Ten questions we might be asking in Christchurch in 2026

1. Why didn’t we appreciate the scale of the rebuild and the consequential impacts of tipping $40+ billion dollars into a population of 360,700?
2. Why were we so optimistic about time frames?
3. Do we remember just  how well insured we were?
4. Did we underestimate the long term psycho-social impacts of the quakes?
5. Why didn’t we settle earlier on a common aspiration for our city, our region and our island?
6. Did we get Central Government, Local Government and our community really working towards agreed common objectives?
7. Did we put enough emphasis on the economic interdependencies between our city and our region?
8. Did we recognise early enough the importance of ensuring Council-owned strategic asset sales were finalised in a way that made Christchurch more internationally significant?
9. Did we get our transport infrastructure right; easy access in and around our city and parking in the central city?
10. Why did we ever doubt that we would create the most attractive and liveable city in Australasia post-earthquake?

I predict these will be amongst the questions we will be asking as we consider our past.

petert@cecc.org.nz
www.cecc.org.nz