"I do think we would be in a better position today, it is kind of knowing what happened back then and what we have learnt from that," she said.
Her comments come as the 10 year anniversary for the 2010 September 4 earthquake approaches, but also after the Government announced earlier this week it was planning to introduce legislation to alter the Earthquake Commission in response to an inquiry which found it was woefully unprepared to deal with the fallout from the quakes.
The inquiry, led by Dame Silvia Cartwright, was released in April and made 70 recommendations on how to improve how EQC deals with claimants.
EQC Minister Grant Robertson said the Government accepted in principle or would be doing work on all of the inquiry's 70 recommendations.
Dalziel thought the Government's response was overall "very good".
One of the recommendations accepted by the Government was to consider giving EQC a role in the land-use planning process.
Dalziel supported this and thought it was important EQC was not just an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff but also a fence at the top of it.
"It is an important part of anyone that is there to pick up the pieces after a disaster has happened that they are contributing to the land use planning process.
"One of the things that came up very clearly in the September 4 earthquake, which I still don't think we got proper answer to, is why was the council allowing buildings to occur in the way that it did in places that it did without the proper protections in place.
"The example I always use is that how could we possibly allow unreinforced concrete foundations on a wetland, susceptible to liquefaction and natural spread, which is essentially what we allowed in Bexley."
