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

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.