James Meager - Local MP

Our local MP is James Meager. Luke caught up with him to ask about the changes to earthquake prone buildings and also to ask about his exciting overseas trip (overseas, yet still in NZ...)

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our local impeter is James me good morning, Hokanui.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Should I find what a great New Zealander look?

Speaker 1 (00:06):
That's fair. She could buy up a hunk of mid
Canterbury if she was keen. And if it does have
some old buildings on, it's not as much pressure to
go and do them up. Now I see there's a
seismic change to earthquake rules. What's going on here?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, big shift in how we assess earthquake prone buildings.
So the old scheme is put in place after the
Cristis shoes quecs, and probably rightfully so out of precaution
for some of the rest to falling masonry. We've decided
that a new approach will be risk based and so
a lot of the buildings you see around town that
an earthquake prone will be removed completely. I think about
seven will be removed completely and the remainder will only

(00:42):
have to undertake remediation for masonry. The rest of them
will be fine to use and operate, and so hopefully
that will reduce a whole lot of costs around the
region and around the country and that businesses get on
with revitalizing our CBDs.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Of course you mentioned we're no stranger to shaking in
this part of the world. How are you reassuring people
that this is being put forward with safety first? There
could be a few thinking or I don't like the
idea of going into what was before deemed an earthquake
prime building.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
James Mega, Well, the previous assessment were based on what
proportion of a new build standard is it up to?
And I mean we all know that the buildings that
have been built one hundred years ago that are rock solid,
and so what you need to actually look at is
what is the building like, what are the risks faced
with that building? What's this core of the structure like?
And so when you think of some of the big

(01:33):
tragedies in christ Church, the CTV building, the PGG building
that collapse, they had particular vulnerabilities that will still be
protected against. But the main issue that we had around
the place was the unreinforced masonry in large population areas.
So that's really what we're focusing on now. And you've
got parts of the country that will be removed completely
because there is no real seizemic risks. So that is

(01:53):
a paper assessment that was done and we're just re
evaluating assessment to make sure we get the risks and
costs right.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
What may irk some peoples thinking, oh maybe this has
come a little late. For instance, the old Cavendish Chambers
building on Hevlock Street, it's now been bold for the
new Council car park. At the time the reason was
because of earthquake risk. Would this have potentially saved that landmark?

Speaker 2 (02:16):
It's hard to tell. It would depend what the particular building,
what it's internal structures were like. So it looks there's
probably fair points that there were probably some buildings around
the place that have been demolished or strengthened when they
didn't need to. But the good thing is that those
building owners that have gone ahead with maybe removing some
older buildings and replacing them with the newer, brighter ones
have actually revitalized their CBDs as well. And the strengthening

(02:37):
of buildings and the update is a good thing in
the long run because it'll be good for their insurance too.
So all we're doing is we're saying we have a
risk based assessment and all current buildings that are on
their register, and what it means is that we can
safely remove a great majority of them and avoid a
lot of those costs going onto those businesses.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
I personally love when things get asius up, but then
it's easy to say when it's not my money. James Mega, Hey,
exciting journeys continue for you where you're jetting off to today.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Heading off to the Chatham Island for the first time,
so it's sort of in the South Island role. When
I first got into the role, I gave Monika and
the mayor they are a cause and said, look, I
know you're not necessarily part of the sath on, but
do you want me to be a bit of an
advocate for you? And they were pretty welcoming of that.
So I'm heading over there finally for a couple of days,
just to meet all the locals and to make some

(03:24):
announcements around shipping supplies and vessels and visits and farmers
and have a look at the tourist and opportunities. There
s grape place I've never been. They we're really looking
forward to it.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, I'd love to visit sometime too. Are you going
by boat or are you're going by like we ning
ning Ning Sesta like plane, which case I really hope
the breeze doesn't get up before you take your trip.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
I'm flying ed Chaddams and I'm actually flying in a
plane which is bigger than the plane that we normally
fly to Marua Wellington. Yeah, it's an atr T ed
Chaddams and they've actually got a sab that comes back
on the way too. So these guys are great outfit
the Chants. They've serviced the Chatham Islands for I think
forty or fifty years now. They do a really great
service and of course we'll announce some support for regional

(04:05):
connectivity in the past which will hopefully provide them with
an additional support so that they can continue to fly
elsewhere in the country because they do a great amount
of work around Wanganuian, around Auckland and all sorts of
places