The cartoon is entitled 'seismic upheaval'. Prime Minister John Key and Finance Minister Bill English stand near great seismic cracks in the ground and stare sadly at a huge wallet, 'Bill's boodle', belonging to Bill English. Vast quantities of banknotes spill out of the cash pocket in the wallet which also contains a 'travel card', a 'house card' and an 'expenses card'. The various cards in the wallet refer to expense account embarrassments relating to Bill English. Etched in the ground are the words 'Christchurch quake' and 'South Canterbury Finance'. The cartoon refers to two major events in the Canterbury area in recent times that have incurred huge government costs; these are the collapse of the South Canterbury Finance Company and the earthquake that struck early Saturday morning 4th September. The South Canterbury Finance Company has been taken into receivership by the government which has guaranteed that all 30,000 fortunate high-risk investors will be paid out $1.6b thanks to the taxpayer. Treasury is assuming that the cost of the earthquake will reach $4 billion, including $2 billion worth of estimated damage to private dwellings and their contents, $1 billion of damage to commercial property, and $1 billion worth of damage to public infrastructure. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
In Colombo St, Sydenham
The campervan company, Tourism Holdings, says it doesn't expect the North Canterbury earthquake to have any material impact on its tourism business in either the near or long-term.
Several earthquake volunteers, including those who helped deliver more than 400 tonnes of food to hard hit suburbs, have been recognised at a ceremony in the Canterbury town of Kaiapoi.
The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority has spent more than three-and-a-half million dollars on communications in the past year. The Earthquake Recovery Authority chief executive is Roger Sutton.
The lawyer for the man whose company designed the CTV building says it was the strength and number of Canterbury earthquakes that caused its collaspe, and not any design faults.
The construction of the first bridge in Canterbury to be built to the new earthquake design codes is going to take nearly two years and cost over 30 million dollars.
Damaged properties, water, sewerage and the demolition of buildings in the city centre are first on the list for the new man in charge of the recovery operation in Canterbury.
The collapse of the Christchurch Cathedral during the devastating earthquake of February the 22nd struck a powerful blow to the core of Canterbury and New Zealand as a whole.
Heavy snow is forcing schools to close across the country. It's a double blow for Canterbury students who have already lost weeks of precious school time due to the earthquakes.
The Canterbury earthquake's Royal Commission has heard that the Hotel Grand Chancellor was checked for earthquake damage - and cleared for use four times prior to the February 22nd earthquake.
A group of small business owners in earthquake stricken Canterbury say they need a one hundred million dollar cash injection if they are to make it into the New Year.
A government package to help small businesses affected by Monday's earthquake will help according to one of the groups administering it , Enterprise North Canterbury, which has been through it before.
The Royal Commission into the Canterbury Earthquakes continues today, with overseas experts critiquing a New Zealand report that calls for a two-billion dollar upgrade to strengthen earthquake-prone buildings.
An American engineer has told the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission he was shocked at the failure of builders to properly fix the floors of the PGC building to its walls.
Shell shocked residents still picking up the pieces in one of the worst earthquake affected parts of Canterbury, say a looming rates rise to pay for repairs will cripple them.
Cosmo Kentish-Barnes finds out how the rural recovery is going near the epicentre of the Canterbury Earthquake that shook the province in the early hours of September 4th.
The director of the structural engineering company that designed the CTV building came under fire yesterday over documents missing from evidence his firm submitted to the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission.
A structural engineer who ordered a building green stickered though he'd failed to do another thorough check on it has defended his inspections at the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission.
The Boss is back - and he and his band, the E Street band, are going to Christchurch on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the Canterbury earthquake this summer.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Adrian Henning, vice president of the Union Rowing Club, in their destroyed Kerrs Reach clubrooms, with a crushed boat that Ryan Nelsen sponsored, following Canterbury's earthquake".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Amanda Hackett with a chandelier recovered by a Southern Demolition excavator operator from her damaged shop, Shrimpton Radcliffe Design on Victoria Street, following the Canterbury earthquakes
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Adrian Henning, vice president of the Union Rowing Club, in their destroyed Kerrs Reach clubrooms, with a crushed boat that Ryan Nelsen sponsored, following Canterbury's earthquake".
A presentation by Dr Deirdre Hart (Department of Geography) on "Making Coastal Cities Resilient: Lessons from Christchurch" as part of the 2012 Earthquake Forums held at the University of Canterbury.
A presentation by Dr Deirdre Hart (Department of Geography) on "Making Coastal Cities Resilient: Lessons from Christchurch" as part of the 2012 Earthquake Forums held at the University of Canterbury.
A fruit and vegetable co-operative in Canterbury that started with just 140 members has grown to more than two thousand members in the three years since the region's earthquakes.
Slipping of the tectonic plates caused tension cracks on this previously unknown faultline that runs through this paddock; magnitude 7.1 earthquake in mid-Canterbury on Saturday 4 September 2010.
Slipping of the tectonic plates caused tension cracks on this previously unknown faultline that runs through this paddock; magnitude 7.1 earthquake in mid-Canterbury on Saturday 4 September 2010.
Slipping of the tectonic plates caused tension cracks on this previously unknown faultline that runs through this paddock; magnitude 7.1 earthquake in mid-Canterbury on Saturday 4 September 2010.
Slipping of the tectonic plates caused tension cracks on this previously unknown faultline that runs through this paddock; magnitude 7.1 earthquake in mid-Canterbury on Saturday 4 September 2010.