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Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee is applauding the success of the new AMI Stadium in Christchurch, with figures following Tuesday night's All Whites versus Tahiti football match showing over 200,000 tickets have been sold since the venue's launch in March.

"For a city of some 380,000 people this is a truly heartening response, which proves the importance of delivering a multi-use facility at a time when the community is picking itself up and moving on from the earthquakes," Mr Brownlee says.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says he is confident progress was made today to overcome and minimise barriers to rebuilding on Technical Category 3 (TC3) land in greater Christchurch.

"Today I hosted around 100 stakeholders in the rebuild, from the insurance, engineering, building, legal and real estate sectors with the goal of finding common ground to resolve issues in TC3," Mr Brownlee says.

Work on Christchurch's new Convention Centre Precinct is underway, with the Christchurch Central Development Unit (CCDU) and Christchurch City Council now calling for expressions of interest (EOI) from groups wishing to participate in the project.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says the EOI process will enable the private sector to put forward initial proposals for the convention centre, its car parking area, connected retail and commercial operations, and a five star hotel.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has announced an important milestone in the Government’s residential red zone offer process, with more than 6000 of 7860 property owners having signed agreements to sell their property to the Crown.

“This is an overwhelming endorsement of the process we put in place and means 6090 households have or are making plans to move from the worst affected suburbs to a new life on safe land,” Mr Brownlee says.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett and Immigration Minister Nathan Guy have today announced a further boost to recruitment for the Christchurch rebuild through a new Canterbury Skills and Employment Hub.

"Helping people into work on the Christchurch rebuild is a key priority for this Government and a streamlined business friendly recruitment process is vital," says Mrs Bennett.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has today announced the parameters of the review of Port Hills land zoning.

As with the flat land, this review will look at the boundaries used to identify residential red and green zones.  In the Port Hills zone boundaries have been drawn up to separate areas where life risk is assessed as above or below acceptable levels.

Red zones have been declared where the level of life risk is considered unacceptable based on GNS modelling, and where area wide mitigation is not considered practical for a range of reasons.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says residents whose dwellings have been seriously affected by the earthquakes can be reassured that financial support remains available, following the extension of the Government’s Temporary Accommodation Allowance (TAA).

“The TAA was originally designed for people whose homes were made uninhabitable by the 4 September 2010 earthquake, and whose insurance cover for temporary accommodation was about to run out,” Mr Brownlee says.

Upcoming demand for workers’ temporary accommodation has prompted changes to the Christchurch City Plan and the Banks Peninsula, Waimakariri and Selwyn district plans to make the development process easier, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says.

The Minister has used Section 27 of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act 2011 to streamline the Resource Management Act and Building Act consenting process. This will ensure the process for developing worker accommodation is simplified and offers more options.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says all 37 remaining residential Port Hills properties at risk from rock roll have now been zoned red and eligible owners will receive a residential red zone offer from the Crown.

The properties, in the Horotane Valley and on Bridle Path Road, are the last of the previously white zoned properties at risk from rock roll or cliff collapse to be zoned in the Port Hills.

The Government will invest $1 billion over the next 10 years to restore the education sector in greater Christchurch, Selwyn and Waimakariri, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee and Education Minister Hekia Parata announced today.

“The whole education sector has experienced huge disruption following the earthquakes,’’ Mr Brownlee says.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has announced the basis of Government offers to owners of vacant and commercial/industrial land within the flat land residential red zone, as well as residential properties that are uninsured.

Similar properties in the Port Hills will be addressed at a later date.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says he’s sorry he offended frustrated residents in damaged Christchurch homes with his comments reported in The Press.

“I empathise and sympathise with those people, but I’m also extremely angry at the way some people are characterising the Government as not caring or doing nothing for residents on Technical Category 3 (TC3) land, when we and many others are doing a great deal.

Health Minister Tony Ryall today announced the members of the new Hospital Redevelopment Partnership Group which has been set up to enable a faster build of Canterbury DHB’s $500 million plus hospitals redevelopment project.

