Posts by Matthew Poole
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Hard News: What Now?, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
digging trenches and dropping some wires and shit in the holes.
I thought we were talking about the CBD, not Refugee City :P
More seriously, Brownlee needs to stop prevaricating and announce if he's going to gut earthquake standards as he's already signalled is his wont. If he's going to do so, rebuilding the CBD "fast" is possible because any old hack could do the job. If, however, he decides (and I'm not hopeful on this) that the standards need to be better, that's going to delay all Christchurch reconstruction while the necessary actuarial work is completed. There's already talk of recalculating the appropriate classifications for various parts of the city.
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On "funding by cutting costs", the DimPost's chart from the other day indicates that the family tax credit (aka WFF) costs $2.1b/year. If we very generously calculate that they rejig the rules so that there's a 25% reduction in the cost of the scheme, that's a bit over $500m in savings. When the bill the government is facing is $5b-plus, that's a pretty meagre effort.
On the other hand, nixing the Auckland rail tunnel, which the independent consultants who conducted the cost-benefit analysis concluded is vital to Auckland's economic growth (and thus increased contribution to the national tax take) won't save anything for a number of years because there's nothing to spend just yet. The cost of getting a route designated over the next few years is sufficiently low that the Council can afford to wear it. So it's entirely a political act to say the tunnel is off the table because money must be freed-up to pay for Christchurch's rebuilding, a rebuilding that will be largely complete before serious government expenditure would be required.
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Hard News: What Now?, in reply to BenWilson,
I don’t know how damaged the stadium is
Not very, from what I've seen/read, but surrounded by liquefaction. Which, given the projections of magnitude 4+ quakes at least monthly for at least another year suggests that the stadium cannot be guaranteed to be accessible come September without the kinds of horrendously expensive earthworks that might be justifiable under other circumstances but which, at present, would be an obscene waste of money that is better utilised elsewhere.
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OnPoint: On Price Gouging, in reply to Jason Le Vaillant,
could Gerry Brownlee step in and set region wide prices for items such as petrol and milk under the wide ranging powers he has?
If it were a reasonably necessary or expedient step to assist with the response to the earthquake, then yes
Only if there's a law that provides for setting of prices. His reach is limited to what can be done under existing legislation, he cannot invent entirely new powers. So he could order the issue of arrest warrants for anyone named Jason, but he could not order their execution because there is no power of capital punishment. He could order buildings torn down if they're not painted pink, or modify the rules for granting consents such that only buildings that will be painted pink are permitted, but he could not order existing buildings to be painted pink.
If you can find a law that allows a Minister to set a price, then that would be what allows Gerry to set prices. It is not CERRA itself that provides the power, it is guilty only of assigning it to Darth Brownless.
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OnPoint: On Price Gouging, in reply to Steve Barnes,
Could someone confirm or deny that once a Government has called an election they cannot bring in new legislation?.
Even if they can't, Key hasn't called the election. He's just announced the date, which is not the same thing. There's a whole procedural rigmarole to call the election, with writs, the Registrar of Electors, and the Governor General.
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Hard News: The First Draft, in reply to SteveH,
And, no, I don’t have any idea what he’s going on about with “tons” and “kilotons”.
I assume he's referring to energy-equivalent release in tonnes of TNT (as opposed to joules).
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OnPoint: On Price Gouging, in reply to Ben McNicoll,
On a more practical level, and ignoring whether or not it is a good idea, could Gerry Brownlee step in and set region wide prices for items such as petrol and milk under the wide ranging powers he has?
That's actually a good question. My first reaction is no, since I'm not aware of any legislation that provides for such powers - if it ever existed, it would've been repealed during the Great Right-ening of the 80s and 90s.
However, it's possible there's a combination of regulations and directions to the likes of ComCom that would have the effect of setting a price. Not sure what the limitations on that combination in relation to Brownlee would be, though, and don't really have time to investigate it properly.
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Hard News: The First Draft, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Telling anybody that what they believe is rubbish and that something else is ‘right’ is not much different from any fundamentalist approach
A la Dawkins, who's at least as offensive as many of the fundamentalist Christians of whom he is so dismissive, and considerably more offensive than pretty much every Christian I know (a not-inconsiderable number) because he's so in-your-face about the absolute superiority and truthiness of his position.
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OnPoint: On Price Gouging, in reply to Keir Leslie,
The second problem is transport. You have to comply with the various regulations on petrol transportation
Actually, that's not a terribly onerous limitation. Petrol is not a highly-controlled transportable substance. Had I renewed it (I didn't because of cost and a lack of need), my one-day 'D' endorsement course and subsequent endorsement on my licence would've allowed me to transport any quantity of petrol up to the weight restrictions of my licence provided the transporting vehicle was appropriately placarded and could safely contain and segregate the petrol from anything else I might've been carrying. Hell, I could legally fill a small truck with 20L jerry cans of petrol and transport it that way, again provided there was suitable placarding on the truck.
The options for transport are numerous, the limitation is more supply than anything else. As observed, good luck finding a commercial quantity of petrol available for purchase. -
Hard News: The First Draft, in reply to Sacha,
Consensus seems to be a great job being done.
Yup. When we consider that CA-TF2, the US contribution, has very extensive international deployment experience, the praise is that much more impressive.
Though, that said, I think consensus would also deem many of the other events to which they have responded to have been basket cases from the outset.