Hard News: Nobody wanted #EQNZ for Christmas
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Hebe, in reply to
Agreed, but I would not like to see the present problems devolve into ideological factionalism as well as the rest of the problems. Christchurch local body pollies have historically done relatively well at working together for the city's good, and that's what is sorely needed now. To do so the decision-making must be inclusive, not gang-of-two with a rubberstamp back-up chorus of the select and the stupid. And that's the core issue; not the pay rise, though the national news media are being distracted from the process that CAUSED the payrise.
Bugger; I've broken my self-imposed silence on all this because it's so frigging upsetting on lots of levels. Why can't they all just behave themselves?
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Rich of Observationz, in reply to
Almost all local-body politicians *have* a political alignment (is it even possible not to) it's just that they mostly don't declare it.
With politicians standing as independents, all anyone can do is not vote for them. If they stood for parties, you could not vote for that party (inducing them to select better candidates in future) or alternatively join the party and participate in candidate selection.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
Bugger; I’ve broken my self-imposed silence on all this because it’s so frigging upsetting on lots of levels. Why can’t they all just behave themselves?
Because it’s very difficult to be neutral on an issue like Marryatt’s wallet. Not quite the 1981 Tour, but it’s getting there. All the more so when we’re being lectured to about belt-tightening, only for the lecturers to not practise what they preach.
And I’m not the only one to suspect that post-quake ChCh is being used as a lab rat for a disaster capitalist/One Percenter agenda, in the same way the PNAC had blueprints for post-Saddam Iraq. The Marryatt affair has thrown a mighty big spanner in the works. And you know what they say about political vampires being forcibly exposed to sunlight.
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Hebe, in reply to
If the council decision-making processes were functioning well the payrise debacle would never have happened. What I reckon is that, as Rod Oram says in today's SST, the couuncil is deeply dysfunctional and the pay rise, as vile as it is, is but a symptom of that.
I haven't got involved in any way in the row because I can't afford, for my sake and my family's sake, to wear myself out fighting and arguing when there is so much else for us to deal with every day. I expect better of my elected reps, and if they cannot do their job and serve the ratepayers, then they should call an election so more able people may be chosen. That's my manifesto nowadays: simple mum-politik, not complicated or at all intellectual because I can't be arsed.
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Rob Stowell, in reply to
Rod Oram says in today’s SST
This might be the same article? The Press is (half?) gunning for Parker, it looks like.
Not sure I’ve ever seen an article quite that blatant- (and the headline, “Bringing down powers that be”) run as news rather than opinion! -
Hebe,
This is the only way I've been able to post the piece (forgive me Dave Kemeys -- the article is one of the best summings-up I have read and deserves to be read widely)
Today's SST page C26:Anger in a city dispossessed
By Rod Oram
Public outrage is appearing in Christchurch, and with good reason.
IN MANY ways the people of Christchurch are doing remarkably well as they approach the first anniversary of their most devastating earthquake. They are showing admirable resolve, progressing the best they can given the daunting challenges.Photo: Kirk Hargreaves/fairfaxnz Under siege: The city’s chief executive, Tony Marryatt, and mayor Bob Parker have attracted a storm of criticism.
But there’s still a formidable array of issues for them and the rest of the country to tackle. Here are some:
Frustration
On Wednesday, people will rally outside the council offices to protest against the 14.4 per cent pay rise awarded to the city’s chief executive, Tony Marryatt.
While that’s a legitimate issue, public anger is rising fast, driven by many deeper worries.
These include the shortage and high cost of housing and land; the slowness of repairs; difficulties negotiating settlements and new cover with insurers; poor communication by the council, government and Cera, its earthquake recovery agency; and an inability of the city so far to shape ambitious strategies for its future.
Activity
The city has achieved a lot over the past year. Despite the devastation of the city centre and the eastern suburbs, many people have managed some semblance of a new normality in their life and work. But continuing earthquakes, big family and career stresses and uncertainties over the future are taking their toll.
Much of the recovery work so far has been preparatory: making places safe, clearing debris, restoring services, making temporary repairs, assessing 190,000 properties, working out where rebuilding can take place, planning and putting processes in place to accelerate construction activity.
But so far, only 7000 houses have been repaired, the Earthquake Commission says. It, insurers and construction companies are promising to fast-forward activity this year.
The commission says 100,000 houses need repairs and is promising 80 per cent of them will be done by 2014. That, though, is far too slow if the people of Christchurch are to have faith in the recovery and the energy – freed from worries about their homes – to contribute to it.
