Date and Time: Monday December 16th, 2013: 7:00 am
Duration: As long as it takes.
Schedule: See below
Email Group: Join the email group working together to resolve each other's claims.
Leading up to the 16th we need to keep pressure on. The squeaky hinge gets the oil.
I believe that the universe helps those who help themselves. Be proactive, stand up, turn up, and intelligently speak out for what is rightfully yours.
News roundup on Southern No Response protests:
Significant Acknowledgements and Commitment From Southern Response
Summary:
My gut feeling is that Peter Rose took our concerns and our protest seriously, and I believe many cases from the 50 to 70 that were presented will be resolvable come 16th Dec.
For those protesters who are still not satisfied with Southern Response’s response on Dec 16th, we will have the opportunity to stay on-site in or near the carpark, protesting until satisfied.
This is where the protest truly begins in earnest! We may see, camping, siege, banners, chanting, all aimed at pressuring Southern Response into acting responsibly and professionally. By gathering in one place, we present a great opportunity for media to find a good story.
It will be so much more passionate this time!
This is an ultimatum we've issued to SR and the 16th is like "D-day". The day of reckoning. We've handed Southern Response and Peter Rose an opportunity to put things right, to give these folks and their families their lives back, to give them their back their homes, the things they've saved their entire lives for, and ultimately give them back their health, happiness and dignity.
SR have breached their contract in these cases. If Peter Rose fails to deliver satisfactory reparation on the 16th, then the crowd will surely go wild. This is when the protest will truly ramp up.
On the 16th, we're expecting most protestors to come prepared to camp out in the carpark and stay there protesting until they're delivered a satisfactory solution.
For those of you who came on the 2nd, prepared to stay all day and even camp in for days, I wish to thank you for your commitment.
Your chance will come again on the 16th, and my aim is that we’ll be joined by others prepared to stay as many days as are necessary to get our claims settled!
Since the protest on Dec 2nd many more people have contacted us asking to be added to our group. So on the 16th I'm picking the numbers assembling in the SR carpark will far exceed what we had on Dec 2nd, perhaps nearer 200-300. The carpark will become very congested, and will disrupt the offices of SR.
There is great power in numbers. Please invite others, your families, supporters and friends.
Also consider that we must surely be the tip of the iceberg. There will be many people who couldn’t come (child-care, work, out of town), chose not to come (scared), some didn’t hear about it (too stressed, too busy to follow media, now live out of town). As these folks join us we will have greater momentum, so keep up the faith, keep pressing for resolution.
My aim is to set some sort of precedent, case studies if you like. As our cases are resolved and the unethical and unprofessional behaviour of Southern Response is proven, it must get easier and easier for us, and for lawyers and QSs to help us.
Also worth considering, are the statistics around the many who will have settled prematurely with sub-standard repairs, or a “low-ball” figure because they felt rail-roaded, cornered by Southern Response through bullying and purposeful “low-balling” etc. These folks will understandably feel despair, and there might be some means of recourse. But the important ramification are the statistics. Southern Response will be quoting numbers of successfully settled cases, but many of these are not “successful” due to the duress and pressure under which the customers would have settled.
If by some miraculous transformation, Southern Response changes their procedures and delivers contracts that customers can settle amicably, then the crowd will disperse with good will, and in the spirit of the season, with the best Christmas news they'll have had in 3 years.
2. You will need to have a fact sheet filled out as per the template.
Be realistic, honest, no exaggeration, and this way we will be taken seriously.
Please print off 3 copies of your own completed template to bring with you on Monday morning, (one for yourself, one for our legal crew, and one for Southern Response to take away)
Stay posted and please share this information with all who you know will be there.
Download your form template here.
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Event Schedule
Protest #2: Read / hear Southern Response’s replies/offers to us.
Siege and protest if not satisfied.
7 am Assemble with tents, caravans, portaloos, etc Totally "inhabit" the carpark!
8 am Steve and Ali address the crowd to get folks organised
8:30 Peter Rose and SR managers present us with replies for settlement.
9:00 Assess, check with your lawyers
12:00 If not satisfied come back to siege and camp until satisfied.
It might be useful to fill out a 1-pager to hand to them so that we have constructive methods to progress forward.
So it is imperative that we get numbers for Monday morning Dec 16th, 7:00 am.
What you need to bring:
Signs that make your point. Reasonably large signs that TV and Newspaper photographers will be able to read at 50 metres. Bold and stark. Use cardboard or "real-estate" signs. Black poster paint or test pots.
Tents (you'll need bricks to tie the guy ropes to if pitching tent on the tarseal)
Feel free to bring caravans and campavans, the more the merrier and the better.
Mattress or stretcher to sleep on
Sleeping bags
Warm clothes
Raincoat
Warm shoes
Sunscreen
Umbrellas
Food, (think picnic style with Chilly-bins), Breakfast (simple cereal), Lunch, (make sandwiches or bacon-egg pie etc), Dinner (Get your friends to bring, or bring a camp cooker). We have secured a BBQ, so bring some meat and cooking will be easy.
Containers of water for drinking, cooking and washing.
Headlamps and spare batteries.
For many of you these supplies could be comprised of your EarthQuake emergency kits, and this would make good effect for the TV.
Rubbish bag.
Bryan, are those Port-a-loos available again?
We need to show Southern Response and the TV that we're sincere and will siege them until we get fair and reasonable action. Thus, we need to FILL the carpark with people, tents, and as much evidence that we are sincere and serious!
Once again, I urge you to be passionate and frustrated, but cool, collected and intelligent.
I understand you may have other commitments such as work, childcare, etc.
BUT this is extremely important and is seriously affecting your lives and health.
You need to pull out all stops, bring your kids, get stand-in help for your work.
This could be your last chance: let's unite and sort this once and for all!
Steve Gurney
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I’ve instigated a Campbell Live investigation into Southern Response (the insurance body set up by the Gov’t after AMI’s collapse to pay out Earthquake claims).
Personally I have found Southern Response to be ridiculously tardy, unethical, and unprofessional. I’ve still not been paid for my smashed house and property, they’ve had my life savings tied up since Feb 2011.
But that's not the half of it - I’m going to bat for a group of over 130 households who are being treated abysmally by Southern Response. The underlying problem seems to be that Southern Response is a “sunset” entity, ceasing to exist after they’ve paid out the claims from the earthquake. Thus, they have no interest in maintaining their brand or image; they have no clients to retain or impress.
Trouble is they’ve gone too far, they simply don’t give a damn for the people they were set up to support!
We'd just like to be paid out so we can move on - how many more years are we expected to live in limbo?