Frustrated Dalziel wants forum for key recovery decisions
Lianne Dalziel will not look back fondly on 2012. The word ‘‘frustration’’ has rolled off the tongue too frequently for the Christchurch EastMP and Labour’s earthquake recovery spokeswoman.
‘‘It’s been a hard year for a lot of people,’’ she says.
‘‘I’ve got this expression that there aren’t enough brick walls left standing for me to bang my head against. That sums up the frustration that I feel on behalf of others.’’
The year has been a mixed bag for Dalziel, professionally and personally.
One positive was her move from red-zoned Bexley to a new home in Burwood.
‘‘[It is] in the electorate, which I’m pleased about. I did actually tell my husband he didn’t have a choice in the matter,’’ she says.
‘‘For a while when we first moved in it felt like it wasn’t really home, but everyone [in the neighbourhood] has made us feel really welcome.’’
Although taking on a mortgage again, Dalziel says she is ‘‘really stoked’’ with the outcome.
It is a far cry from earlier in the year when she was in tears after Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee said in Parliament that she was ‘‘grumpy’’ at not getting more taxpayer money for her Bexley property.
Dalziel describes Brownlee’s attempt at personalising the situation as ‘‘underhanded’’.
‘‘The minister finally apologised in the House, but in the least sincere way you can possibly do it. I don’t think he could have been more offensive if he tried.’’
She says she tried to ‘‘establish a relationship’’ with Brownlee when she became Labour’s earthquake recovery spokeswoman but had been ‘‘singularly unsuccessful’’.
The cross-party forum, which started in March to keep MPs across the political spectrum informed, was another disappointment.
Meetings were cancelled without explanation, minutes were not kept and issues not followed up, she says.
‘‘It’s almost like we go and tell [Brownlee] what we are concerned about, get briefed on things we ask to be briefed on, instead of having this collaborative approach, which we envisaged it always should be.’’
The recovery planning process needs to be ‘‘depoliticised and collaborative’’, Dalziel says.
She suggested a forum of all elected officials, including city councillors, be set up for key decisions.
‘‘So what if it slows things down; it couldn’t really be much slower. It does slow things down a little bit, but not much, and the decisionmaking you get out of that process is so much better,’’ she says.
‘‘It actually takes some of the burden off [Brownlee’s] shoulders to share that load.’’
The Christchurch Central Development Unit plan, unveiled in July, was a major development for the city.
Dalziel initially supported the concept, but after seeing more details believes the sums being bandied about are ‘‘eye-watering’’ and ultimately unaffordable.
‘‘I just don’t know where that money is coming from. Can we afford a covered stadium? We’re not having these conversations at all.’’
The prospect of compulsory land acquisition within the anchor project areas concerns her.
Some landowners would be ‘‘completely stuffed’’ and ‘‘seriously out of pocket’’, she says.
‘‘It’s not fair to take people’s properties from them for less than those properties are worth. To me, that’s wrong.’’
She compares it to the ‘‘scandalous’’ offers made to bare-land and commercial property owners in the residential red zone who have been offered half the land’s rateable value.
A full year as earthquake recovery spokeswoman has taken Dalziel on a ‘‘journey of serendipity’’.
In June, she was invited to join a United Nations advisory group for disaster recovery risk reduction – one of 15 parliamentarians from around the world.
‘‘I think if I hadn’t have been the spokesperson, I probably would not have gone that next step, which was to really get involved in all of this international stuff around recovery.’’
Critics have said Dalziel is often too negative. She dismisses this as mostly the views of anonymous bloggers, some paid by opponents.
‘‘Just because I have a different point of view, it doesn’t mean I’m being negative and it doesn’t mean I haven’t tried to present an alternative to the Government before they announce decisions.’’
Dalziel has a more positive outlook for 2013, beginning with a conference in the United States on community resilience.
‘‘I honestly believe the solutions that we are looking for are in the community,’’ she says. ‘‘We don’t need to be asking the Government to do things for us and the Government shouldn’t be rebuilding Christchurch.’’ Christchurch should be rebuilding Christchurch, in partnership with central and local government.’’
Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee was invited by
to speak about his past year, but he declined.