September 14, 2010 9:07am by David Farrar

The Canterbury legislation

The Government has won support from its political rivals for emergency earthquake relief legislation that will bypass existing laws to speed up rebuilding in Canterbury.

Prime Minister John Key said yesterday that the quake – with a repair bill expected to be more than $4 billion – was New Zealand’s most costly natural disaster.

The Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Bill, expected to be passed in Parliament today, would help recovery efforts.

It would allow ministers to use “orders in council” to bypass the normal parliamentary process and overrule or relax existing legislation – including local body bylaws – to speed up rebuilding efforts.

“The bill is recognition that legislation such as the Building, Local Government and Resource Management Acts are not designed for the special circumstances Canterbury faces.”

I think few would disagree that the normal resource consent process is inappropriate for recovery from a Christchurch. You can’t have people waiting months and years to be able to do repairs etc.

Labour leader Phil Goff said his party would support it “so the people of Canterbury can get on with rebuilding their region”.

Well done Labour.

The new law will also establish a Recovery Commission made up of the mayors of Christchurch, Waimakariri and Selwyn, three Government appointees and an independent chairperson.

Mr Brownlee said the commission would ensure that rebuilding efforts, particularly for sewage and waste infrastructure, were co-ordinated and done in conjunction with the Government.

Seems sensible.

This suggest to me that one needs Mayors who are good team players, and can work well with others to achieve progress.

I was on RNZ’s Panel yesterday and former Christchurch Mayor Garry Moore joined us for a discussion on Christchurch. I asked Garry what sort of leadership Christchurch needs going forward, if one looks at two models of leadership, being:

The team leader – someone good at working with others, bringing the best out of a team.
The “my way of the highway” leader, where a strong leader says do it my way.

Garry said that Christchurch needs a Mayor who can be collaborative and work with others. I’ll leave it to readers to work out who they think fits better into each category.