Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad News For You
899 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 … 22 23 24 25 26 … 36 Newer→ Last
-
Can I just ask that if you guys want to reference information can we just refrain from using the Herald as the infallible source?
-
merc,
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10748471
I don't think anyone used the word infallible. This is a pretty good article with comments from the public, pretty sure I could not get this from the Crown, nor would I expect to. -
Joe Wylie, in reply to
This is a pretty good article
Fran O'Sullivan . . .
Commandeer large amounts of stable land on the outskirts of Christchurch and launch a big state-led building programme to get people safely rehoused quickly. Do this instead of allowing developers to book obscene profits at the expense of fellow citizens who have already lost enough of their equity through the quakes.
. . . sounding rather more exercised, and rather less conciliatory towards the private sector, than Jordan Carter:
I would love to see the Government, in partnership with the local councils, taking some initiative here. A Canterbury Housing Development Authority could be set up as part of CERA, and it could have the job of acquiring land and building new suburbs . . . Private developers can't do that. They have a legal responsibility to make money for their shareholders as their prime imperative. They have moderately short time horizons. They would be logically insane to pass up the opportunities that very high demand presents to them.
It is time for the people, working together through the public authorities, to take matters into their own hands and to plan and deliver new housing options that work for everyone.
That is a silver lining that could emerge out of the dark cloud of this disaster -- if the government and if the councils have the wit and the wisdom to grab at the chance.
What do you think? Is this a good idea or a mad one? Would other opportunities be better to take? Will the private market deliver fine, and I'm just wrong?
-
Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
This is a pretty good article
Yes, the woman shocked me. She's done that more than once now.
-
merc,
Good to see these things aired for all to view I reckon.
-
Joe Wylie, in reply to
Meanwhile, quake theme tours for meathead media.
-
War tours aren't the same without IEDs adding to the experience.
That said a friend wanted to run walking tours through the devestation. He thought adding insight might aid fundraising for the rebuild/restoration. Scoarched earth CERA put an end to that.Edit- If you quote Wayne Brown...
-
Hebe, in reply to
Yes these ideas are great; even Fran O'Sullivan gets it. What's rankling with lots of people on Christchurch of all political hues is the hseer bloody unfairness of the poor old bat in Bexley with her hard-won, low -value home not being able to buy anything because the Nasty-ional Party donors have bought up land and are ratcheting up the asking prices.
Following from the previous posts about the Christchurch Labour MPs, why isn't the Labout Party all over this? Because the party's earthquake spokesman, the Mikealike Cosgrove is not in Goff's gang so can't get any support from him and the local Labour MPs have always been a dysfunctional family. Brownlee and Key are shutting out anyone not on the right; consensus and informed decision-making for the city rebuild is a huge sick joke. I guess that Roger Sutton is being swamped with info to keep him busy for a few months.
The labour MPs are all working themselves ragged on the day-to-day post quake hideousness and getting sweet FA from the party hierarchy who seem to regard the seats as a shoo-in. They will be surprised at how their party vote collapses here; voters will hold their noses and tick Nastional; many more than last time will go Green. The Labour MPs should mostly make it back because there is respect for their individual (note not party) efforts in the last year.
And nothing will change here. The council and leadership vacuum is as dreadful as always. My hunch is that the flight out of town will intensify next year and the year after. I had been feeling optimistic about the rebuild, but seeing how lacking the Govt's deal with the insurers is, I'm now very, very cautious. This city could well fail.
-
Ian Dalziel, in reply to
yes folks, it's a city of two halves...
Meanwhile, quake theme tours for meathead media.
I love our renowned Camera-loving Ringmaster's comment that "It's all about managing the interest of the media and helping them to focus on the remarkable recovery." - what remarkable recovery?
"the tours, will take in the inner-city red zone, AMI Stadium and the RWC 2011 fan zone." - why not the devastated school rugby fields, suburban red zones, and the like? that's more the real story...It is just more disaster-porn pandering, just what will there be to see within the next 5 weeks in the centre city that will be different or indicative of progress?
And it's not as if the city's new plan will be finalised by then, so as usual Bob'll just be making sound bites with little substance ...
But I'm sure Bob "Posey" Parker and Gerry "the Spirit Leveller" Brownlee will be front centre in the photo-ops - that's if Gerry is back from his arduous trip to Monte Carlo - how apt that the world's big Insurance gathering should be in a town famous for its high stakes gambling... -
Hebe, in reply to
Meanwhile, quake theme tours for meathead media.
I'm thinking a Sun screamer here: "GONER"
How about an IED under the Grand Chancellor with a special private, up-very-close viewing for the chosen ones.
-
Bernard Hickey, Gareth Morgan, and now FranO appears to be applying for membership to the Market Apostates Club.
I get the uneasy feeling that the ChCh rebuild is starting to go FEMA. And it wouldn't surprise me in the least if these RWC camera crews get Bob Jones-ed by desperate residents.
-
Joe Wylie, in reply to
Bernard Hickey, Gareth Morgan, and now FranO appears to be applying for membership to the Market Apostates Club..
While the would-be sharpest knife in Labour's drawer on quake matters outside of the Cursed Earth asks "Will the private sector deliver fine, or am I just wrong?"