Loss:
The destruction is enormous. Properties destroyed include some 20,000 homes, 1250 commercial properties within the four avenues and 300 outside, some 65 per cent of hotel accommodation, crucial facilities such as the convention centre and AMI Stadium, and several billion dollars’ worth of underground utilities. Above all, people have lost two cathedrals, dozens of churches, scores of historic buildings and numerous other places deeply important to their lives and identity.
With a number of big buildings still to be demolished such as the PWC tower, Crowne Plaza Hotel, the convention centre and part or all of the Anglican cathedral, large parts of the city centre will remain off limits until late this year.
This, coupled with the agonisingly slow progress on getting any new construction going, means people are having to wait a long time to reclaim the heart of the city, to begin to experience a new Christchurch rising from the ruins. Two major issues are dogging the recovery. First, insurers say they want to accelerate the rate of settlements with property owners. But negotiations are getting harder now both sides better understand the scale of the losses.Moreover, many homeowners lack the knowledge, time or confidence to do justice to their claims. They need much more advice and advocacy, and the government should play a leading role in providing it.
Second, this used to be a market where full earthquake cover was readily available and cheap. Astonishingly, insurers will meet 80 per cent of Christchurch losses to date, according to Swiss Re. In contrast, they will meet only 17 per cent of Japan’s and 27 per cent of Chile’s earthquake losses last year.
So it’s no surprise insurers are dramatically changing their approach to the market. Earthquake cover is suddenly more costly and restrictive. The little new cover written in Christchurch so far is expensive with big deductibles.
The government says the market will adjust. But it won’t. It will leave a significant gap between new policies and property owners’ exposure, thereby deterring redevelopment.
To ensure the city is rebuilt fast and well, the government needs to step into the market to bridge the gap, as the government does in Japan and other earthquake-prone countries.
Economy:
Local businesses have achieved a far higher rate of survival compared with those in other earthquake-devastated economies. The Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce says that 90 per cent of its 350 members within the four avenues are still operating somewhere in the city.
Similarly, the population exodus was minor, retail sales are only slightly below trend and manufacturing has barely missed a beat. Some sectors, particularly tourism and tertiary and international education, have lost big chunks of business. But overall, the economy has coped well with the disruption and adapted successfully to life without its physical centre.
If the city carries on like this, more businesses will see their temporary moves to the suburbs as permanent. For example, the IRD and Work and Income have signed nine-year leases on office space for 500 staff. The Christchurch economy would survive but it wouldn’t thrive. The city would be a shadow of its former self.
The regeneration challenge is far bigger than currently expressed in the draft centre city plan. In essence, that is largely focused on encouraging existing economic activity back into the centre through the likes of some slightly nicer urban design arranged around precincts and more of a mix of residential and commercial activity.
Similarly, Cera’s work so far on the economic recovery strategy for the whole city is very modest and conventional. If that was all the city hopes to achieve, it will lose a lot of its capital. Property owners will reinvest a large proportion of their insurance payouts elsewhere.
Instead, Christchurch has to conceive of a much bigger future for itself and then work on attracting the capital and talent to achieve it. So far that’s not happening.
Worse, the conditions for doing so are deteriorating. The city council is deeply dysfunctional; and the government is increasingly bureaucratic and reluctant to make the
big interventions urgently needed on land, insurance and redevelopment strategy.No wonder people are starting to protest.
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Just thinking, in reply to
DeepRed, if you're looking for the Iraq Christchurch connection, here it is.
Mike Shatford General Manager Communications for CERA would be your man to do Disaster Capitalism.
His only statement I recall was about hiring a social media consultant (I assume his niece or is that just EQC?).
http://cera.govt.nz/about-cera/management/mike-shatford
page 2
http://www.army.mil.nz/downloads/pdf/army-news/2may2006armynews3533061kb20pages.pdf -
Joe Wylie, in reply to
Because it’s very difficult to be neutral on an issue like Marryatt’s wallet. Not quite the 1981 Tour, but it’s getting there.
Utterly unlike 1981 in that the Springbok tour was a deliberate attempt by central Government to create division, but there are real echoes of that time in the way that people have been politicised outside of regular class and party allegiances. I'd never have expected my late Mum to go on a protest march, but until the day she died she bore a grudge against "that horrible Grizz Wyllie and his boozy mates" who'd emerged from their watering hole to abuse the passing marchers. It also left her with a lifelong distrust of the police, and that won't be an issue this time as we're dealing with a pathologically risk-averse bunch of event-managers.
