The Earthquake Commission could scrap provisions to replace household contents, if proposed changes go ahead.

The Government says it's the right move to hand over some parts of earthquake insurance to the private sector.

The Earthquake Commission Act is being reformed, and a discussion paper on the proposed changes has been released.

Reforms are being put up for discussion, including EQC providing no land cover unless rebuilding isn't possible and leaving contents insurance to be handled by private providers.

The Minister Responsible for EQC, Gerry Brownlee, said household contents are emotive, but a very small part of what the commission does.

He says adding earthquakes to a private contents insurance policy won't cost much.

"Risks like fire, accident, theft, other types of human error are covered by the private insurer - then the $20,000 in a household contents these days should have minimum effect."

Brownlee had some criticisms of private insurers, but he said that's a thing of the past.

"At one point I said I thought they should move more quickly and they did. I think you can't underestimate how valuable insurance has been in the recovery of Christchurch to date."