Parliament has unanimously passed a law to make Earthquake Commission claims less “traumatic” for people who lose their homes in natural disasters.
The Natural Hazards Insurance Bill, passed by the Parliament on Tuesday night, will rename the government insurer Toka Tū Ake – Naturals Hazards Commission, and clarify in law that natural disaster insurance covers storms, floods, landslips, volcanoes, tsunami and hydrothermal activity.
The Earthquake Commission’s handling of thousands of claims after the Christchurch earthquake had been controversial. Seven years after the Christchurch earthquakes, in 2017, some 2600 claims remained unresolved, and the Government promised in 2020 to “modernise” the commission and its legislation after a review.
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In 2021, the Government doubled the cap of commission coverage for disaster damage, committing the commission to paying the first $300,000 of insurance claims.
This new cap came into effect on October 2022, months before the destructive storms which have devastated parts of the North Island.
Minister Dr Deborah Russell, in charge of the commission, said the new law would mean New Zealanders won’t “have to go through the same traumatic experiences as the people of Canterbury”.
“New Zealand has some of the highest natural disaster costs in the world as a proportion of GDP. Our natural hazards insurance scheme has successfully supported New Zealand’s resilience and recovery through two of its most significant natural disasters in recent times,” she said, in the House.
ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff
Minister responsible for the Earthquake Commission Dr Debroah Russell.
“It’s clear that in the days, weeks, months and years to come, the scheme will also be critical to supporting the recovery of areas affected by Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland floods.”
National Party Earthquake Commission spokesman Stuart Smith said the disaster insurance scheme was “in a lot better space then we were back in Canterbury earthquake days”.
“I just hope that it goes the best possible way that it can for those people affected by these current weather events.”
Green Party Earthquake Commission spokeswoman Eugenie Sage said the country benefited from the commission because it shared the cost of disasters, and now the costs of managed retreat – relocating from areas at-rick from climate change-driven weather events – needed to be shared too.
“As the Insurance Council has recently said, we need to stop building in dumb places. It doesn’t make sense for insurance payments – whether they’re from private insurers or through EQC – to be used to rebuild homes on flood plains where people are at risk of being flooded again, in areas that we know are vulnerable landslips”
ACT MP Damien Smith said New Zealand was a country “with many challenging features, making land free from risk difficult if not impossible to find”.
