Heather du Plessis-Allan: There has to be a limit to funding Christchurch's Cathedral

Nicola Willis has made the right call to not give any more taxpayer money to the Christ Church Cathedral rebuild. 

It’s tough call. It's got consequences, as they’re saying, it looks like the Cathedral night be mothballed because they can’t figure out how else to raise the money.  

But frankly, the country can’t afford to give them another $60 million.  

We're living on our credit card. We’ve already stumped up $25 million, and let’s remember, this is privately-owned church. It's owned by the Anglicans. It’s not like we’re helping to build something that belongs to us, it belongs to the Anglicans, and they are reportedly sitting on about $2.9b worth of assets at last count. 

To be fair to them, they didn't want to rebuild the cathedral but were forced into it by public opinion, but they are the ones who stand to benefit from the rebuild. 

I don't want to appear to be callous about a place that is very important to Christchurch, but Christchurch, can I point out, has had a lot of taxpayer assistance, quite rightly, in recovering from the earthquake. 

There has got to be a limit to it. 

I want to compare it to Wellington. 

Wellington actually suffered a lot more than people realise from that 2016 Kaikoura earthquake. I think we’ve come to release that the most likely explanation for all the pipes bursting in Wellington currently is because of that quake.  

There has been, as far as I can see, no taxpayer assistance for Wellington in dealing with that. 

Now I realise it’s not a straight comparison. The Christchurch quake of 2011 was miles bigger and far more devastating than the 2016 Kaikoura quake, and so of course Wellington would not be assisted to the level that Christchurch has been. 

But the point I'm trying to make is that, apart from some funding for privately held residences, Wellington has not been helped. Christchurch has been helped a lot. 

Maybe it’s time for the Anglicans to help now. It's their building after all. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the Christ Church Cathedral rebuild. I actually think Nichola
Willis has made the right call not to give any
more taxpayer money to it. I mean, it's a tough call, right,
It's going to have consequences. As they're saying, it looks
like the cathedral might be mothbolled because they just cannot
figure out at the stage how else they're going to
raise the money. But frankly, I don't need you to
you don't need me to tell you this. The country
can't afford to give them another sixty million dollars, can it.

(00:22):
We're living on our credit card. We've already stumped up
about twenty five million bucks to help them out. And
let's remember this is a privately owned church. It's owned
by the Anglicans. It's not like we are helping to
build something that belongs to us. It belongs to the Anglicans.
And they are sitting on about two point nine billion
dollars worth of assets at last count, just in this

(00:44):
country alone. Liquid ad an asset if you want to
pay for it now. I don't want to appear to
be callous about this, because I realize that this is
a really important place for Christ Church, and it will
be disappointing to a lot of Cantabrians. But christ Church
has had a lot of taxpayer assistance since the quake,
you know, quite rightly, quite rightly, but it's been a lot,

(01:05):
and there has got to be a limit to it,
and I want to compare it to what's happened to Wellington.
For example, Wellington actually suffered a lot more than people
realized from the twenty sixteen Cai Coder earthquake. I mean,
I think we've come to realize that the most likely
explanation for all of the pipes bursting in Wellington currently
is because of the quake that happened in twenty sixteen,
and there has been, as far as I can tell,

(01:25):
no taxpayer assistance for Wellington in dealing with what has
happened as a result of that quake. Now I realize
it's not a straight comparison. I mean, the christ Church
quake of twenty eleven was miles miles bigger and much
more devastating than the twenty sixteen Cai Coder quake, and
so of course Wellington would not be assisted to the
level that christ Church has been. But the point I'm
trying to make is that, apart from some funding for

(01:48):
privately held residences, Wellington has not been helped. Christ Church
has been helped a lot, and maybe it's time for
the Anglicans to help now because it is their building
after all. For more from here, Heather Duplessy Allen Drive.
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