Gerry Brownlee

Wellington, Sept 7 NZPA - Prime Minister John Key and senior members of his government fly to Christchurch today to meet local mayors and plan the next vital steps in the city's recovery from Saturday's devastating earthquake.

They will leave after Mr Key makes a statement to Parliament at 2pm and the group includes third-ranked cabinet minister Gerry Brownlee who has been put in charge of a special reconstruction committee.

Mr Key is staying overnight and tomorrow morning will visit some of the hardest-hit rural areas.

He said Mr Brownlee had been given the task of overseeing the recovery because he could "knock heads together" and sweep away bureaucratic roadblocks.

Mr Brownlee will be based in Christchurch, giving daily media briefings and keeping in touch with his cabinet colleagues and government and local agencies.

Mr Key said yesterday speeding up the recovery was a priority.

Consenting processes would be streamlined and money pulled from other areas to rebuild and repair damaged buildings and infrastructure.

Finance Minister Bill English would also be involved, making sure banks and the IRD cooperated with local businesses so they didn't go under because they couldn't trade for a while.

Mr Key told reporters more than 100,000 houses had been damaged, as well as roads, railways, businesses and farms.

While resources would be pumped into Canterbury and $94 million would be immediately available for road repairs, Mr Key asked people to be realistic about how long it was going to take.

"Do I think a year from now it is likely construction will still be going on? The answer is yes," he said.

Agriculture Minister David Carter has visited farms near the quake's Darfield epicentre and yesterday reported ruined homesteads, damaged milking sheds, toppled grain silos and an unknown level of damage to irrigation.

Mr Carter said restoring power was a priority because farmers relied on it to distribute water to stock.

Some had shifted stock to where water was available and some had cut fences to access old water canals.

"It's going to take a long time for these farms to get back to normal," he told NZPA.