The warnings, or lack of them from the government's scientists about the likely size of aftershocks following the first Canterbury earthquake have been a focus of the Royal Commission into the quakes.
The Canterbury Earthquake Royal Commission has heard that a breakdown in communication between structural engineers, a property manager and owner led the tenants of a building to wrongly assume their shop was safe.
The Royal Commission investigating the Canterbury earthquakes has heard that the premises where a man was killed by a falling concrete wall was not inspected by structural engineers between the September and February quakes.
Page 3 of Section C of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 15 September 2012.
A PDF copy of The Star newspaper, published on Wednesday 27 March 2013.
Page 1 of Section A of the South Island edition of the Christchurch Press, published on Wednesday 27 June 2012.
Page 1 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Thursday 5 July 2012.
Page 4 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Thursday 9 February 2012.
A report commissioned by the Ministry of Health has found Canterbury residents are unlikely to suffer any health risks from asbestos exposure during the canterbury earthquake repairs. The Report is a review of Scientific Evidence of Non Occuptional Risks - and was convened by the Royal Society and the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor. Sir David Skegg, president of the Royal Society of New Zealand and Dr Alistair Humphrey, Canterbury Medical Officer of Health.
Page 1 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Friday 10 February 2012.
Page 1 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Monday 9 July 2012.
Page 5 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Tuesday 9 August 2011.
A PDF copy of The Star newspaper, published on Friday 9 March 2012.
Page 9 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 29 September 2012.
Christchurch's historic Theatre Royal will reopen for business in November, with bookings about to open for the first show, the Royal New Zealand Ballet season of "A Christmas Carol" The 106-year old theatre has been closed for almost four years because of earthquake damage in the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes. The $40million rebuild and restoration project will be completed over the next five months and on 17 November 2014, the 'Grand Old Lady' of New Zealand theatre will reopen her doors for performances. With so few venues for performance left in the city, including the Town Hall out of commission indefinitely, the rebuild of the Theatre Royal is very good news for Christchurch audiences Chief executive Neil Cox explains the process of getting oldest Edwardian theatre in the country back in use and mounting the large scale theatrical productions it has been famous for.
Justice Minister Andrew Little said on Thursday that "everybody involved in this has walked away scot-free. And that's not right." Nigel Hampton QC, who was counsel for the families at the Royal Commission in to the Canterbury earthquakes, joins us to discuss the outcome.
Page 1 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Wednesday 3 July 2013.
Page 1 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Tuesday 25 February 2014.
Page 1 of Section C of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 1 March 2014.
Page 4 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Friday 5 December 2014.
The Fire Service may have announced another investigation into its response to last year's deadly February earthquake in Christchurch, but there are already claims it won't go far enough although some feel it will indicate the need for a Royal Commission of Inquiry.
Page 5 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Tuesday 1 April 2014.
Page 2 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Monday 22 August 2011.
Page 3 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Monday 14 July 2014.
Page 1 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Tuesday 26 August 2014.
Page 5 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Wednesday 27 March 2013.
The Royal Commission into the Canterbury Earthquakes has heard evidence questioning the measure used to judge how resistant a building is to earthquake damage. It's come on the second day of hearings into why unreinforced masonry buildings collapsed in Christchurch during the February 22nd earthquake, killing 40 people.
Page 3 of Section C of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 1 March 2014.
Post analysis of last night's All Black victory over the Wallabies and a look at the challenges ahead against Les Bleus; various looks at the Rena including mitigation of environmental impact and a 'please explain' summons to the lessees by the Transport Minister and; the Canterbury earthquake's Royal Commission hearings begin.
As a result of the Christchurch Earthquake that occurred on 22nd February 2011 and the resultant loss of life and widespread damage, a Royal Commission of Enquiry was convened in April 2011. The Royal Commission recommended a number of significant changes to the regulation of earthquake prone building in New Zealand. Earthquake prone buildings are buildings that are deemed to be of insufficient strength to perform adequately in a moderate earthquake. In response to the Royal Commission recommendations the New Zealand Government carried out a consultative process before announcing proposed changes to the building regulations in August 2013. One of the most significant changes is the imposition of mandatory strengthening requirements for earthquake prone buildings on a national basis. This will have a significant impact on the urban fabric of most New Zealand towns and cities. The type of traditional cost benefit study carried out to date fails to measure these impacts and this paper proposes an alternative methodology based on the analysis of land use data and rating valuations. This methodology was developed and applied to a small provincial town in the form of a case study. The results of this case study and the methodology used are discussed in this paper.