Nice to see the fire in the belly that drives the best & brightest to the party of social justice still smoulders.. . . RWC camera crews get Bob Jones-ed by desperate residents.
-
Stephen Judd, in reply to
Will the private sector deliver fine, or am I just wrong
That’s a misquote that implies the speaker believes the private sector will deliver.
Actually, Jordan wrote “Will the private market deliver fine, and I’m just wrong?” which implies the complete opposite to me, ie that he does not have faith in the private sector.
I'd've thought that "It is time for the people, working together through the public authorities, to take matters into their own hands" was reasonably direct.
-
Joe Wylie, in reply to
Actually, Jordan wrote “Will the private market deliver fine, and I’m just wrong?” which implies the complete opposite to me, ie that he does not have faith in the private sector.
No more faith than he displays in his late-to-the-party exercise in kite-flying. If prevailing Party opinion is that such a modest proposal might frighten the chooks he appears to indicate that he's unlikely to take it further.
I appreciate that he's probably the best you have outside of the "politically tainted" Chch MPs. If there weren't more pressing issues here I'd offer a little sympathy.
-
BenWilson, in reply to
Bernard Hickey, Gareth Morgan, and now FranO appears to be applying for membership to the Market Apostates Club.
It's good to see. I think faith in markets has been severely rocked, finally. It's taken the gradual slide from recession to recession into full blown depression and a real catastrophe for people to realize that economics is meant to be a practical business rather than an ideological one, and politics is meant to actually solve social problems rather than ignore or even create them. I don't think these ideas are really beyond people who are traditionally right wing, who usually pride themselves on their practicality.
-
Today's Herald editorial refreshingly continues that retreat from free-markey lunacy.
If the Government leaves the supply of new land in private hands and lets demand drive up the price as far as it might, it is handing a windfall to private developers and sellers at public expense. It would do better to take on the temporary additional expense of buying land and building houses at values the evacuees could afford.
There is said to be plenty of suitable vacant land near Christchurch that could be made available through Housing New Zealand or the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority. The expense could be recovered from section sales and established communities could be relocated reasonably intact. Many of these residents have forged closer bonds from the ordeal they have shared and state a wish to move as a community. It would be good for the city's recovery if these people could be kept together.
The Government will be reluctant to interfere in a market more than is necessary but one intervention often requires another. Markets are ideal for allocating resources economically when they function freely. When the market is removed from one side of the supply and demand equation, it usually will not function properly on the other side.
-
BenWilson, in reply to
Today's Herald editorial refreshingly continues that retreat from free-markey lunacy.
Sort of. In your quote:
Markets are ideal for allocating resources economically when they function freely. When the market is removed from one side of the supply and demand equation, it usually will not function properly on the other side.
Sounds like people who can't quite let go of the idea of free market efficiency, and have to save the hypothesis by saying that it's only free if it's controlled the right way. Which is less lunatic than saying it's more efficient to just let property developers cash in on the Christchurch bonanza at the expense of thousands of property owners whose insurance obligations have not been honored. But can't they just let the idealism go? Allocating resources economically is hardly a priority - this is about fairness, decency, and preventing the total economic destruction of a city. Who gives a crap about economic philosophers? That goes for ones on both sides of the right/left divide.
-
Sacha, in reply to
Allocating resources economically is hardly a priority - this is about fairness, decency, and preventing the total economic destruction of a city.
The government have consistently pronounced that it's all about "preserving equity". By which they don't mean fairness.
-
Sacha, in reply to
Who gives a crap about economic philosophers?
Quite. Evidence of the results of following certain philosophies should count more. Like global market collapses, land price inflation, that sort of thing.
-
Steve Barnes, in reply to
The government have consistently pronounced that it’s all about “preserving equity”
They rarely mention who's equity they are preserving, if ever. Their lack of interest in stepping up to the plate and buying up tracts of land for the recovery indicates that the equity they wish to preserve is that of the property developers and land owners. That equity grows by the day as the Government sits back and rubs its hands with glee.
-
Bob Parker on manipulating the Media...
The Nylon, the Stitch, and the Hi-Vis Wardrobe.
"Our job is to ensure the story they leave with is maybe not the same story they came here imagining they might do," he said.
"It's all about managing the interest of the media and helping them to focus on the remarkable recovery.Yup, things are just dandy in Narnia.
-
Kumara Republic, in reply to
Again, any residents who feel exploited by the camera crews can take a leaf out of Bob Jones’ book. Or should that be a still frame from his video? (Yes, it’s finally online!)
-
Joe Wylie, in reply to
. . . residents who feel exploited by the camera crews . . .
It's the CBD Red Zone where the Experiences will take place, the part that ordinary mortals without PR potential may not enter. There's been a bit of understandable confusion since the announcement of the Residential Red Zones. Along with AMI Stadium and the RWC "Fan Zone" in North Hagley Park it's pretty much resident free, which is ideal for the Sultan of Smarm, as unscripted encounters tend to throw him off his game.
-
I think Gerry might get a bit of the Bob (& weave) Jones treatment once Fendalton Red Zones are announced and business insurance ends and the city stays shut to all but the bull dozer.
-
Post your response…
This topic is closed.