevenson, the acting comptroller (financial controller) at Customs, as an independent ministerial adviser tasked with speeding up the fair resolution of EQC claims.

‘‘Christine will be tasked with working with the board and management to provide advice to me to enable EQC to close out these claims as quickly and as fairly as possible,’’ Woods said. ‘‘Dame Annette has spent a lifetime as a battler for ordinary people and is hugely respected on both sides of the political aisle – I know she will put the interests of people at the forefront of EQC’s mission and help push for fast and fair resolution for the people involved.’’

Woods said she expected reports on the process within the next four to six weeks.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern rejected the notion that King’s appointment was an instance of favouritism, saying it went through the proper process and she trusted King’s ability to ‘‘troubleshoot problems’’.

‘‘We’ve appointed Annette King as an interim chair because we have a piece of work that immediately needs to be undertaken,’’ she said. ‘‘We needed to have confidence that we could unravel and unpick the more than 2000 cases from the quake in Christchurch that are still stuck with EQC.’’

Wevers resigned after Woods unveiled plans to appoint a ministerial adviser to EQC to provide her with advice on the settlement of the last 2600 quake claims.

In his resignation letter, he said: ‘‘It is clear that the minister has no confidence in the board and staff of the commission.

‘‘As chair, I take responsibility for that and have stepped aside so that the minister can appoint someone whom she assesses will be able to do a better job.’’

He acknowledged some ‘‘mistakes had been made’’ and customers were not always given proper support. However, Wevers pointed out that the 2600 claims yet to be resolved by EQC, seven years on from the February 22, 2011 earthquake, amounted to less than 0.6 per cent of the 470,000 lodged.