Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Nobody wanted #EQNZ for Christmas

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  • Ian Dalziel,

    Just heard the radio news with Nicky Wagner saying it was good that Labour weren't pursuing a judicial recount for Chch Central and that now she could get on with earthquake rebuilding work for Chch - jeez ya mean she's just been sitting on her hands till now - any excuse, eh!?
    Grrr...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Sofie Bribiesca,

    Can anyone point to a time when National were anything but ice cold, bold faced, .......shifty.... oh I give up, the list is too long. I have no faith in them caring about anything other than themselves, and their lobby.

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report Reply

  • merc,

    This entry has a good list of what Labour have done regarding attempts to improve our constitution, compared with what National have done, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_New_Zealand
    Interesting notes re. Grey and his dictatorship period, and that he personally appointed each provincial Councillor...for life.

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic,

    Just been listening in to RNZ... If Mayor Parker goes for the nuclear option and has his opponents ECanned, it looks like it's truly on now.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • DexterX, in reply to Kumara Republic,

    Yes, First Citizen John Key the First and the inner sanctum to the rescue.

    We need to be saved from the perils of being free citizen's living in a democracy (at both local and central govt level).

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/96173/nzoa-accused-of-political-bias-over-poverty-show

    The NZ economy is more than likely to, this year, begin sinking in a titantic fashion and the poor and the free press need to be confined to the lower decks - despite Citizen Bill English's commission on poverty. - so as not to distrub those travelling in first class who will in six months from now spend their tax cuts buyng power generation.

    Clever ploy of geting the tax cuts back - don't you/they think.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1224 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic, in reply to DexterX,

    I’m not the only one to suspect that a political proxy war is fomenting in Christchurch, and to a lesser degree the Ports of Auckland dispute.

    Speaking of PoA, the MUNZ appears to have learned from Telecom’s contracting out to Visionstream, and refusing to let it happen to them.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Fooman,

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/rebuilding-christchurch/6272667/Red-zoners-bullied-in-Govt-buyout

    "Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee could not be reached for comment yesterday, but has previously argued the high uptake of the red-zone offers was proof of their popularity. "

    So, compulsory purchases are popular, because their uptake is high? Fantastic logic there, G.

    FM

    Lower Hutt • Since Dec 2009 • 87 posts Report Reply

  • Leopold,

    Mr Parker now threatening a dictatorship to save Mr Marryatt's pittance? Curioser and curioser

    Since Jan 2007 • 153 posts Report Reply

  • Fooman,

    Lower Hutt • Since Dec 2009 • 87 posts Report Reply

  • merc,

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to merc,

    Where to start?

    Um, if nepotism was all the go at The Press the EQC would have been all over it in their Powerpoint presentation?

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • merc,

    I think I get what you mean. I find that PP really low level, more about working the job. As for the Press, I don't know if they have nepotism there.

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to merc,

    I find that PP really low level

    Breathtakingly petty, though if the Chch City Council is any indication that kind of siege mentality is standard procedure in present-day corporatised bureaucracies. Employment of unqualified relatives by EQC management, and lucrative contracts for people from outside the region with no particularly relevant skills, were two festering issues uncovered by The Press.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • merc,

    Thanks Joe, I see.
    Re corporatised councils.
    Why were they made to function like this? Who monitors outcomes? Who benefits - against what criteria?
    I find this interesting, http://www.nzherald.co.nz/small-business/news/article.cfm?c_id=85&objectid=10779299 in so much as a CRI finds this data, but what happens next? And what is value?
    Silly question I know, but what is value adjudged to be by council and Govt. i.e. the Crown. As far as I can see, value is not adjudged to be what's good for who they call in that PP, The Public, it's some other opaque thing that we can't get to know about.
    Until I know for example what a "liveable city" (Auckland council) means, how can I evaluate it's progress?
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6279890/Homeowners-band-together-to-fight-eviction
    Another good example by The Press regarding the us and them approach from CCC,

    "It's their land up there the rocks are sitting on, not mine. No-one can get on with their lives. Why are they leaving us hanging?"

    It's the simple questions that are the best.

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Joe Wylie,

    siege mentality

    that presentation is not a good sign for EQC's internal culture.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Hebe,

    The presentation is astounding in its negative application of caricatures. Just what relationships will this improve? Hang your head in shame Debbie Barber, whoever you are.

    As someone formerly in the the game for many years, I find it mindbending that a comms "expert" and her managers think this will help anything other than send the policy-making EQC staff further into their bunker while the frontliners cop the fall-out.

