About

When the 2011 earthquakes hit Christchurch, New Zealand faced a crisis of unseen proportions. As the legal head of the body responsible for dealing with its aftermath, Bronwyn Arthur, in the words of one source, ‘has one of the biggest, most complex roles in the country’. Established by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act, CERA is simultaneously rebuilding a city and managing the ongoing fallout from the country’s biggest natural disaster of recent history. The team has, by definition, operated in chaos from the outset. ‘CERA staff were dispersed across the city’, Arthur says, on her arrival into the role. ‘The new chief executive also started on 13 June.  Ministers decided the following week to offer to purchase the most damaged houses in the east of the city.  The combination of no office, a new boss and a new work programme with continuing earthquakes meant that providing a responsive legal service was not easy’. Her first task was building a highly skilled legal function at breakneck speed, to support initiatives for which there was often no legal precedent. Arthur has also built a strong network of external counsel, in what she terms a ‘virtual legal team’. Handling ‘ambitious’ infrastructure projects, frequently off the back of emergency legislation, she works with multiple stakeholders in a politicised context. ‘The team works on an open door policy and provides advice across the breadth of the organisation’, Arthur says. ‘The work itself has changed from response to recovery and rebuild, which has meant there is an opportunity for consideration instead of instant reaction’. The body’s future remains uncertain, as current legislation is due to expire in 2016. ‘The next 12 months are going to be very challenging in ensuring that any new structures are appropriately established and any replacement legislation meets future needs’, Arthur says. ‘The legal team will be involved in new streams of work, again without precedent, while at the same time looking at its own demise or restructure’. Involvement in these efforts will take the shape of ‘providing legal input and review of the Greater Christchurch Regeneration Bill which is intended to replace the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act 2011, assisting with the establishment of a Crown company and an advisory board known as “Regenerate Christchurch”, which will replace CERA in April 2016.’