‘These people will work closely and collaboratively with Canterbury DHB to support the largest hospital redevelopment project in New Zealand’s health history,” Mr Ryall said.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has welcomed the news that Westpac and Lumley Insurance have teamed up to write new construction and full replacement home and contents cover in greater Christchurch.

“Being able to get new cover will help the rebuild gain momentum, and I hope today’s announcement spurs other insurers to further unlock the market,” Mr Brownlee says.

The five year schedule for the rebuild of Christchurch’s earthquake-damaged roads and underground services was released today by the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Gerry Brownlee and Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker.

The plan includes a map setting out indicative timeframes for infrastructure repairs in different areas of the city. The work has been prioritised based on a range of factors, with the aim being to first fix the worst-affected areas that impact on the most people.

Cabinet has approved the redevelopment of the Canterbury District Health Board’s hospitals with a final plan due back by the end of the year, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee and Associate Health Minister Jo Goodhew announced today.

“This project will be the largest hospital build in the history of New Zealand’s public health service and includes fast tracking the design of Burwood Hospital redevelopment in the eastern suburbs,” Mr Brownlee said.

We’re now just a few days shy of the second anniversary of the first earthquake, when we were so lucky that no one was killed.

I want to provide you with an overview of the recovery process to date and the significant progress that we are making.

But first, I want to thank the rest of New Zealand for the incredible level of support and assistance that the Canterbury region has received over the last two years. From all ends of the country, New Zealanders came to our aid and continue to support us.

Attorney-General Chris Finlayson and Building and Construction Minister Maurice Williamson have thanked the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission for its findings and recommendations outlined in the first part of its final report, released today.

The recommendations focus on a range of technical engineering issues including seismicity, recommendations to change concrete structures, structural steel and earthquake actions standards, providing guidance or training to structural engineers and low-damage building technologies.

A final decision has been reached on 126 more properties in the Port Hills, with the majority now zoned red.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says 121 of the remaining 163 white zone properties will be rezoned red and the owners will receive a residential red zone offer. A further five properties will be rezoned green.

All property owners were individually informed of the decisions by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority yesterday evening.

The Government has welcomed news the Australian Government has revised its travel warning for Christchurch and Lyttelton, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee and Associate Tourism Minister Chris Tremain say.

“Getting tourism back on its feet in the region is incredibly important for the rebuild and recovery of the wider Canterbury region,” Mr Brownlee says.

Immigration Minister Nathan Guy has announced that work rights for English language students in Canterbury will be extended, giving a boost to the export education sector in the region.

“Foreign students are an important industry for Canterbury, but numbers have taken a hit since the major earthquakes,” says Mr Guy.

“This new initiative will help attract more international students to Christchurch, stimulating the industry and local economy.”

In Christchurch today Social Development Minister Paula Bennett visited employers working alongside Work and Income to give New Zealanders jobs.

“Hawkins Construction and Fletcher Building have shown a real commitment to recruiting Cantabrians who’ve been relying on benefits,” says Mrs Bennett.

Today Fletcher Building announced a Work and Income manager will oversee recruitment of locals from the company headquarters while an on-site Work and Income work broker helps Hawkins Construction place people with their Canterbury based sub-contractors.

Defence Minister Jonathan Coleman has announced the NZ Defence Force and Fulton Hogan have signed a deal to help accommodate workers involved in the Christchurch earthquake rebuild.

The NZDF has signed a lease agreement with Fulton Hogan for 42 empty defence houses next to the Burnham Military Camp.

Both organisations have been searching for solutions to the shortage of accommodation to house workers and their families who have relocated to Christchurch to work on the rebuild.

Prime Minister John Key says the new and innovative central city design unveiled in Christchurch today is an exciting next step in the rebuild and recovery of New Zealand’s second-largest city.

Today’s announcement marks the completion of the Christchurch Central Development Unit’s work over the past 100 days, which culminated in the Recovery Plan being released today after being approved by Cabinet.

Mr Key says the redevelopment and rebuild of Christchurch is important not just for residents and businesses, but to the rest of the country.