The government of New Zealand has introduced a bill to make the claims process following a natural disaster easier.
The Natural Hazards Insurance Bill will reportedly make the the rules for mixed and multi-use buildings clearer, clarify regulations relating to repairing buildings and land following a landslip or other land damage, and simplify the excesses and calculations for retaining walls, bridges, and culverts.
A claimant code and a standing dispute resolution service are also to be introduced.
MP David Clark, the Minister Responsible for the Earthquake Commission (EQC), who is introducing the bill, referred to the earthquake in Canterbury, New Zealand, in 2011, saying that citizens would not go through the ‘same traumatic experiences’ again.
Clark said: “The Natural Hazards Insurance Bill takes into consideration the important lessons we’ve learned over the last decade. It simplifies and clarifies the current Earthquake Commission Act and incorporates a number of the recommendations from Dame Silvia Cartwright’s Public Inquiry.”
The introduction of the Bill comes around two months after the EQC said it was expecting its new loss modelling capacity to boost its ability to plan for future natural disasters and respond to them when they occur.
As Reinsurance News reported at the time, the EQC was using GNS Science and NIWA’s risk tool to model damage and losses from earthquakes. The new modelling software will allow the organisation to channel its research and insurance data into its risk modelling, creating an increasingly comprehensive picture following an event, as well as improving EQC’s ability to model and plan for future disasters.