    BTW I am very satisfied with my EQC experience so far (emergency repairs and heating), so much so I emailed the brass to tell them so, But their self-satisfied, Wellington-centric, patch-protecting bullshit must stop. There is a a lot of grumpiness with bureaucracy in all its foul forms in Christchurch.

    Christchurch • Since May 2011 • 2899 posts Report Reply

  • merc,

    Not just Christchurch, we here whisper quietly to ourselves that we are badly served by unintelligent though crafty nabobs who feather their nests with the sham thin coated veneer of public goodwill. Least we attract their opprobrium, their malevolent gaze ;-)
    Clean and safe, how hard is it?

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report Reply

  • Hebe,

    Being terminally nosey I googled Debbie Barber, GM communications at EQC. I found her blog. Here is an entry, which may give an insight why EQC comms are so awful and the attitude to the media they take. I am hot on this because a very frustrating part of many bothers the populace encounter every day are due to inadequate and incompetent attempts at communication from EQC. In other words : tell us what is happening, really, not the PR sanitised version.

    http://youcantakethegirloutofthehutt.blogspot.com/view/magazine#!/2011/05/as-plain-as-nose-on-your-face.html

    In the days when daily journalism was a profession you could be proud to belong to a good reporter was regarded as someone who had a nose for news. They could sniff out a good story at one hundred paces.


    Whatever they're sniffing now is as foul as a hairy trucker's armpit, as smelly as a piece of roquefort found in an ancient Languedoc cellar or as stinky as the breath of a rat dining on the recently discarded remains of a fast food restaurant's fat fryer.


    Reporting, for a start is now a misnomer. They don't report any more - they make up the news and broadcast to the nation as "fact".


    Two particularly galling examples in the past week could not pass without comment.


    The first when the recent royal nuptials were compared in historical moment to man landing on the moon and the bride's sister's derriere was a story all in itself.


    The second was the coverage of the death of Osama Bin Laden.


    We were originally told he was a coward who hid behind his wife's skirts and then that story changed to her standing in front of him fully armed to neither of them being armed or showing aggression.


    A so-called reporter rooted through the pantry and medicine shelf. In all seriousness he told us about the jar of vaseline, the eye drops and an unidentified product he personally took to a pharmacist who identified it as nasal spray.


    Then there was a story about whether photos of what's left of his bullet-blasted face should be published to prove he is actually dead.


    I seriously worry for the world when this is what we are being served up as news.


    It's as plain as the nose on your face that something's rotten in the state of journalism.

    Posted 5th May 2011 by Debbie Barber

    Christchurch • Since May 2011 • 2899 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Hebe,

    tell us what is happening, really, not the PR sanitised version

    Some PR folk really don't like journalists much.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel, in reply to Hebe,

    It's only words...

    Here is an entry, which may give an insight why EQC comms are so...

    I especially liked her blog entry from October 1 stating that "The satorial standard among men in Wellington has gone through the roof in the last couple of days."
    I'm guessing there was no rash of Buddhist 'sudden enlightenment' (satori) on the Capital's streets, but that some of the visible men may be dressing better (sartorially)...

    and there are some doozies: in the EQC PDF
    (p7):

    What we have been getting
    Playing the ball not the man *
    • Dirty tactics
    • Reliance on rumour and leaks
    • Not questioning the self-interest of informants
    • Allowing leakers to be protected by anonymity
    • Using emotive lanugage like beleaguered and bungled and nepotism

    * I thought that was what they wanted?

    But hey, as she says, "it's only words..."

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Lilith __, in reply to Ian Dalziel,

    It's only words...

    Not everybody finds spelling easy. But how many seconds does it take to run a spell check? (FWIW I wish sub-editors would routinely run their headlines through one)

    Dunedin • Since Jul 2010 • 3895 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart, in reply to Lilith __,

    No! Leave their glorious headlines alone! (They fixed this one, but the original headline is still in the url.)

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Lilith __, in reply to Emma Hart,

    Good lord! To be fair, that was not a spelling mistake. It was typographical harassment. ;-)

    Edit: It could be argued that the more colourful original headline is more accurate.

    Dunedin • Since Jul 2010 • 3895 posts Report Reply

  • Sofie Bribiesca,

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,

    In last week’s Christchurch Mail Bob Parker claimed that retaining Council CEO Tony Marryatt was of “crucial importance”:

    If you want to destroy this organisation right now, if that was your goal, you would get rid of the chief executive, which would decimate your general managers, which would pull the heart out of this organisation’s ability to do it’s job

    Parker defended moving the Council’s call centre to Palmerston North as a form of insurance against a future disaster. Yet there are no backup plans should he from whose presence we draw light and life be hit by a hypothetical bus.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

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