Ernst Tsao

The Insurance Aftershock Ernst Tsao

This is a book about the management of catastrophe at a National level. The aftermath of the 2010-2012 Christchurch earthquakes in New Zealand offered the author a rare opportunity to examine the national policies and effectiveness of Government funding and management of catastrophe on a national scale. Her findings are both surprising and disturbing. This is not a book about idealistic sociological concepts, but a revelation of actual Government administrative failure and financial risk-taking, in concert with corporate malfeasance. It is a book every policy-maker, politician, local-government official, Treasury official and economist, should read. The book discloses the failures and fallacies of current disaster management strategies, not only in terms of the huge financial implications but also the management of the 'recovery' phase. The Author examines international experiences of catastrophe from the viewpoint of government policies and funding strategies. She points to a fundamental conflict of interest between corporatism and the need for rapid recovery in the interests of both the affected public, business interests and the economy. She discusses the tensions between National and Local government objectives and the unheard voice of the local population. She makes comment on the limited efficacy of Civil Law and associated means of redress as protection against systematic corporate breach-of-contract and bad-faith, both in New Zealand and overseas. A need for fundamental change in disaster management is obvious from the findings of this work and the Author proposes a viable, efficient revision of the means to achieve that objective - one which eliminates the current state of financial risk and susceptibility to Corporate subversion.