When Christchurch was hit by a major earthquake 10 years ago, the government of the day had to make a lot of hard calls.
One of those was to ‘red zone’ a large area of land, which meant demolishing homes and a ban on building, displacing thousands of residents and shattering whole communities. It was a very traumatic time.
Today I look at the massive river corridor that was created as a result, and I think of all the benefits and opportunities it brings the city, including making us much more resilient to the impacts of climate change.
Structural reforms in response to a crisis are inevitable. But when I think of this example, they can help create a legacy for our future.
The same goes for sectors recovering from the pandemic, like tourism – a crisis is your opportunity to leave a legacy.