As happened in May 2010 with the anti-mining turnout, Brownlee and his enablers have been blindsided by something they don't know how to politicise. The myth of Christchurch "going blue" has made them complacent, Labour have been a pushover on quake issues, with the mere suggestion that they're politicising events being enough to silence all but Lianne Dalziel, and even she's largely been forced to keep her head down.
The standard strategy has been to portray protesters as dupes of a shadowy cabal of "big business", with Parker as the people's white knight. Councillor Aaron Keown obliges by playing a one-man working class, happily confirming all the stereotypes about proletarian stupidity. It's Keown who has been most vocal in flogging the myth of nameless figures with deep pockets bankrolling opposition to the Marryatt camp. Like his rejection of evolution and his belief that Princess Diana was murdered, lack of evidence is no impediment to faith.
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Rob Stowell, in reply to
she bore a grudge against “that horrible Grizz Wyllie and his boozy mates” who’d emerged from their watering hole to abuse the passing marchers.
I remember that so clearly, Grizz and pals coming out of the Carlton as we marched down Papanui Rd; standing there jug in hand, red-faced bellowing. That was in April or May, well before the tour started.
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Chch local Govt. democracy shows encouraging signs of life.
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merc,
The Government has not yet decided what will be done with the red-zone land once the houses have been demolished.
The elephant in the corner.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6337990/Demolition-test-run-begins -
3410,
Anyone catch that bit on the news last night about there being no legal basis for the council-observer?
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
Yeah - anyone know anything about Council Watch? While their interest certainly appears welcome, you do kind of wonder where they've been until now.
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merc,
However, Mayor Bob Parker said the councillors needed to put the matters aside until they had spoken to Marshall in private and determined how they could work together more effectively.
Private Bob.
Parker would not comment on whether he had shared his views on the council's performance.
"These meetings are not designed to feed the media machine; they're designed to get a good outcome for this group of elected officials."
Asked for comment, Marshall said he had "nothing to report".Feed the media machine Bob.
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Rich of Observationz, in reply to
I would image they intend to sell it cheaply to a good friend of the National Party. A few years down the track, they'll discover that the land can be remediated and new subdivisions built.
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
they’ll discover that the land can be remediated and new subdivisions built.
…with a token plaque, (with the chance to buy bench seat plaques to say you were here once upon a time) in a small park set aside the new suddivision to show they care. It will have swings and slides for the ticky tacky houses and everyone will come out to play.
coat getting.
Seriously, Parker made me feel ill on the news the other night ,collecting rubish and tidying up the street curbs. What a pr campaign eh? One night Nick Smith is scolding, nek minnit... -
Joe Wylie, in reply to
Seriously, Parker made me feel ill on the news the other night ...
His Botoxship's appearance utterly & conspicuously ignored by the Press.
It's as if they've been taking bitchiness lessons from the master himself. -
Bryce Edwards for the Harold
Interestingly Maori Party debate Asset Sales also in te Harold. -
merc, in reply to
He said section nine was "largely symbolic" and he could not find a single example of where it had been used.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10782403
I'm loving that the Maori Party are watching this one closely, because John, everything is largely symbolic and just because you cannot find examples does not lend weight to your onerous argument. -
Hebe, in reply to
Hang on, didn't Key say pre-election that iwi would be wanting to buy state assets so it was okay to sell them because the assets would stay in new Zealand. So if Maori are going to buy up a lot of the SOE floats, why does the Waitangi clause have to be removed? Such a clause wouldn't deter Maori investors, so the question must be posed who are the buyers who would be deterred and why would they be put off?
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merc, in reply to
I think the buyers are a company called Fast & Loose Friends Of National Consortium, and may be put off by a democratic, slow and considered approach ;-)
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Tony Marryatt addresses CC Council in a rare public appearance. For all Bob Parker's prattling kia kahas, the vessel on display behind Marryatt might as well be the Charlotte Jane for all the difference such trappings have made to the well-being of ordinary people in this town.
Marryatt on Campbell Live tonight did a great impression of a dodgy car dealer run to ground by the Fair Go team.
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Hebe, in reply to
Not to mention any hint of having reponsibilities allong with a cash cow.
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Big protest crowds outside the CCC today. And Baghdad Bob and Tony Marie-Antoinette are too chickenshit to front up.
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
And Baghdad Bob and Tony Marie-Antoinette are too chickenshit to front up
Bet they are relaxed about that.
Good to see the crowd. Waitangi day should be interesting now that Key plans to move and shake on the Marae.
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